Nobel Prize awards of 2021 in Chemistry, Physics, and Physiology
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New York/Canadian-Media: Nobel Prize in Chemistry was won by two scientists Benjamin List of Germany and Scotland-born David W.C. MacMillan on Wednesday for finding an “ingenious” new way to build molecules that can be used to make everything from medicines to food flavorings.
Making molecules requiring linking individual atoms together in specific arrangements is a difficult and slow task. Until the beginning of the millennium, chemists had only two methods or catalysts to speed up the process.
But in 2000, both List, of the Max Planck Institute, and MacMillan, of Princeton University, independently reported that small organic molecules can be used to do the same job as big enzymes and metal catalysts.
Since their discovery, the tool has been further refined to make it more efficient, said List, and added the award would allow him even greater freedom in his future work.
The award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.44 million Cdn).
The money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896.
Nobel Prize in Physics was won by three scientists Syukuro Manabe, a U.S. researcher originally from Japan, and Klaus Hasselmann of Germany and Giorgio Parisi of Italy on Tuesday for work that found order in seeming disorder, helping to explain and predict complex forces of nature, including expanding our understanding of climate change.
All three scientists used complex mathematics to explain and predict what seemed like chaotic forces of nature in computer simulations, called modeling which enables scientists to accurately predict the weather a week out and warn about the climate decades in advance.
The prestigious award is accompanied by a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.44 million Cdn), which comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.
On Monday, the Nobel prize for medicine was awarded to Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch.
Prizes will be awarded over the coming days in the fields of literature, peace, and economics.