The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 is about proteins, life’s ingenious chemical tools. David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures. These discoveries hold enormous potential.

News of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry gave David Baker’s household a very early wake up call. Baker speaks about the exciting potential of building brand new proteins and the inspirational effect his fellow laureates have had on his field.

Read a transcript of the interview

2024 chemistry laureate John Jumper talks about being the youngest chemistry laureate in over 70 years, and about AI’s role in science.

Read a transcript of the interview

Watch Professor Hans Ellegren, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announce the 2024 chemistry prize, followed by an interview with Johan Åqvist, member of the Nobel Committee.

Machine learning has long been important for research, including the sorting and analysis of vast amounts of data. John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton used tools from physics to construct methods that helped lay the foundation for today’s powerful machine learning. Machine learning based on artificial neural networks is currently revolutionising science, engineering and daily life.

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation. Their groundbreaking discovery in the small worm C. elegans revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation. This turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans. MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.

Discover more about the Nobel Prizes with the easy-to-use Nobel Prize Lessons. Watch the videos, look through the manual and slides, print the texts for students and start the class.