2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
♦ U.S. Scientists David Baker and John Jumper and Britain’s Demis Hassabis won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 9 October 2024. They got this award for their work on understanding the protein structures. ♦ Half the prize was awarded to Baker “for computational protein design” while the other half was shared by Hassabis and Jumper “for protein structure prediction”, said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. ♦ Baker is a professor at the University of Washington, in Seattle, while Hassabis is CEO of Google DeepMind, the AI research subsidiary of Google, where Jumper also works as senior research scientist. ♦ Hassabis and Jumper utilised artificial intelligence to predict the structure of almost all known proteins, while Baker learned how to master life’s building blocks and create entirely new proteins. ♦ The prize, widely regarded as among the most prestigious in the scientific world, is worth 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million). ♦ Last year’s (2023) Chemistry award went to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Aleksey Ekimov for their discovery of tiny clusters of atoms known as quantum dots, widely used today to create colours in flat screens, light emitting diode (LED) lamps and devices that help surgeons see blood vessels in tumours.