Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for super-resolution spectroscopy

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William Moerner “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy.”

In its Nobel citation, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the scientists’ work “has brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension.”

Welcoming the announcement, the Royal Society of Chemistry’s president, Professor Dominic Tildesley, said: “Betzig, Hell and Moerner’s work to improve the resolution of traditional light microscopy has enabled scientists to bring their understanding of physiological process into much sharper focus – right down to the molecular level. Using the cutting-edge spectroscopic techniques they have developed, we are now able to see molecular processes in real time, including the study of live cells such as bacteria and important biological processes such as the transcription and translation of DNA to make proteins.

“Super-resolution fluorescence spectroscopy is now enabling scientists to peer inside living nerve cells in order to explore brain synapses, study proteins involved in Huntingdon’s Disease and track cell division in embryos – revealing whole new levels of understanding as to what is going on in the human body down to the nanoscale.

“Both involving light and both having their foundations in chemistry and physics, the parallels between today’s Chemistry prize and yesterday’s Physics prize highlight the truly interdisciplinary nature of science.”

The Nobel Prizes were established by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel in 1895. Each year prizes are awarded for outstanding contributions in Chemistry, Physics, Medicine or Physiology, Literature and Peace. Nobel stipulated in his last will and testament that his money be used to create the prizes for those who “confer the greatest benefit on mankind.”

William Moerner and Stefan Hell are due to speak at the Royal Society of Chemistry's Faraday Discussion on Single-Molecule Microscopy and Spectroscopy in September 2015, in London.