- Title: French chemist "walking on air" after Nobel prize win
- Date: 5th October 2016
- Summary: STRASBOURG, FRANCE (OCTOBER 5, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** EXTERIOR OF FACULTY BUILDING WITH SIGN READING (French): "INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND SUPRAMOLECULAR ENGINEERING" EXTERIOR OF FACULTY EMERITUS PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF STRASBOURG AND NOBEL-PRIZE WINNING CHEMIST, JEAN-PIERRE SAUVAGE, ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) EMERITUS PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF STRASBOURG AND NOBEL-PRIZE WINNING CHEMIST, JEAN-PIERRE SAUVAGE, SAYING: "I feel like I'm walking on air, it would be hard not to feel like you were walking on air in a situation like this!" WHITE FRAME (SOUNDBITE) (French) EMERITUS PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF STRASBOURG AND NOBEL-PRIZE WINNING CHEMIST, JEAN-PIERRE SAUVAGE, SAYING: "If you really want to go as far as the applications for molecular machines, you might want to think about anything that's in movement with tiny objects - I don't know, we're talking about science fiction - mini-robots, micro-robots which will certainly be produced one day. They'll need joints, those joints will need to be able to move, so you might want to think about muscles, about wheels, systems to produce movement. Another possible area - once again, possible, we're still talking about science fiction - is nano-medicine, with the transportation of active molecules, molecules of medicine inside an organism." JOURNALISTS AFTER NEWS CONFERENCE SAUVAGE AFTER NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 20th October 2016 15:38
- Keywords: Nobel prize chemistry University of Strasbourg molecular machines energy storage
- Location: STRASBOURG, FRANCE
- City: STRASBOURG, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA00152QCPXJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS A WHITE FRAME IN SHOT 5
French scientist Jean-Pierre Sauvage said on Wednesday (October 5) that he was "walking on air" after he and two colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work on developing molecular machines.
The professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg won the prize along with Briton J. Fraser Stoddart and Dutchman Bernard Feringa who together developed molecules that produce mechanical motion in response to a stimulus, allowing them to perform specific tasks.
Such molecular machines can be developed in smart medicines that seek out disease or damage and deliver drugs to fight or fix it, and in smart materials that can adapt in response to external triggers such as changes in light or temperature.
"I feel like I'm walking on air, it would be hard not to feel like you were walking on air in a situation like this!" Sauvage told a news conference in Strasbourg.
Pushed to talk about applications for the trio's work he said that it could be used in the future to produce movement in micro-robots or transport active molecules in nano-medicine, though he was at pains to describe such speculation as "science fiction".
The Nobel committee's statement said the science of molecular machinery was now "at the same stage as the electric motor was in the 1830s" - when scientists displayed various spinning cranks and wheels, unaware that they would lead to electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors.
Chemistry is the third of this year's Nobels. Japan's Yoshinori Ohsumi won the medicine award on Monday (October 3), while three British-born scientists, including two Scots, took the physics prize on Tuesday (October 4). - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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