Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Trio of Evolutionary Scientists (theguardian.com)

Three scientists have won the Nobel prize in chemistry for their work in harnessing evolution to produce new enzymes and antibodies. From a report: British scientist Sir Gregory P Winter and Americans Frances H Arnold and George P Smith will share the 9m Swedish kronor ($1 million) prize, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Half of the prize goes to Arnold, from the California Institute of Technology, for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes -- proteins that speed up chemical reactions. In a nutshell, Arnold introduced genetic mutations into enzymes, and then looked to see what effect the mutations had. She then selected the cases where a particular mutation proved useful -- for example, allowing the enzyme to work in a solvent it would otherwise not work in. Her work has made it possible to cut out the use of many toxic catalysts and has led to the development of enzymes for all manner of fields, including the development of biofuels and the production of pharmaceuticals.

The other half of the award goes to Winter and Smith, for their work on "phage display of peptides and antibodies." A phage is a virus that can infect bacteria, "tricking" bacteria to reproduce it. Smith genetically engineered phages so that they would include a certain molecule on their outer capsule which allowed him to that encompasses out particular proteins crop up on the outer. Winter used this technology to develop new drugs that have transformed medicine, offering therapies for diseases ranging from cancer to autoimmune conditions. Arnold is only the fifth woman to be awarded the prize for Chemistry -- the last female scientist to scoop the award was Ada E. Yonath in 2009 who shared the prize for her work on understanding the structure of ribosomes: the protein-manufacturing structures inside cells.

Comments

relevance of "fifth" "woman" to be awarded?

[sittingnut]

"arnold is only the fifth woman to be awarded the prize for chemistry. the last female scientist to scoop the award was ada e. yonath in 2009"

does that matter? it shouldn't. in my opinion.
and shouldn't be highlighted. as if noting the fulfillment, or not, of some quota.

Re:relevance of "fifth" "woman" to be awarded?

[Jahoda]

Poor, poor sad slashdotters. So threatened by the mean women. So angry that society continues to exclude them and fails to recognize their inherent greatness at every turn!

Re:There's been lots of whining about the lack of

[Opportunist]

Yes, this is exactly the question. And the problem.

There should be no doubt that these women deserve those laurels. Their accomplishments are groundbreaking, both in physics and chemistry those Prizes went to the right people. This will change the world and we will soon see research jump forwards due to those accomplishments. These women worked hard for those goals and I do not doubt that they dedicated years if not decades of their life to be where they are now.

And without the constant whining from the alleged feminists (I can't in good faith believe they actually give a shit about the advancement of gender equality anymore, sorry), this would stand by itself. There would be NO doubt, from anyone, that these merits are fully deserved.

Thanks. Thanks a lot, you whiny, self absorbed bitches who never accomplished, or ever will accomplish, anything in your lives for ruining this for these great women. Thank you so much. You know that you'll never amount to anything and can only ever hope to get any kind of accolades if you skew and twist the rules until you get your participation trophy for belonging to a certain group. And you don't give a FUCK about anyone else from the group that actually CAN and DO accomplish anything.

Go to hell, assholes!