We’re still on the ball, guys! Israeli scientist Ada Yonath has won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. She works at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, named after Israel’s first president Chaim Weizmann, who also happened to be a chemist.
She shared the prize together with two American Scientists Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz. Her work focused on how cells build proteins, which I’d imagine is pretty complicated. My cells make proteins all the time, but when it comes down to it, I really have no idea what they’re up to. I just know it has something to do with ribosomes and tRNA or something.
For a picture of what she found out, check out this computer model. And if you want to read the technical reports on her findings…good luck trying to understand them.
Yonath is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry since 1964.
Leave a Reply