New Nobel prizes are 'unlikely'

The will of Alfred Nobel provided the money for his prizes

Calls from a group of eminent scientists for new Nobel prizes look unlikely to prove successful.

The group had argued that the current range of prizes was too narrow to reflect the breadth of modern science.

The Nobel prizes are considered to be the most prestigious awards in science, and are limited to a few categories.

But a senior official from the Nobel Foundation has told BBC News that the categories were outlined in Alfred Nobel's will and would not change.

Ten scientists wrote an open letter to the Nobel Foundation to make their case.

Published in the New Scientist magazine, their letter said that many researchers were not being recognised because there were no awards for disciplines such as public health, environmental science or ecology.

Among the signatories was the former chief scientist to the UK government, Sir David King.

He argued that the world in the 21st Century is a very different place from when the prizes were first given, at the beginning of the 20th Century.

"We're faced with a whole bunch of new challenges simply not foreseen when the Nobel prizes were formulated," said Sir David.

Former US Vice-President Al Gore won a Nobel prize in 2007

"When Alfred Nobel signed his will in 1895, he could not have anticipated threats such as climate change and HIV/Aids."

The signatories, who also included Harvard University's Professor Steven Pinker and Sir Tim Hunt, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2001, called for the creation of Nobel prizes for the global environment and for public health.

Although the former American Vice-President Al Gore jointly received a Nobel Prize for his work towards highlighting the threat of global warming, Sir David King told Radio 4's PM programme that the fact it was the Nobel Prize for Peace showed the categories needed to change.

"The peace prize has become a kind of catch-all. There needs to be a specific prize associated with contributions towards sustainability," he said.

NOBEL PRIZE CATEGORIES Physics Chemistry Physiology or Medicine Literature Peace Economics

The Nobel Prize is now more than 100 years old, and is named after the wealthy Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel.

In his will, he had specified that scientists should be recognised in five categories: physics; chemistry; physiology or medicine; literature and peace.

The first were awarded in 1901 and are still considered the most prestigious recognition for academics.

A sixth category was approved in 1968 for economics, but it is officially called the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, and is awarded in conjunction with Sweden's central bank.

That solitary change is unlikely to be followed by others, according to Michael Sohlman, executive director of the Nobel Foundation.

"We have different views to these scientists about the immobility of the prizes.

"They say in their letter than Alfred Nobel couldn't have foreseen HIV or climate change, but in both of these areas, prizes have been recently awarded.

"The prizes do cover what is going on," he told Radio 4.

Mr Sohlman added: "Anybody can wish for more categories, but the categories are there in the will. But the substance covered is developing and moving."