(Credit: Abigail Malate/Copyright American Institute of Physics)

(Inside Science) — Every year, the Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine, physics, and chemistry honor great advances and discoveries in science. Last year, one of our top contenders in medicine — checkpoint inhibitors for cancer therapy — won. We were not as successful in the other two categories. But buoyed by that modicum of success, we will again attempt to summarize nine top contenders for these famous science prizes (