The Nobel Prize in chemistry has been given to three scientists who developed electron microscopes.
The winners – Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson – allowed people to see tiny things in incredible detail, allowing for pictures of some of the most fundamental parts of life.
Until the scientists did their work, it was thought it was only possible to use electron microscopes to view dead things, because the powerful beam used destroys living material. But it was this problem that the researchers helped overcome, allowing scientists to fill in gaps in their understanding of how molecules worked.
The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences said their method, called cryo-electron microscopy, allows researchers to “freeze biomolecules” mid-movement and visualise processes never previously seen.
The development “is decisive for both the basic understanding of life’s chemistry and for the development of pharmaceuticals”, the academy said.
Scottish-born scientist Mr Henderson used an electron microscope to generate a three-dimensional image of a protein at an atomic resolution, showing the potential of the technology.
His breakthrough was further developed by German-born scientist Frank while Mr Dubochet of Switzerland used rapidly frozen water to preserve the natural shape of the biomolecules.
Chemistry is the third of this year’s Nobel Prizes after the winners of the medicine and physics prizes were announced earlier this week.
Frank developed mathematical models to sharpen fuzzy electron microscope images and Henderson, in 1990, was able to generate a 3-D image of a protein at atom-level resolution. Dubrochet’s contribution was to freeze the water in the sample being examined so quickly that it vitrified – forming a kind of glass rather than ice, whose crystalline structure diffracted the electron beam.
The annual prize rewards researchers for major advances in studying the infinitesimal bits of material that are the building blocks of life. Recent prizes have gone to scientists who developed molecular “machines” – molecules with controllable motions – and who mapped how cells repair damaged DNA, leading to improved cancer treatments. It’s the third Nobel announced this week.
The medicine prize went to three Americans studying circadian rhythms: Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young. The physics prize went to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne for detecting gravitational waves.
