Nanotechnology May Take Nobel in Chemistry

[Hum]

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- The rapidly expanding field of nanotechnology was honored by the Nobel Prize in Physics and it could get another nod when the chemistry prize is announced on Wednesday.

Leading researchers in the field -- which intersects both physics and chemistry -- include Sir Fraser Stoddart, director of the California NanoSystems Institute, and Japan's Sumio Iijima, who discovered carbon nanotubes in 1991. Both have been mentioned as potential Nobel candidates in recent years.

If Stoddart wins, he's likely to share the chemistry prize with Seiji Shinkai of Japan and Harvard University professor George Whitesides -- two other leading researchers in nanotechnology, experts say.

A broad field of science, nanotechnology involves research at an atomic level that seeks to create smaller and more powerful devices and systems in a wide range of areas, from food production to health care products and military equipment.

The Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday went to France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg for discovering a phenomenon that lets computers and digital music players store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences called it ''one of the first real applications'' of nanotechnology.

Other front-runners for the chemistry prize could include Americans Stuart Schreiber and Gerald Crabtree, for pioneering work in chemical biology that has shed light on how tiny molecules can be used on cell circuits and signaling pathways.

''If the Nobel committee decides to define chemistry to include biochemistry ... I would look for a Schreiber and Crabtree prize,'' said David Pendlebury, an analyst with Thomson Scientific, which tries to predict Nobel winners based in part on their citations in scientific journals.

Thomson Scientific also picked Americans Barry Trost and Samuel Danishefsky and Dieter Seeback of Switzerland as possible winners of this year's prize.

The secretive Nobel Prize committees don't give any clues. Except for the winners, the names of nominees are withheld for 50 years.

Jacqueline Barton of the California Institute of Technology could be a potential winner if the chemistry prize committee decides to honor a woman for the first time since 1964. She has studied the electrical conductivity of DNA in research that could lead to new ways to diagnose and treat diseases.

Last year's chemistry award went to American Roger Kornberg for groundbreaking research into how cells read their genes, fundamental work that could help lead to new therapies.

Alfred Nobel, the wealthy Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite who endowed the prizes, left only vague guidelines for the selection committee.

In his will, he said the prize should be given to those who ''shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind'' and ''have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement.''

This year's Nobel announcements began Monday, with the Nobel Prize in medicine going to Americans Mario R. Capecchi and Oliver Smithies, and Sir Martin J. Evans, of Britain, for a technique called gene targeting, which lets scientists deactivate or modify particular genes in mice.

Each prize includes a check for $1.5 million, a diploma and medal, which will be awarded by Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

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[vincent]

The Nobel Prize in physics this year was a bit of a let down imo, i was hoping for something more intriguing other than, HDD technology...