Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded To Architects of Metal-Organic Frameworks

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for the development of molecular building blocks with spaces large enough that gases and other chemicals can flow through them. The New York Times: The cavities on the inside are 'almost like rooms in a hotel, so that guest molecules can enter and also exit again from the same material,' Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said during the announcement of the award. The laureates' discoveries, he added, pave the way for the creation of materials that can separate toxic chemicals from wastewater or harvest water molecules in a desert.

The laureates' work started with experiments by Dr. Robson in the 1980s and gradually developed over a period of about 15 years. 'It takes time for science to be recognized, and it takes multiple workers in the field with different approaches,' said Dorothy Phillips, president of the American Chemical Society. The three laureates will share a prize of 11 million Swedish kronor, or around $1.17 million.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.