What’s the point of Nobel prizes?
For some they are the pinnacle of recognition, for others they reek of western bias and sexism. So who will win this year’s awards?
To his family’s horror, Alfred Nobel’s last will and testament in 1895 left most of his estate, the equivalent of £148m in today’s money, to a prize fund. Having amassed a fortune from artillery factories and the invention of dynamite and other explosives, the Swedish businessman had an eye on his legacy.