Scientist Trio Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Molecular Machines

Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J Fraser Stoddart, Bernard Feringa on Wednesday won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

The Royal Academy of Sciences members reveal the winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, 5 October 2016. (Photo: AP)

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, British-born J Fraser Stoddart and Dutch scientist Bernard Feringa on Wednesday won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, this year’s last science award, for developing molecular machines.

The laureates share the 8 million kronor ($930,000) prize for the "design and synthesis" of molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

The academy said molecular machines “will most likely be used in the development of things such as new materials, sensors and energy storage systems.”

The medicine prize went to a Japanese biologist who discovered the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content. The physics prize was shared by three British-born scientists for theoretical discoveries that shed light on strange states of matter.