In 1985, American scientist Jerome Karle was on a Pan Am plane from Moscow to New York when the captain, after being contacted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced that one of the passengers had just captured the Nobel Prize for chemistry. A minute passed before the captain mercifully announced Karle's name, moved him to first class and ordered champagne for everybody. Frightening Swedish tradition After the prize ceremony, most laureates stay in Stockholm for a few days. Another laureate's wife supposedly was so taken aback that she fell out of her bed. We've seen laureates with tears in their eyes, humming along.
Female laureates are rare, particularly in the science categories.
A total of 11 women have captured prizes in chemistry, physics or medicine over 97 years of Nobel history. When it comes to the literature prize, gender equality is doing a shade better lately. All in all, the literature prize has been awarded to nine women. The same number of women have won the peace prize. Last year's literature winner, Dario Fo, and this year's laureate, Jose Saramago, happened to be two widely read and popular choices.