(Image source from: Computer chemists cinch Nobel})

Three U.S based molecular chemists who took chemistry into cyberspace - Arieh Warshel, Martin Karplus, and Michael Levitt - cinched this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry.

They bagged the prestigious prize for "pioneering work on computer programs that simulate complex chemical processes and have revolutionized research in areas from drugs to solar energy."

The Royal Swedish Academy of Science awarded 8 million crowns ($1.25 million) to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel.

"Today the computer is just as important a tool for chemists as the test tube," the academy said in a statement. "Computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for most advances made in chemistry today."

“Chemical reactions occur at lightning speed as electrons jump between atomic nuclei, making it virtually impossible to map every separate step in chemical processes involving large molecules like proteins. Powerful computer models, first developed by the three scientists in the 1970s, offer a new window onto such reactions and have become a mainstay for researchers in thousands of academic and industrial laboratories around the world,” reported the Reuters.

 

On the other hand, Francois Englert of Belgium and British scientist Peter Higgs stood in a tie for Nobel Prize in Physics 2013, announced the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm Tuesday.

AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury