Nobel Prize Week continues! The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the third in the prestigious series, has been awarded to the three scientists who “cracked the code” of proteins.
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to David Baker “for computational protein design”, Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper “for protein structure prediction”.
Thus, the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is about proteins, considered the ingenious chemical tools of life. According to one of the Nobel Foundation, David Baker achieved the impossible and built new types of proteins. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper developed an Artificial Intelligence model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting complex protein structures. These discoveries have enormous potential, the members of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry said.
“One of the breakthroughs recognized this year involves building proteins”
“One of the discoveries recognized this year is spectacular. The other is about fulfilling a 50-year-old dream: predicting protein structures from amino acid sequences. Both discoveries open the way to vast possibilities,” said Heiner Linke, director of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper used artificial neural networks and machine learning to predict protein structures. Coincidence or not, the day before, the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for discoveries and innovations in the field.
Who could win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024?
There are now three Nobel Prizes left, the one for Literature, the one for Peace and the one for Economics.
Henrik Urdal, director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute, said this year’s Nobel Peace Prize could be awarded to humanitarian teams helping civilians affected by global conflicts. A controversial potential bid is that of the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), which plays a key role in supporting civilians in Gaza but is criticized by Israel over allegations of attacks in 2023.
Among those mentioned are the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, and the environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
