The 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for improving images made of biological molecules, the BBC reports.
Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson will share the nine million kronor (£831,000) prize.
They were named at a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
They developed a technique called cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), which simplifies the process for looking at the machinery of life.
The process makes it possible for life’s molecular building blocks to be captured mid-movement and allowed scientists to visualise processes that had never before been seen.
Prof Dubochet was born in Switzerland, Joachim Frank is German and Richard Henderson is from Edinburgh, UK.
Speaking to journalists over a telephone line, Prof Frank said the practical uses for the technique were “immense”.
And the Nobel committee said the work had “moved biochemistry into a new era”.
