Oops! Nobel chemistry winners are announced early in rare slip-up

The most prestigious and secretive prize in science ran headfirst into the digital era Wednesday. Swedish media got an emailed press release revealing the winners of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, and the news prematurely went public. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said it was investigating. About four hours before the official announcement was planned, several Swedish media received a press release from the academy. It revealed that U.S.-based scientists Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov had won the 2023 chemistry prize for their work on quantum dots. The academy’s secretary-general said it was still trying to determine how the leak occurred.