In the mid-1990s, the Pole Krzysztof Matyjaszewski and the Japanese Mitsuo Sawamoto came independently in a more efficient way of making polymers compared to before.
Like pearls in a necklace
Polymers are substances that consist of long chains of smaller molecules that are connected to each other like pearls in a necklace.
The most well-known polymer is plastic, and the fact that a new method of manufacturing plastic has now been invented may not feel so startling.
But it is not to make plastic that the method "The Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization" (ATRP) is exciting.
Check the production
The point is that Krzysztof Matyjaszewski and Mitsuo Sawamoto came up with how to control the production of polymers and thereby construct completely new types of materials that have exactly the properties we want:
Super hard or very soft and plastics that destroy themselves.
Material with the property of remembering.
Materials with built-in proteins that can be implanted in the body, perhaps a muscle tissue that has the ability to heal itself.
Attacks cancer cells
Krzysztof Matyjaszewski has suggested that one area of use could be drugs that only attack exactly what is to be fought, such as a cancerous tumor and not surrounding tissue.
Already today, the method is used commercially to manufacture substances such as adhesives, sealants, inks and more.
Gene scissors are a constant favorite
But the big chemistry prize candidate is the genetic scissors Crispr-Cas9.
It is a method of cutting and pasting genes - and is inspired by the bacteria's way of protecting itself from virus attacks.
Today, Crispr-Cas9 is an extremely effective tool in laboratories around the world.
It is also used for plant breeding and to cure serious diseases.
Experimental treatments are currently underway against the genetic disease sickle cell anemia, which has been shown to be effective.
Safe Nobel Prize candidates in the future are the Frenchwoman Emmanuelle Charpentier and the American Jennifer Doudna as well as Fang Chang, active in the USA, who has shown how genetic scissors work in ordinary cells.