AI's protein work won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to the creators of AlphaFold, which predicted the 3D shape of nearly every known protein, and to David Baker, whose AI tools design brand-new proteins.
Why this is new because of AI
Working out one protein's shape used to take scientists years. AI did it for about 200 million proteins, and it now designs proteins nature never made. The Nobel committee itself said this was a breakthrough that had not been possible before.