“Has the Swedish Academy of Sciences … seen nothing, heard nothing, and understood nothing?”

The Nobel Prizes in science may well be international in scope, but from the start the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (physics and chemistry) and the Karolinska Institute (medicine/physiology) determined the outcome based on the recommendations of their respective committees. The Swedish committee members’ own understanding of science has been critical for the outcome. From the beginning, the inner world of those entrusted to make awards was marked by personal and principled discord over how to interpret Nobel’s will and to whom prizes should be awarded. Some committee members tried to be dispassionate; others championed their own agendas, some openly and some cunningly. The prize is a Swedish prerogative. ¹