Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption Artwork: The scientists are rewarded for their ability to control at the molecular level

The 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded for the development of the world's smallest machines.

Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa will share the 8m kronor (£727,000) prize for the design and synthesis of machines on a molecular scale.

They were named at a press conference in Sweden.

The machines conceived by today's laureates are a thousand times thinner than a strand of hair.

They could slip inside the human body to deliver drugs from within - for instance, applying pharmaceuticals directly to cancer cells.

This field of nanotechnology could also yield applications in the design of smart materials.

I feel a little bit like the Wright Brothers who were flying 100 years ago Prof Bernard Feringa, University of Groningen

The prize recognises their success in linking molecules together to design everything from motors to a car and muscles on a tiny scale.

"They have mastered motion control at the molecular scale," said Olof Ramström, from the Nobel Committee.

Reacting to the award, Prof Feringa said: "I don't know what to say, I'm shocked. And my second remark was: 'I'm a bit emotional about it'."

Donna Nelson, president of the American Chemical Society (ACS) said she was "thrilled" by the Nobel Committee's decision.

"It's wonderful. I've done work in nanoscience for a while - though not in micromachines - so I think I have enough background to appreciate the difficulty of the work they did and its magnificence," she told the BBC News website.

The professor of chemistry at the University of Oklahoma added: "I'm also interested in the public perception of science and this topic is perfect for capturing the imagination of schoolchildren."

The world is so aware of the Nobel Prizes and they influence the research Prof Donna Nelson, President, ACS

"The world is so aware of the Nobel Prizes and they influence the research. It will make the area blossom; more scientists will move into the area and it will attract more funding. You can expect the applications to appear much more rapidly now."

The celebrated physicist Richard Feynman is often credited with inspiring the concept of molecular machines.

In a lecture at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1959, titled "There's plenty of room at the bottom", he considered the possibility of the direct manipulation of matter at the atomic scale.

It was also in this lecture that he introduced the idea of "swallowing the surgeon".

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Jean-Pierre Sauvage receives congratulations on Wednesday morning

Jean-Pierre Sauvage was born in 1944 in Paris, France. He is currently emeritus professor at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

His work provided early breakthroughs in the area of molecular machines. He had been researching the use of sunlight to drive chemical reactions but this work helped him work out that he could link different molecules together in a chain.

This was the first step towards building molecular machines. In 1994, Prof Sauvage's research group succeeded in making one molecule rotate around the other in a controlled manner when energy was applied.

Image copyright NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Image caption Fraser Stoddart works at Northwestern University in Illinois, US

Sir Fraser Stoddart was born in 1942 in Edinburgh, UK. He is currently affiliated to the Northwestern University, in the US.

The Briton made a key advance by threading a molecular ring on to a rod-like structure that acted as an axle.

Sir Fraser then made use of the ring's freedom to move along the axle. When he added heat, the ring jumped forwards and backwards - like a tiny shuttle.

His group later built on this discovery to build numerous molecular machines, including a lift, a muscle and - in partnership with other researchers - a computer chip.

"It's a recognition of fundamental chemistry and I think that should be celebrated today," Sir Fraser told the BBC.

But he condemned the outcome of the Brexit vote, saying international collaboration had been "absolutely critical" to his successes.

"Today I am distressed that the UK is looking at a situation where it would cut off that supply. This is not good news... I would hope that this whole business of Brexit would just go away or had not happened."

He said this placed British science "in jeopardy" and said politicians in the current government had "gone off the rails".

Bernard Feringa was born in 1951 in Barger-Compascuum, in the Netherlands. He is a professor in organic chemistry at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Image copyright University of Groningen Image caption Innovations have included this nano car, produced by Bernard Feringa's team

In 1999, Prof Feringa led the first research to produce a molecular motor that continually spins in the same direction.

In 2011, his group built a four-wheel-drive nanocar: a molecular chassis holding together four motors that functioned as wheels.

Commenting on the award, he said: "I feel a little bit like the Wright Brothers who were flying 100 years ago for the first time and people were saying why do we need a flying machine and now we have a Boeing 747 and an Airbus.

"The opportunities are great."

Follow Paul on Twitter.

Previous winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The DNA molecule is inherently unstable, but a host of mechanisms monitor and repair it

2015 - Discoveries in DNA repair earned Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar the award.

2014 - Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William Moerner were awarded the prize for improving the resolution of optical microscopes.

2013 - Michael Levitt, Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel shared the prize, for devising computer simulations of chemical processes.

2012 - Work that revealed how protein receptors pass signals between living cells and the environment won the prize for Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka.

2011 - Dan Schechtman received the prize for discovering the "impossible" structure of quasicrystals.

2010 - Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki were recognised for developing new ways of linking carbon atoms together.

2009 - Discovering the structure and function of our cells' "protein factories", earned the chemistry Nobel for Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath.</s>A Scottish scientist has won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for developing minuscule machines at the molecular level.

Yesterday, Scottish-born scientists David Thouless and Michael Kosterlitz were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physics, for work that “revealed the secrets of exotic matter”.

Edinburgh-born Stoddart, 74, is a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He attended Melville College in Edinburgh before graduating from Edinburgh University.[12]

The three share the 8 million kronor ($930,000) prize for the “design and synthesis” of molecular machines with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

The academy said molecular machines “will most likely be used in the development of things such as new materials, sensors and energy storage systems.”

Sauvage, 71, is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Center for Scientific Research. His wife, reached by telephone, was choking back tears.

READ MORE: Scotland’s 10 Nobel prize winners

Feringa, 65, is a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

The academy said Sauvage made the first breakthrough in 1983 when he linked two ring-shaped molecules together to form a chain.

Stoddart took the next step in 1991 by threading a molecular ring onto a molecular axle, while Feringa was the first to develop a molecular motor in 1999 when he got a molecular rotor blade to spin in the same direction.

The chemistry prize was the last of this year’s science awards. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, and the economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

The Nobel Prizes will be handed out at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, wanted his awards to honour achievements that delivered the “greatest benefit to mankind.”</s>Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work on the design and synthesis of molecular machines, the award-giving body said on Wednesday.

"They have developed molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($931,000) prize.

Chemistry is the third of this year's Nobel prizes after the medicine and physics laureates were announced on Monday and Tuesday.

The prize is named after dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and has been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will.</s>A European trio of chemists have won the Nobel prize in chemistry for developing “nano-machines”, an advance that paved the way for the world’s first smart materials.

Sir Fraser Stoddart, from Scotland, Bernard Feringa, from the Netherlands, and Jean-Pierre Sauvage, from France, will share the 8m Swedish kronor (£718,000) prize announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm today.

The Nobel committee described the tools developed by the chemists as the “world’s smallest machines”. The technology is already being used to create medical “micro-robots” and self-healing materials that can repair themselves without human intervention.

Together, the chemists designed some of the first controllable, nanometre-sized structures that can convert chemical energy into mechanical forces and motion. This allowed them to construct a host of molecular devices, including switches, motors, shuttles and even something resembling a molecular motorcar.

The advances have allowed scientists to develop materials that will reconfigure and adapt by themselves depending on their environment - for instance contracting with heat, or opening up to deliver drugs when they arrive at a target site in the body.

In an interview following the announcement, Feringa said that winning the prize had been “such a great surprise. I’m so honoured and also emotional about it,” he said.

He added that it had also been a shock when he succeeded in developing the first function: he “could hardly believe it worked”.

Göran Hansson, secretary general of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, said: “The laureates have opened this entire field of molecular machinery. They have shown it is possible to make a machine at the molecular scale.”

Mark Miodownik, professor of materials and society at the University College London, said that the advent of nano-machines could transform the very fabric of cities.

“If you want infrastructure that looks after itself - and I think we do - I’m pretty sure we’re going to be moving towards self-healing systems,” he said. “We’ll have plastic pipes that can repair themselves or a bridge that when it gets cracked has these machines that rebuild the bridge at a microscopic scale. It’s just beginning. The potential is really immense.”

Prince Charles famously raised the spectre of a “grey goo” catastrophe in which the types of micro-machines first designed by the laureates replicate and devour the planet. However, Feringa told the Stockholm press conference that he didn’t have any apocalyptic nightmares about his inventions. “We have to think about how we can handle these things safely,” he said. “But I’m not so worried about that ... We will have the opportunity to build in safety devices if that is needed.”

Last year, the Nobel prize in chemistry went to Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar for their research into the mechanisms that cells use to repair DNA. Their work mapped and explained how the cell repairs its DNA in order to prevent errors occurring in genetic information.

The Nobel in medicine or physiology was awarded on Monday to the Japanese cell biologist, Yoshinori Ohsumi, for discoveries on how cells break down and recycle their own components, a process known as autophagy. On Tuesday three British physicists, David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, won the physics prize for their work on exotic states of matter.

The winner of the peace prize will be announced on Friday and the economics prize will be announced on Monday 10 October.</s>The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to a trio of scientists whose manipulations of molecules led to the development of the world’s tiniest machines and spurred the growth of nanotechnology.

Jean-Pierre Sauvage, 71, of the University of Strasbourg in France, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, 74, a Scottish born researcher based at Northwestern University in the U.S. each split one half of this year’s chemistry prize, worth about $1.2-million. The other half has been awarded to Bernard Feringa, 65, of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

One of the winners, Dr. Stoddart, spent three years at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow after completing his PhD in Scotland in 1966.

All three scientists made key contributions to the building of simple machines that are less than one thousandth of a human hair in size. In future, such machines may be used in smart materials that react to their environment or to deliver drugs within the body.

“They have really mastered motion control at the molecular scale,” said Olof Ramström, a member of the selection committee, during Wednesday’s prize announcement at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

The committee said the three researchers deserved recognition for their contributions to the field in three distinct steps.

First, in 1983 Dr. Sauvage and colleagues managed to forge two rings of carbon atoms into an interlocked pair, like a links in a chain, called a catenane. Then, in 1991, while at the University of Birmingham, Dr. Stoddard revealed how to make rotaxane, a structure that involved a ring of atoms that can rotate freely around an axel. Finally, in 1999, Dr. Feringa developed the first molecular motor.

“I’m a bit shocked… I am so honored,” said Dr. Feringa who was contacted by phone during the prize announcement.

Dr. Feringa said that the science of molecular machines is still in its infancy but would ultimately lead to many applications in health, materials and energy systems.

“The are endless opportunities,” he said.

The concept of nanomachines are also behind a vivid array of science fiction scenarios, not all entirely benign. In the 2002 novel Prey, author Michael Crichton explores the potential threat of tiny self-replicating nanobots.

The chemistry prize was the last of this year’s science awards. The medicine prize went to a Japanese biologist who discovered the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content. The physics prize was shared by three British-born scientists for theoretical discoveries that shed light on strange states of matter.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, and the economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

The Nobel Prizes will be handed out at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, wanted his awards to honour achievements that delivered the “greatest benefit to mankind.”

With files from The Associated Press</s>STOCKHOLM — Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, British-born Fraser Stoddart and Dutch scientist Bernard “Ben” Feringa on Wednesday won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing minuscule machines at the molecular level.

The laureates share the $930,000 prize for the “design and synthesis” of molecular machines with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

The academy said molecular machines “will most likely be used in the development of things such as new materials, sensors and energy storage systems.”

Sauvage, 71, is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Center for Scientific Research. His wife, reached by telephone, was choking back tears.

Stoddart, 74, is a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Feringa, 65, is a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

The academy said Sauvage made the first breakthrough in 1983 when he linked two ring-shaped molecules together to form a chain.

Stoddart took the next step in 1991 by threading a molecular ring onto a molecular axle, while Feringa was the first to develop a molecular motor in 1999 when he got a molecular rotor blade to spin in the same direction.

The chemistry prize was the last of this year’s science awards. The medicine prize went to a Japanese biologist who discovered the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content. The physics prize was shared by three British-born scientists for theoretical discoveries that shed light on strange states of matter.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, and the economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

The Nobel Prizes will be handed out at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, wanted his awards to honor achievements that delivered the “greatest benefit to mankind.”</s>STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for developing the world’s smallest machines, work that could revolutionize computer technology and lead to a new type of battery.

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, British-born Fraser Stoddart and Dutch scientist Bernard “Ben” Feringa share the 8 million kronor ($930,000) prize for the “design and synthesis of molecular machines,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Machines at the molecular level are 1,000th the width of a human hair and have taken chemistry to a new dimension, the academy said. Molecular machines “will most likely be used in the development of things such as new materials, sensors and energy storage systems.”

Stoddart has already developed a molecule-based computer chip with 20 kB memory. Researchers believe chips so small may revolutionize computer technology the way silicon-based transistors once did, the academy said.

Feringa’s research group in 2011 built a “nanocar,” a minuscule vehicle with four molecular motors as wheels.

The academy said the laureates’ work has also inspired other researchers to build increasingly advanced molecular machinery, including “a robot that can grasp and connect amino acids” in 2013. Researchers are also hoping to develop a new kind of battery using this technology.

Sauvage, 71, is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Center for Scientific Research. Sauvage’s wife choked back tears as she absorbed the news. “Jean-Pierre won the Nobel prize,” she said, her voice trembling as she spoke on multiple telephones at once ringing with news of the prize.

Speaking later to French TV channel itele, Sauvage called it a memorable moment and a big surprise.

“I have won many prizes, but the Nobel Prize is something very special, it’s the most prestigious prize, the one most scientists don’t even dare to dream of in their wildest dreams,” he said.

Officials at the University of Strasbourg, where Sauvage is a professor emeritus in the Institute of Science and Supramolecular Engineering, were overwhelmed and honored by the news, and said they were trying to reach him to celebrate his victory.

Stoddart, 74, is a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. His daughter Alison said he was “absolutely ecstatic” at the honor.

Feringa, 65, is a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

“I don’t know what to say, I’m a bit shocked,” Feringa told reporters in Stockholm by telephone. “I’m so honored’ and I’m also emotional about it.”

Molecular machines are molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added, the academy said.

It said Sauvage made the first breakthrough in 1983 when he linked two ring-shaped molecules together to form a chain.

Stoddart took the next step in 1991 by threading a molecular ring onto a molecular axle, while Feringa was the first to develop a molecular motor in 1999 when he got a molecular rotor blade to spin continuously in the same direction.

The academy said the molecular motor is at the same stage now as the electric motor was in the 1830s.

Donna Nelson, president of the American Chemical Society, said the winners met the challenge of not only making the machines, but also demonstrating that they worked as they were supposed to. Since they were operating on such a tiny scale, it’s “a truly remarkable feat,” she said.

The award “will generate a lot of interest in this field,” Nelson said. And given the topic, “children are going to love it. … They’re the scientists of tomorrow.”

The chemistry prize was the last of this year’s science awards. The medicine prize went to a Japanese biologist who discovered the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content. The physics prize was shared by three British-born scientists for theoretical discoveries that shed light on strange states of matter.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, and the economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

The Nobel Prizes will be handed out at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, wanted his awards to honor achievements that delivered the “greatest benefit to mankind.”

Samuel Petrequin in Paris and Malcolm Ritter in New York contributed to this report.</s>Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa win the Nobel chemistry prize for work on molecular machines that may lead to the development of new materials, sensors and energy storage systems</s>Three scientists won a Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for advances in a field that has big hopes for very tiny machines — the smallest ever built.

Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Scottish-born Fraser Stoddart and Dutch scientist Bernard “Ben” Feringa were honored for making devices the size of molecules, so tiny that a lineup of 1,000 would stretch about the width of a human hair.

Someday, experts say, such devices might lead to benefits like better computer chips and batteries, and tiny shuttles that could be injected into patients to deliver drugs directly to infections and tumors. But that’s a long ways away.

“There are not big applications looming up tomorrow,” Stoddart, 74, a professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who became a U.S. citizen in 2011, told The Associated Press.

“I applaud the fact that for once in chemistry Stockholm has recognized a piece of chemistry that is extremely fundamental in its making and being,” he later told a news conference.

Feringa, 65, is a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Sauvage, 71, is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

The three men share the 8 million kronor ($930,000) prize, having “taken chemistry to a new dimension,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Stoddart said when he got the phone call from Stockholm to tell him he had won, he initially suspected a hoax. When told he was sharing the prize with “two very good friends … I could relax.”

Speaking to the French TV channel itele, Sauvage called the news a memorable moment and a big surprise.

“I have won many prizes, but the Nobel Prize is something very special. It’s the most prestigious prize, the one most scientists don’t even dare to dream of in their wildest dreams,” he said.

Feringa told reporters in Stockholm by phone, “I feel a little bit like the Wright brothers, who were flying 100 years ago for the first time and then people were saying, ‘Why do we need a flying machine?’ And now we have a Boeing 747 and an Airbus. So that is a bit how I feel.”

The academy said Sauvage made the first breakthrough in 1983 when he linked two ring-shaped molecules together in such a way that they could move in relation to each other. Moving parts are key to a machine, the academy said.

Stoddart took the next step in 1991 by threading a molecular ring onto a molecular axle and showing the ring could move back and forth. By 1994, he could completely control that movement. His group later built a tiny elevator-like machine and an artificial muscle.

Feringa built the first molecular motor in 1999, a molecule that could be made to spin in just one direction. He leads a research group that in 2011 built a “nanocar,” a minuscule vehicle with four molecular motors as wheels.

The academy said the laureates’ work has inspired other researchers to build increasingly advanced molecular machinery, including a robot that can grasp and connect amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

Dean Astumian, a physics professor at U of Maine in Orono, stressed that the field is still very young, rather like when people first had the lever and the wheel.

At first, they combined those tools in simple ways to do simple tasks, but over time they learned to assemble them in ever-more complicated ways to do increasingly dramatic things, he said.

As for molecular machines, “I think we are at the point where people have put together the levers and the wheels in simple ways at present. But partly as a result of the awarding of the prize in this area, he said, it’s going to take off,” with the creation of more complicated and useful devices.

Donna Nelson, president of the American Chemical Society, agreed that Wednesday’s prize will generate attention for the field.

And given the topic, “children are going to love it,” she said. “They’re the scientists of tomorrow.”

The chemistry prize was the last of this year’s science awards. The medicine prize went to a Japanese biologist who discovered the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content. The physics prize was shared by three British-born scientists for theoretical discoveries that shed light on strange states of matter.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, and the economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

The Nobel Prizes will be handed out at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, wanted his awards to honor achievements that delivered the “greatest benefit to mankind.”

Malcolm Ritter reported from New York. Karl Ritter reported from Stockholm. Keith Moore in Stockholm, Samuel Petrequin in Paris, Malcolm Ritter in New York and Caryn Rousseau in Chicago contributed to this report.</s>Research into the development of tiny micro-robots that can seek out and dstroy cancer has captured a Nobel Prize for three European scientists.

“This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry is about the world’s smallest machines, ” said Goran Hansson, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences which conferred the award.

The recipients, French man Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Scotland’s J Fraser Stoddart and Dutchman Bernard Feringa developed molecular machines measuring just a thousandth the width of a human hair.

Prof Stoddart received a previous honour in Ireland in 2009 when he was conferred with an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin for his work. He is professor of chemistry at Northwestern University in the US.

The technology offered “endless opportunities”, said Prof Feringa who is professor of organic chemistry at the University of Groningen. He likened their molecular machines to tiny robots that could circulate in a person’s bloodstream to search for cancer cells or to deliver a drug with pinpoint accuracy.

Prof Sauvage is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research. The three will share the distinction and also the €816,326 award that comes with it.

“When it happens, it takes your breath away,” said Prof Stoddart in a phone interview. Prof Feringa, when told of the award, acknowledged he did not know what to say about the distinction.

The academy was lavish in its praise for the work which has enormous potential. It likened these minute molecular motors to the discovery of the electric motor in the 1830s. Back then they used motors to display spinning cranks and wheels, but there was no realisation of how the electric motor would later be used in trains, fans and food processors.

The prizes are named after Swedish scientist and inventor Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace.
Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Scotsman Sir Fraser Stoddart, and Dutchman Ben Feringa win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their research into nanotechnology.