Scientists Jean Pierre Sauvage, from the University of Strasbourg (France), James Fraser Stoddart, from Northwestern University (USA) and Bernard L. Feringa, from the University of Groningen (Holland) have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 for ” the design and synthesis of molecular machines “, the smallest machines in the world (1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair), as published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The winners will win 8 million Swedish crowns ( about 880,000 euros ).
Chemistry reaches a new dimension thanks to his research. Molecular systems have been extracted from the state of equilibrium and have been led to energetic states in which to control their movements.
The molecular motor is currently – in terms of development – on par with the electric motor in the 1830s, without knowing that it would later help the operation of washing machines, fans or electric trains.
According to the researchers, these molecular machines will be used in the development of new materials, sensors and new energy storage systems.
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was jointly awarded to scientists Tomas Lindahl (Sweden) from the Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory in the UK, Paul Modrich (USA) from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University in the United States. Unidos and Aziz Sancar (Turkey) from the University of South Carolina in the United States, for their research on the mechanics of DNA repair, since their research has served and is used to eliminate genetic mutations that can cause lethal diseases such as cancer .
In 2014 , the laureates were Eric Betzig and William E. Moerner and Stefan W. Hell for the development of high-resolution fluorescence microscopy.
