诺贝尔化学奖揭晓 美三位科学家获此殊荣

 　　Three scientists share Nobel Prize in Chemistry

　　化学家用棍子和小球搭建复杂模型的时代在他们手上终结。由于三位得奖者的努力，今天，计算机程序可以对化学反应详细描述并进行复杂预测。计算机成为化学实验室中不可或缺的实验手段之一，他们所得出的方法既简单又保证了极高的准确性。

　　The 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry had gone to three scientists for the development of multi-scale models for complex chemical systems, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Wednesday.

　　The prize was awarded to Martin Karplus (U.S. and Austrian citizen), Michael Levitt (U.S., British and Israeli citizen) and Arieh Warshel (U.S. and Israeli citizen), said Staffan Normark, the Academy's permanent secretary.

　　The work of Karplus, Levitt and Warshel is ground-breaking in that they managed to make Newton's classical physics work side-by-side with the fundamentally different quantum physics, according to a statement of the Academy.

　　The jury¹ commented that the laureates in chemistry this year took the best from both worlds and devised methods that use both classical and quantum physics.

　　"Chemists used to create models of molecules² using plastic balls and sticks. Today, the modelling is carried out in computers," said the statement.

　　"In the 1970s, Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel laid the foundation for the powerful programs that are used to understand and predict chemical processes. Computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for most advances made in chemistry today," it added.

　　In a telephone interview on site, Warshel said he "feels extremely well" while watching the live broadcast.

　　"In short, what we developed is a way which requires computers to look, to take the structure of the protein and then to eventually understand how exactly it does what it does," Warshel said.

　　Born in 1930, Karplus obtained his PhD from California Institute of Technology and is Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry of Harvard University and director of a joint³ laboratory between the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Strasbourg in France.

　　Levitt, born in 1947 in South Africa, got his PhD from the University of Cambridge and is now a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

　　Born in 1940, Warshel received his PhD from Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and is affiliated⁴ with the University of Southern California in the United States.

　　This was the third of this year's crop of Nobel Prizes, with each prize consisting of a medal, a personal diploma and a cash award of 8 million Swedish kronor (about 1.2 million U.S. dollars).

　　The annual awards are usually announced in October and handed out on Dec. 10, the memorial day of the death of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist⁵ and the inventor of dynamite⁶.

　　All prizes, except the economics⁷ award, were established in the will of the Swedish millionaire. The economics award was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968.(Xinhua)

　　相关内容

　　化学实验早已不是试管烧杯，或用塑料小球和小棍建模了。瑞典皇家科学院9日宣布，将今年诺贝尔化学奖授予了三位计算化学领域的美国科学家，他们通过编出计算机程序来模拟复杂的化学反应，很大程度上推进了化学研究。

　　展示光合作用机制

　　瑞典皇家科学院常任秘书诺尔马克表示，今年的化学奖是关于把化学实验带入网络空间的研究。三位美国科学家获此殊荣：哈佛大学教授马丁·卡普拉斯，斯坦福大学教授迈克尔·莱维特和南加州大学教授阿里耶·瓦谢勒。

　　据皇家科学院新闻稿中信息显示，三名获奖者均是双国籍，还分别拥有奥地利、英国和以色列国籍。

　　声明中称，化学反应以光速发生，在毫秒瞬间，电子从一个原子核跳跃到另一个，传统的化学方式已很难捕捉这个过程，三位获奖科学家则利用计算机模拟展示了化学反应的过程，比如，催化剂对废气的净化，或绿叶中光合作用的发生机制。

　　瑞典皇家科学院新闻稿中还写道，他们设法将牛顿的经典物理和量子物理联系起来。经典物理的优点是计算简单，可以被应用于很大的分子，弱点是不能提供模拟化学反应的方法。为达到这个目的，化学家必须使用量子物理进行研究，但需要强大计算能力，因此只能在小分子上应用。他们的计算化学方法使化学取得新进展，如可以通过模拟蛋白质来研制新的药物。

　　获奖感言非常不错

　　连线获奖者是诺奖的传统节目，获奖的瓦谢勒教授在采访中表示，自己的工作“就像打开一个表，看看里面是怎么运作的一样。我们发展出一个需要电脑的方法，来看看蛋白质的结构，了解它的运作机制，比如酶是怎么消化食物的。你可以用它来设计药物，满足你们的好奇心。”对于获奖后感受，瓦谢勒回答说，“非常不错。”

　　三位获奖得主中，1930年出生在维也纳的马丁·卡普拉斯最为有名，被公认为该领域的先驱。他还酷爱拍照，他的个人网站上面全是自己的摄影作品。

　　今年化学奖奖金共800万瑞典克朗（约合120万美元），将由三位获奖者平分。

1 jury   

n.陪审团，评委会；adj.临时用的；vt.挑选

参考例句：

• These twelve men are believed to compose the jury.据信，陪审团是由这12人组成的。
• The members of the jury were discharged from their duties.陪审员们被解除了职务。

2 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

3 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

4 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

5 industrialist   

n.工业家，实业家

参考例句：

• The industrialist's son was kidnapped.这名实业家的儿子被绑架了。
• Mr.Smith was a wealthy industrialist,but he was not satisfied with life.史密斯先生是位富有的企业家，可他对生活感到不满意。

6 dynamite   

n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破)

参考例句：

• The workmen detonated the dynamite.工人们把炸药引爆了。
• The philosopher was still political dynamite.那位哲学家仍旧是政治上的爆炸性人物。

7 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。