The Higgs Boson and the Prize: Are the Nobels Still Relevant?

For more than a century, the Nobel Prizes have represented the zenith of scientific achievement. But are they an accurate reflection of science as it is done today?

Front of the Nobel Prize medal for Physiology or Medicine [Erik Lindberg/Nobel Foundation]

THERE ARE SOME MYTHS about the Nobel Prizes: that they recognise the world’s best minds. That every trailblazing discovery of astonishing brilliance is acknowledged and rewarded. That to win a Nobel Prize is to have clambered the pinnacle of human scientific achievement.

Sitting in the magnificent Blue Hall of the Stadshuset, listening to a trio of sopranos in sparkling ball gowns sing Act I of the Swedish opera The Nightingales while holding a flute of Gaston Chiquet Cuvée Tradition in one’s hand, it’s easy to believe that this is, indeed, the apex of science.

Here, on the Riddarfjärden waterfront of central Stockholm, the world’s most exclusive science party takes place on December 10 every year. And only a select few of those attending the celebratory dinner with 1,500-or-so guests get to sit on the long Table of Honour with Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf, from whence he annually rises to offer a toast in memory of Alfred Nobel.