A little wonder, every day

Fact 1627 — What the 42.4% figure means in a report on U.S. Nobel Prizes

AI-generated cover: closed academic report folder, globe and university campus. Generated 19 October 2026. Prompt: “Photorealistic vertical 4:5 editorial cover about a research report classifying Nobel Prize totals by country. Show a closed academic report folder, a brass globe, a fountain pen and a university campus softly out of focus through a window. No people, no busts, no statues, no portraits, no charts, no legible writing, no numbers, no flags or logos.”

documentary photograph cropped from a scholarly open-access article; the rightmost of three physicists is Daniel C. Tsui, pictured at Princeton in 1999. Creator: István Hargittai. [Wikimedia Commons file page](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel_C._Tsui,_1999,_Princeton_(cropped).jpg); extracted from the cited article, CC BY 4.0; [license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Existing crop retained; no further edits.

AI-generated fictional image of a diverse international team collaborating in a U.S. university physics lab. Generated 19 October 2026. Prompt: “Photorealistic editorial image, vertical 4:5: an international research team working in a university physics laboratory in the United States, scientists of diverse backgrounds discussing a measurement and looking at equipment, natural light, candid professional collaboration. Generic fictional people, no flags, no readable text, no logos, no award symbols.”

documentary photograph of Mario Capecchi, taken 18 September 2013. Creator: Thaler Tamas. [Wikimedia Commons file page](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarioCapecchiFotoThalerTamas3.JPG); CC BY-SA 4.0; [license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). No edits.

AI-generated fictional illustration of an international student arriving at a U.S. university; not a specific Nobel laureate or documented event. Generated 19 October 2026. Prompt: “Photorealistic editorial image, vertical 4:5: an international student arriving at a U.S. university campus with a suitcase and books, late autumn, hopeful thoughtful expression, diverse students in the background, no visible signs. Generic fictional person, not a specific Nobel laureate or documented event. No flags, no readable text, no logos.”

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AI-generated cover: closed academic report folder, globe and university campus. Generated 19 October 2026. Prompt: “Photorealistic vertical 4:5 editorial cover about a research report classifying Nobel Prize totals by country. Show a closed academic report folder, a brass globe, a fountain pen and a university campus softly out of focus through a window. No people, no busts, no statues, no portraits, no charts, no legible writing, no numbers, no flags or logos.”

Listen to fact0:00 / —

A 2013 report by George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research said that, in its 1901–2013 dataset, 42.4% of Nobel Prizes were attributed to the United States. This is a share of prizes in the report’s classification, not the share of laureates who were U.S. citizens. The same report said that 30.7% of the laureates it classified as U.S. were born outside the country.