ABSTRACT
Since 1901, when the first awards were given, 313 scien tists have won N obel prizes in physics, chemistry, and m edicine and physiology.1 A lm ost from the beginning, the prize has been regarded by laym en and scientists alike as the acme among sym bols of scientific achievem ent. It is probably the only award known by nam e to a sizable fraction of the public at large, and it appears to be the only one that is universally known in the com m unity of scientists. In a sample of som e 1300 Am erican physicists, for exam ple, a N obel prize was the only one of 100 scientific awards, a good many far from obscure, that could be 1
1. In 1969 the Swedish Central Bank established the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science. Although Nobel made provision for the prizes to be given annually, wartime interruptions in scientific activity have occasionally broken the customary pat tern. This has happened six times in the case of the physics award, eight times in the case of the chemistry award, and nine times in the case of the award in medicinephysiology (Nobelstiftelsen, 1972, pp. 155-59, 638-45).
