ABSTRACT
The N obel prize involves m ore than the bestowing of honors for meritorious contributions to scientific knowledge. It has becom e an institution with effects that ramify throughout the social system of science. Few leaders in the fields covered by the prizes have been al together free of N obel aspirations and even scientists in the ineligible fields have strong opinions about the prize. Laureates as well as scien tists who have been passed by have their own brands of am bivalence toward it. H ow well does the prize do the job o f selecting the prime scientific achievements? And, can we say whether, on balance, it is good for science? These are, o f course, generic questions that can be raised about any institutional arrangement, and the N obel prize, with all its luster, is obviously not exem pt from such appraisal.
