Recent Episodes
Nobel 2020
The Nobel prize is named after Alfred Nobel who some say created the awards after a premature obituary named him the merchant of death: he is the inventor of dynamite. If his purpose was to elevate his name along with those awarded the prize, he's done it. Today, winning a Nobel is considered the pinnacle for intellectual achievement in one of six areas: physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, literature, peace and economics. If Alfred Nobel himself were awarded, It would have been hard to choose one.
He was a Swedish chemist, businessman, engineer and inventor born in eighteen-thirty-three. By age sixteen, he was fluent in five languages, and began work on the highly explosive chemical nitroglycerine. The goal was to clear land for construction projects. But unplanned explosions happened and in one, his brother was killed which convinced Alfred to make the chemical more stable.
He accomplished this when he mixed it with a fine sand to create a paste-like compound that he named dynamite. The paste could be shaped into rods with blasting caps and fuses which ended up transforming the construction industry and made Alfred wealthy. But his dynamites and explosives also became weapons of war that killed millions.
When Alfred died, he donated most of his fortune to establishing the Nobel prizes, so we're grateful for this part of his legacy. It has inspired generations of great minds.
More Information
Alfred Nobel-Swedish inventor
Alfred Nobel, in full Alfred Bernhard Nobel, (born October 21, 1833, Stockholm, Sweden'died December 10, 1896, San Remo, Italy), Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist who invented dynamite and other more powerful explosives and who also founded the Nobel Prizes
Alfred Nobel's life and work
On October 21, 1833 a baby boy was born to a family in Stockholm, Sweden who was to become a famous scientist, inventor, businessman and founder of the Nobel Prizes. His father was Immanuel Nobel and his mother was Andriette Ahlsell Nobel. They named their son Alfred.
