3 Scientists Win Nobel in Chemistry for Creating World's Smallest Machines

A trio of scientists — Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa  — has won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for designing and creating the world's smallest machines, turning linked-up molecules into contraptions that could do work, the Royal Academy of Swedish Sciences announced this morning (Oct. 5). These include a tiny lift, artificial muscles and a mini motor.

The molecular machines, which are 1,000 times thinner than a strand of hair, have "taken chemistry to a new dimension," according to a Nobel Prize statement.

The story begins in 1983, when Sauvage, who is now at the University of Strasbourg, France, linked two ring-shaped molecules into a chain; but rather than connecting the molecules by having them share electrons, Sauvage used a freer mechanical bond. "For a machine to be able to perform a task it must consist of parts that can move relative to each other. The two interlocked rings fulfilled exactly this requirement," according to the statement. [Nobel Prize 2016: Here Are the Winners (and What They Achieved)]