Microscope work wins scientists Nobel Prize

STOCKHOLM — Americans Eric Betzig and William Moerner, and German scientist Stefan Hell won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry yesterday for developing new methods that let microscopes see finer details than they could before.

The three scientists were cited for “the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”, which the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said had bypassed the maximum resolution of traditional optical microscopes.

“Their groundbreaking work has brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension,” the academy said.

Dr Betzig, 54, works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, Virginia. Mr Hell, 51, is director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany. Dr Moerner, 61, is a professor at Stanford University in California.

Last year’s Chemistry Prize went to three United States-based scientists, who developed powerful computer models that researchers use to understand complex chemical interactions and create new drugs.

This year’s Nobel announcements started on Monday with US-British scientist John O’Keefe splitting the Medicine award with Norwegian couple May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser for breakthroughs in brain cell research that could pave the way for a better understanding of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

On Tuesday, Dr Isamu Akasaki and Dr Hiroshi Amano of Japan and Japanese-born US scientist Dr Shuji Nakamura won the Physics award for the invention of blue light-emitting diodes, a breakthrough that spurred the development of light-emitting diode (LED) technology that can be used to light up homes and offices and the screens of mobile phones, computers and televisions.

The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced today, followed by the Peace Prize tomorrow and the Economics Prize on Monday. The prizes are always handed out in ceremonies on Dec 10, the date that prize founder Alfred Nobel died in 1896.

A wealthy Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite, Nobel wanted his awards to honour those who have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind, but gave only vague instructions on how to select winners. AP