--- title: "Nanomachines Score The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry" description: "Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa will share the prize for their design and synthesis of the ‘world’s smallest machines.’ The state of molecular machines today is at the same level as that of the electric motor in the 1830'" date: "2016-10-07" modified: "2016-10-07" authors: - name: "Jelor Gallego" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jelor-gallego" url: "https://futurism.com/nanomachines-score-the-2016-nobel-prize-in-chemistry" categories: - "Chemistry" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "chemistry" - "nanomachines" - "Nobel Prize" --- # Nanomachines Score The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry ![chemistry nobel prize nanomachines]() *\Image: Shutterstock\* A trio of European scientists brought home the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa were awarded 8 million Swedish krona for their work on molecular machines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vELfuiUpKM0 The three researches [developed molecules]() with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added. Sauvage, of the University of Strasbourg, was awarded for his work in 1983. He was able to link two ring-shaped molecules together in a paper-chain style, called a catenane. This was built upon by Stoddart of the Northwestern University in USA. He was able to create a molecular wheel – a free-moving molecular ring threaded onto a thin molecular axle, called a rotaxane. Finally, Feringa of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands was able to create an actual nano-motor, a molecular rotor blade could spin continually in the same direction. Then, the trio created a "car" no wider than a human hair, capable of "driving" across a surface. The scientists' spinning nano machines are already being used to create medical micro-robots and self-healing materials that can repair themselves without human intervention.