The 2026 Nobel prizes for science

Geoff Carr (0:11)

I described the piece as the Stockholm Oscars, because it was quite like the Oscars. They make a real fuss of the prize winners.

Alok Jha (0:19)

Geoff Carr, the Economist's senior editor for Science and Technology, had the rare opportunity to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in December 1999

Geoff Carr (0:29)

They gave them chauffeur driven cars, and you have to dress up for the dinner on this in white tie, not just black tie, it's white tie, and you have tails and all that sort of thing.

And it used to be the case that Swedish maidens with candles in their hairs would go and bring coffee and breakfast to the prize winners in their bedrooms in the hotel. This no longer happens, partly for health and safety reasons, and partly, I think, for reasons of propriety. But it happened in my day.

Alok Jha (0:54)

And there's a medal.

Geoff Carr (0:55)

And there's a medal and the handing over of the cheque.

Alok Jha (1:00)

Every year, that ceremony takes place on December the 10th to mark the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. But it's two months before that, in the first week of October, that the winners themselves of science's most prestigious and coveted prizes are announced. Since 1901, discoveries such as the electron, radioactivity, penicillin, CRISPR gene editing, and even machine learning have all been recognized. And here we are again at the start of October. This week, three more big ideas in physiology, physics and chemistry are being garlanded and cemented into the history books.

I'm Alok Jha and this is Babbage from The Economist. Today, everything you need to know about the 2026 Nobel Prizes in Science.

Here with us to discuss the first of the Nobel Prizes awarded this year in physiology or medicine is Geoff Carr. He's my colleague who went to the Nobel Award ceremony all those years ago and who you just heard at the start. How are you, Geoff?

Geoff Carr (2:13)

Well, to be honest, I got a bit of a cold, so you'll have to excuse me if I cough and choke, but other than that, fine.

Alok Jha (2:19)

Even with a cold, you know what you're doing with these Nobel Prizes. What number of Nobel Prizes is it for you? It must be like 30, 35? How many have you covered?

Geoff Carr (2:26)

Oh, good heavens. Something like that, yes. Something of that order. Something horrible.

Alok Jha (2:31)

You know this inside out.

Geoff Carr (2:32)

I do, indeed.

Alok Jha (2:33)

Before we get to the specifics of this year's Medicine or Physiology Prize, let's talk about, just for those who have no idea, what is the context of these prizes? Why are they so important in the world of science?

Geoff Carr (2:45)

It's a very good question.

Probably, the answer is they were first. They were well rewarded from the beginning. Nobel was a rich industrialist. He invented dynamite and various other things. So the foundation was very well endowed from the beginning. The prize is about a million dollars at the moment. It can be divided up to three ways. And it had first mover advantage. There would be nothing like it before, and nothing tried to compete with it for quite a long time. So it became embedded in people's psyche that this was a thing.

And some of the early prizes were to quite well endowed individuals. Einstein got a prize, although perhaps surprisingly not for the relativity theory. He got it for a thing called the photoelectric effect. But nevertheless, he got it. Marie Curie got the prize.

Alok Jha (3:27)

She got the prize twice.

Geoff Carr (3:28)

She got the prize twice. Yes, that's right.

Alok Jha (3:30)

I guess this is the thing, isn't it? Albert Einstein got the physics prize, and all physicists today probably want to have the same prize as Albert Einstein. So you're talked of in the same list, maybe. And there are three scientific Nobel prizes, the medicine or physiology one, which we'll talk about in a moment. There's the physics one and the chemistry one. And there was a very specific set of rules for each prize. So there has to be a maximum of three people that can be awarded to, they have to be alive.

And I think that initially, at least, the prize had to be given for something that happened in the previous year. And over the years, some of these rules seem to have stuck, whereas others seem to have been bent out of shape.

Geoff Carr (4:05)

Yes, it's supposed to be for work done in the previous year. There is an important clause which says that the various committers that award it should award it to whoever is the best candidate, be he Scandinavian or not.