Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded for 'groundbreaking' microscope advances

Two Americans, Eric Betzig and William Moerner, and one German, Stefan Hell, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday. The trio developed "super-resolved fluorescence microscopy," which allowed microscopes to see more details than were previously available with traditional optical microscopes.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that the scientists' creation was "groundbreaking" and had "brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension."

The scientists were able to reach a "new dimension" of microscopy with fluorescent molecules, creating a better microscope resolution, The Associated Press reports. Their research "made it possible to study the interplay between molecules inside cells, including the aggregation of disease-related proteins."

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The Nobel Prize in literature will be announced Thursday, and the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday. The Nobel Prize in economics will be announced Monday. All of the prizes will be given in ceremonies on Dec. 10. --Meghan DeMaria

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