3 Researchers Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three researchers for computer simulations that enable the closer study of complex reactions like photosynthesis and combustion, and the design of new drugs.

Martin Karplus of the University of Strasbourg in France and Harvard University, Michael Levitt of Stanford University, and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California share the honor and the approximately $1.2 million that accompanies it. The computer simulations combine classical physics, which is able to track a multitude of atoms, and quantum mechanics, which is needed to capture the breaking and forming of chemical bonds.

Last year, two Americans, Robert J. Lefkowitz of Duke University and Brian K. Kobilka of Stanford, shared the chemistry Nobel for deciphering the communication system that the human body uses to sense the outside world and send messages to the interior of cells. 

SOURCE : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/science/three-researchers-win-nobel-prize-in-chemistry.html