(Newswire.net — October 8, 2014) — US citizens Eric Betzig and William Moerner and Germany’s Stefan Hell use fluorescence to take microscopes to a new level, allowing researchers to see individual molecules inside living cells.
This new technology is making it possible to for example, observe in real time the creation of synapses between brain cells.
“Due to their achievements, the optical microscope can now peer into the Nano world,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in awarding the $1.1 million prize.
Modern Nano-scale microscopes can follow individual proteins to better understand diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. or to track neurotransmitters a they cross synapses.
“This is very, very important in understanding how the cell works and understanding what goes wrong if the cell is diseased,” Hell told a news conference adding that he was “totally surprised” by the prize
Co-winner Eric Betzig told Reuters he was stunned by the news, and knew that his life had changed forever.
Betzig works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, United States, while Moerner is professor at Stanford University.
Besides chemistry, this year The Nobel Prize winners are:
In Physics, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura, “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”, and in Physiology or Medicine John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser, “for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain.”
The world is still waiting for Nobel Prize winners for literature, who will be announced on Thursday October 9th, and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize who will be announced on Friday October 10th.
The prize is named after dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and has been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will.