Nobel Chemistry Prize

The Nobel Prize laureates created molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow

The prize was also the second this week to involve artificial intelligence, highlighting the technology's growing significance in scientific research

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 was awarded in two parts: one to David Baker, and the other jointly to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, for their contributions to decoding the protein structure

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for their discovery and synthesis of quantum dots, nanoparticles so little that their size decides their properties

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 rewards the discovery and development of quantum dots

The Nobel Prize award ceremony was held in the Swedish capital

Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo won the first Nobel of the year, for initiating the field of ancient DNA studies

Barry Sharpless was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on "click chemistry", becoming only the fifth person to win the prize for the second time

Danish winner Medal described click chemistry as a way to build complex structures and link them as if they were pieces of Lego, the plastic construction toy

The click chemistry that won Morten Meldal, Barry Sharpless, and Carolyn Bertozzi this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is about making difficult processes easier. Click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions -- which take place without disrupting the normal functioning of the cell -- have taken chemistry into the era of functionalism, bringing the greatest benefit to humankind. Sharpless from Scripps Research, US, and Meldal from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently. Bertozzi, from Stanford University, US, took this click chemistry to a new dimension and started utilising it in living organisms. Chemists have long been driven by the desire to build increasingly complicated molecules. In pharmaceutical research, this has often involved artificially recreating natural molecules with medicinal properties. This has led to many admirable molecular constructio

This year's Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded in equal parts to Carolyn R Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless for developing way of snapping molecules together. Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced the winners Wednesday at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. A week of Nobel Prize announcements kicked off Monday with the award in medicine honoring a scientist who unlocked the secrets of Neanderthal DNA. Three scientists jointly won the prize in physics Tuesday for showing that tiny particles can retain a connection with each other even when separated. They continue with chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct 10.

As the world reels from the Covid-19 pandemic, the importance of science, world peace and literature seem more important. Let's look at a brief history of the Nobel Prize, and the winners this year

Crutzen discovered in 1970 that nitrogen pollution was capable of destroying ozone in the atmosphere

There are question-marks about the way the prizes work

The recipients were announced Wednesday in Stockholm by Goran Hansson, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

This could eventually lead to better understanding of places where life is most likely to exist

It's being awarded for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution