The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded on Wednesday to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard L. Feringa for their design and production of molecular machines. They have developed molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added. The awarding committee says “2016’s Nobel Laureates in Chemistry have taken molecular systems out of equilibrium’s stalemate and into energy-filled states in which their movements can be controlled. In terms of development, the molecular motor is at the same stage as the electric motor was in the 1830s, when scientists displayed various spinning cranks and wheels, unaware that they would lead to electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors. Molecular machines will most likely be used in the development of things such as new materials, sensors and energy storage systems.” The scientific background can be found here.

On Friday, the peace prize was awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for “his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end,” and despite having the referendum on peace with FARC having been narrowly defeated by the Colombian public.