In his 1985 will, Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist who made his fortune by inventing and selling dynamite, left to posterity a sizable prize fund, stipulating that it be used each year to recognize those individuals "who shall have contributed most materially to benefit mankind." (Bishop, 52)
Today, the Nobel Prize is the most prestigious and coveted award in the world. It is the undisputed arbiter of greatness in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace - the five fields specified by Nobel - as well as in economics, which was added in 1968. …
