Speculations and calculations on Nobel prizes for this year indicate that these may go to scientists involved in fields like dark matter proving, graphene (thinnest material) developing, economical theories translations, fish chemicals adaptation, nanowires and nanomaterials. These calculations are based on researchers' citations of each other.

The Nobel prize was established by the peace-loving Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel. Ironically, he was the discoverer of dynamite, which, he thought, would end wars instead of being a useful tool for waging them. Based on his will, the prizes were handed for the first time in 1901, five years after he died. There were five in all, for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace, and would divide 94% of his wealth between “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind,” as his will mentioned. The first winners, in 1901, were Jacobus H. van't Hoff (Chemistry), Wilhelm C. Röntgen (Physics), Emil A. von Behring (Physiology or Medicine), Rene F. A. Sully Prudhomme (Literature), and Jean H. Dunant and Frédéric Passy for Peace.

There is great secrecy surrounding the deliberations of winners of each year's prizes, which consist of a diploma, a golden medal, as well as an amount of money. Not even the winners are aware until moments before the public announcement. For the recent years, the Scientific division of Thomson Reuters Corporation makes a predicting analysis based on citations, which is the way scientists credit each other's work. David Pendlebury, the leader of the survey from the Thomson Reuters' Research Services explains, “The more citations, the more useful a discovery is to other researchers”. He has been right in his analyses in 12 cases since 2002.

This year, David Pendlebury’s predictions point to Charles Lieber (Chemistry) from Harvard University for his research on nanowires and nanomaterials, and to Roger Tsien (Chemistry) from the University of California San Diego, who used the chemicals that make a jellyfish glow with a green light in order to trace some biological reactions in his laboratory. In the Physics field, the winners are believed to be Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov from the University of Manchester for their efforts on the development of graphene – the thinnest material ever created, as well as Vera Rubin of the Carnegie Institution in Washington who helps proving the existence of the enigmatic and hypothetical dark matter. Economics awards may be handed to Lars Hansen from the University of Chicago, Thomas Sargent from the New York University and Christopher Sims of Princeton University for their work in econometrics, which deals with the translation of complex economical theories for the markets of real-world (like, for example, predicting risky securities). But only the official announcements on October 6^th and 7^th will prove the predictions right or wrong.