Chemists' Ability to 'Freeze Biomolecules' Wins Nobel

Three researchers based in the US, UK, and Switzerland have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developments in electron microscopy. The $1.1 million prize is shared by Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne, Joachim Frank at New York's Columbia University, and Richard Henderson of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Britain, per the AP.

The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences said Wednesday in a statement that their method, called cryo-electron microscopy, allows researchers to "freeze biomolecules mid-movement and visualize processes they have never previously seen." The development, it said, "is decisive for both the basic understanding of life's chemistry and for the development of pharmaceuticals." The prize for literature will be announced Thursday, and the peace prize on Friday. (More Nobel Prize stories.)