How would you improve the Nobel Prize system? In this week’s issue of New Scientist 10 scientists present their suggestions.

Firstly, they want to see two new Nobel prizes for Global Environment and Public Health. Secondly, they suggest expanding or adding to the physiology or medicine prize “to recognise contributions from across the life sciences” (letter PDF).

Signatories of this open letter to the Nobel Prize committee include E. O. Wilson and Steven Pinker.

“When Alfred Nobel signed his will in 1895, he could not have anticipated threats such as climate change and HIV/AIDS. Nor could he have known of the new scientific disciplines that are generating results that will transform our world for the better,” they write.

“Many of these fields, as well as these challenges, do not fit well into the remit of the prizes that he created.”

Of course the actual boundaries on the Nobels are already fuzzy. Witness, for example, Al Gore and the IPCC winning the Peace prize in 2007.

Are new categories in any way likely? According to the Nobel website:

The prizes, as designated in the Will of Alfred Nobel, are in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. Only once during these years has a prize been added – a Memorial Prize – the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, donated by the Bank of Sweden to celebrate its tercentenary in 1968. The Board of Directors later decided to keep the original five prizes intact and not to permit new additions.

The actual Nobels kick off next week. Tune into Nature for all your Nobel needs…

Image: by codepo8 via Flickr