The Nobel Prize system is dated and in desperate need of an overhaul, a group of top scientists and engineers said today (September 30) in a linkurl:letter;http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17863-open-letter-to-the-nobel-prize-committee.html?full=true&print=true to the Nobel Foundation.
In their letter, addressed to the foundation's executive director, Michael Sohlman, the researchers recommend that the awards should be broadened to include advancements in environmental issues, public health, and new fields of basic research such as neuroscience and ecology. The researchers were assembled by New Scientist to discuss whether the scope of the prizes is still relevant to science and how the criteria for selection might be improved. Their letter, published online at New Scientist, argues that awards in Medicine, Physiology, and Chemistry are no longer enough to cover the wide spectrum of research happening today. "When Alfred Nobel signed his will in 1895, he could not have anticipated threats such as climate...
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