D.C. area scientist awarded Nobel Prize in chemistry
October 8, 2014
Mariah Timms
News Writer
World News
The Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists who “revolutionized microscopy,” one of whom works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase. Eric Betzig, 54, works in tracking cell division inside embryos at the Institute with his team. The two other scientists honored were Stefan W. Hell, of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany, and William E. Moerner of Stanford University, CA. Their combined work allows observation of living biological processes in realtime through the use of fluorescence microscopy. This process, when perfected, uses unique fluorescent proteins that can be turned on and off and pinpointed to attach to specific cell structures. These can be easily identified and used to create high-resolution images of still-living cells and ongoing processes.
