What is in news : Germany’s Benjamin List and U.S.-based David MacMillan on Wednesday won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for developing a tool to build molecules which has helped make chemistry more environmentally friendly.

NOBEL PRIZE:

• The Nobel Prize award was first conferred in 1901. It is given in the name of Alfred Nobel who was a Swedish inventor.
• The season for Nobel Prize begins in October every year.
• The Nobel Prize is awarded yearly to the individuals or organizations who do an extraordinary job in the field of Physics, chemistry, literature, peace, physiology or medicine and Economics.
• All the Nobel Prizes are given at Stockholm, Sweden except for the Nobel Peace Prize which is awarded at Oslo, Norway.
• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine field is awarded by the Karolinska Institute. While in Physics, Chemistry and economics the prize is awarded by Royal Swedish academy of science.
• The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by Norwegian Nobel Committee. In Literature, the Swedish Academy grants the Nobel Prize while the Sveriges Riksbank prize is given in the field of Economic Sciences.
• Three people at maximum can share a Nobel Prize.

About the research

• Organic compounds are mostly naturally-occurring substances, built around a framework of carbon atoms and usually containing hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, or phosphorus.
• Life-supporting chemicals like proteins, which are long chains of amino acids (carbon compounds containing nitrogen and oxygen) are organic. Enzymes are also proteins, and therefore, organic compounds.
• List and MacMillan were aware of earlier research from the 1970s, in which an amino acid called proline was used as a catalyst in some specific reactions. But its role was not fully explored. They started working with individual amino acids in enzymes — and struck gold.