Nobel Prize Predictions for 2026

This week Nobel Prizes will be announced. Predicting the awardees is a fun annual exercise. It is also good to reflect on what has been achieved, including outside our own areas, and big advances from the past we may now take for granted.Before writing this I looked at suggestions from readers of Doug Natelson's blog, Nanoscale views, an article in Physics World, predictions from Clarivate based on citations, and recent recipients of the Wolf Prize.Not surprisingly, this post is not that different from last year's.Although we know little about how the process actually works or the explicit criteria used, I have a few speculative suggestions and observations.1. The Wolf Prize is often a precursor. According to Wikipedia, for physics, "from the 26 prizes awarded between 1978 and 2010, fourteen winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, five of those in the following year." For chemistry, 13 awardees have subsequently won a Nobel.2. Every now and then, the Swedes surprise us. Sometimes…