How are the winners of the Nobel prizes chosen?

It’s that time of year when the Nobel prize committees announce this year’s Nobel laureates. Each laureate will receive 12 million Swedish kronor (£900,000), a framed artwork and a medal, awarded at the Nobel prize ceremony in December. But the process of choosing a Nobel laureate is shrouded in mystery. So, how is one of science’s most prestigious prizes awarded?

Firstly, what are the Nobel prizes?

Each year in October, a collection of prizes recognises those in science, literature and peace whose discoveries or actions have had the greatest impact on society. The prizes honour Alfred Nobel – a Swedish chemist, inventor and engineer, who famously invented dynamite. His last will – signed in November 1895, around a year before he died – stipulated that his 31 million Swedish kronor fortune, about £190 million in today’s money, should be split between five different fields – physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. In 1969, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences joined the list of prizes as part of the 300th anniversary celebrations for Sweden’s central bank.