Nobel Laureates in Chemistry Should ‘Spark Imagination of Would-Be Scientists Everywhere,’ Says Cornell Chemist

Melissa Hines, director for the Cornell Center for Materials Research and professor of chemistry at Cornell University, comments on the award of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, and William Moerner.

Hines says:

“This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry should spark the imagination of would-be scientists everywhere. These three scientists showed that simple optical microscopes – of the type used by school children everywhere – can not only see individual molecules, but can also follow their reactions on the near-atomic length scale.

“Their ‘trick’ was deceptively simple. Instead of using the standard light bulb on their microscopes, they studied molecules that come with their own light source: molecules that glow. This innovation allowed the trio to observe the reactions of individual molecules in living cells, giving profound insight into biological processes and opening up a new field of study."

Hines bio: http://chemistry.cornell.edu/faculty/detail.cfm?netid=mah11

Note to editors: Eric Betzig received a Ph.D. in applied physics from Cornell University in 1988. William Moerner received a Ph.D. in experimental physics from Cornell in 1982.

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