Computer chemists win Nobel prize. Three molecular chemists won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry today for devising computer simulations that are used to ...

1. Computer Chemists win Nobel Prize
Three molecular chemists won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry today
for devising computer simulations that are used to understand and
predict chemical processes, the jury said.
Martin Karplus, a US-Austrian citizen, Michael Levitt, a US-British
citizen, and Arieh Warshel of the US and Israel, were honored “for the
development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems,” the
jury said.
Their prize winning work has helped develop computer models
mirroring real life, “which have become crucial for most advances made
in chemistry today.”

2. As a result, powerful computer programmes can be used to predict
complex chemical processes, providing pharmaceutical engineers and
manufacturing chemists with a fast-track way to solve problems.
These processes can take place in a fraction of a millisecond, defeating
conventional algorithms that try to map them step by step.
The contribution of the three was to combine classical physics with
quantum physics in their model.
This hugely boosts the number of permutations for calculation, although
it also requires enormous computer power to crunch the data.
“The strength of the methods that Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and
Arieh Warshel have developed is that they are universal,” the Nobel
panel said.
“They can be used to study all kinds of chemistry; from the molecules of
life to industrial chemical processes. Scientists can optimize solar cells,
catalysts in motor vehicles or even drugs, to take but a few examples.”
The trio will share the prize sum of eight million Swedish kronor (USD
1.25 million), reduced because of the economic crisis last year from the
10 million kronor awarded since 2001.

3. In line with tradition, the laureates will receive their prize at a formal
ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of prize
founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.
Last year, the honor went to Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka of the
United States for identifying a class of cell receptor, yielding vital
insights into how the body works at the molecular level.
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- Team Ednexa