[afthonos]

Can they? I mean, in the sense that you can yolo anything, sure, but the prizes were designed in a time when it was (more) reasonable to award them to individuals, and they are defined in a will. There may not be a mechanism for updating the standards.

[hyperbrainer]

Yes, they can. In 1901, science was not nearly as collaborative as it is today. Especially considering the need for a Nobel Prize to be experimental and the fact that most major labs today _need_ dozens of people.

[achierius]

He asked _can_ not _should_: what is the legal mechanism for doing so? Personally I don't doubt there is one but I don't think you know it off the top of your head, so I don't see it as fair to disparage OP for not knowing either.

[hyperbrainer]

Well, it seems like amendments have been made before. [0] > Before the board ... votes on a proposal to amend the statutes ... with the first paragraph, the prize-awarding bodies shall examine the proposal.

https://www.nobelprize.org/organization/special-regulations-...

[afthonos]

That…has nothing to do with my question. It was a procedural and legal question, not an abstract moral one.

[hyperbrainer]

Well, it seems like amendments have been made before. [0] > Before the board ... votes on a proposal to amend the statutes ... with the first paragraph, the prize-awarding bodies shall examine the proposal.

https://www.nobelprize.org/organization/special-regulations-...