Methodology

How the content is made, and how it is kept honest.

Nobel Explained separates two kinds of claim, and treats them differently. Hard facts are pinned to an authoritative source and verified by machine. Explanatory prose is written from published sources and cited. Here is exactly how.

1. Facts are pinned and enforced

Before any course is written, the site pulls every prize from 2020 to 2025 from the official Nobel Prize API and freezes it into a ground-truth dataset: each prize's year, category, official citation, laureate names, and share fractions.

Every course then carries those same fields, and an automated test compares them against the pinned data on every single build. If a generated course has the wrong year, a misspelled name, or an altered citation, the test fails and the site does not build. The accuracy of the structured facts is therefore not a matter of trust; it is a build requirement.

2. Explanations are sourced, not invented

The three depth levels, the predictions, the quiz, and the glossary are written from the official Nobel Prize material (the popular-science background and press releases) and from Wikipedia. Each prize page lists the specific sources used. The goal is a faithful, plain explanation of the published account, not original research or speculation.

The prose is a careful synthesis, not a line-by-line verified transcript. Where understanding depends on a precise figure, that figure traces to the official material. If you find a mistake, the listed sources are the right place to check.

3. Images are free-licensed only

Laureate portraits come exclusively from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons or public-domain licences, with the author and licence recorded and shown on the page and on the credits page. No image generator is used. Where no free portrait exists, a generated placeholder appears instead. Concept diagrams and hero art are hand-authored or procedurally generated as SVG.

4. It is built to last and to stay current

The site is static: no server, no runtime API calls, no tracking that follows you. It loads fast and works offline. The pipeline is also re-runnable and keyed by year, so when a new October arrives, the new prizes can be pulled, written, checked, and published without rebuilding anything else.

What this is not

It is not the official Nobel record, and it is not affiliated with the Nobel Foundation. For the primary record, follow the source links on each prize page to nobelprize.org.