Structured Approach Bags Chemistry Prize

Home , Amos Tversky, Daniel Kahneman, Koichi Tanaka

nobel news Structured approach bags chemistry prize David Adam,London then pair each peak of Discerning the shape and structure of bio- radio absorption with molecules is a sizeable problem — huge, a hydrogen nucleus in complicated structures such as proteins are the protein. This among the toughest molecules to analyse. allowed the structure Three researchers who developed key tools of proteins to be deter- to study these giants have been rewarded mined in the form in with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. which they exist in the Half of the prize goes to Kurt Wüthrich of body — in solution — the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in rather than as crystals. Zürich and the Scripps Research Institute in Mass spectrometry California,for finding ways to determine the is a highly sensitive three-dimensional structures of large bio- analytical tool that logical molecules using nuclear magnetic separates molecules resonance (NMR) spectroscopy . according to their size. John Fenn of the Virginia Common- Broad spectrum: techniques devised by (from left) Koichi Tanaka,John Fenn Fenn and Tanaka

SHIMADZU CORP; HELBER/AP; STEVE LIMINA/AP KEYSTONE/MICHELE wealth University in Richmond and Koichi and Kurt Wüthrich have helped to reveal the secrets of protein structure. found ways of turning Tanaka of the Shimadzu Corporation in proteins into a charged Kyoto share the other half for inventing tech- Chemists have used NMR and mass vapour, to be accelerated by an electric field niques to identify and analyse proteins and spectrometry for decades to study small and detected in a mass spectrometer. other large structures using mass spectrome- molecules. But the large size and complex Tanaka’s technique — soft laser desorp- try. At 43, Tanaka is the youngest chemistry structure of proteins posed problems for tion — uses a laser pulse to blast material from laureate since 1967, and the second Japanese biologists wanting to do the same. solid or viscous biological samples. Fenn scientist to receive a Nobel this year, follow- NMR analyses the way a molecule’s atoms developed a different approach, electrospray ing physics winner Masatoshi Koshiba. absorb radio waves in a powerful magnetic ionization, which creates a fine spray from a “The possibility of analysing proteins in field. Proteins can contain thousands of protein solution using an electric field. detail has led to increased understanding of atoms, so they give highly confusing NMR Fenn has “been in a total state of shock” the processes of life,”says the Nobel Founda- spectra. But in the 1980s, Wüthrich showed since being given the news in a dawn phone tion.“Researchers can now rapidly and sim- that NMR is possible for proteins. He call on 9 October. “It’s like being struck by ply reveal what different proteins a sample invented ‘sequential assignment’in which he lightning,”he says.“You know it happens to contains and also determine what protein determined the distance between any two some people but the odds are so great you molecules look like in solution.” hydrogen atoms in the molecule. He could never believe it will happen to you.” I

Economists honoured for experimental angle Rory Howlett,London ideas that it challenges, prospect theory uses Two researchers who put practical ideas to empirical observations to generate specific work in a theory-dominated discipline have hypotheses that can be tested experimentally. netted this year’s Nobel prize in economics. Smith, meanwhile, has made extensive Daniel Kahneman of Princeton use of carefully controlled experiments to University in New Jersey integrated study how markets behave. psychology into economics, showing how According to economist Samuel Bowles, human judgement and decision-making at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, help to shape economic processes. He shares Smith showed that the standard economic PRINCETON; APPLEWHITE/AP J.SCOTT the prize with Vernon Smith of George model of how markets work is correct, even Mason University in Virginia, who as Kahneman proved that the model of pioneered the use of real experimental data rational economic decision-making is as a check on economic theory. wrong. This apparent paradox makes sense, “Economics textbooks are full of theory, Just the facts: Vernon Smith (left) and Daniel Bowles says, because market models “do not but have no data or experimental results,” Kahneman looked at what people actually do. require any particular kind of rationality or explains Herbert Gintis of the University of high-level cognitive capacity” on the part of Massachusetts in Amherst.“We need to that people often display biases in their participants. He concludes that “the main understand how people actually behave and economic behaviour that lead to patterns of difference between biological and economic how this affects economic institutions.” decision-making that are at odds with what competition — namely, the rationality of Classical economic theory rests on the traditional theory predicts. the human agents — may be overrated”. idea that people will behave rationally, in Having vanquished orthodoxy, Gintis says that Kahneman and Smith’s their own best interests. Kahneman was Kahneman and the late Amos Tversky ideas were slow to catch on in academia. But among the first to show that people’s proposed a new framework in a classic paper, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute economic choices are not always rational, “Prospect theory: An analysis of decision of Technology and the University of Chicago however, and can be strongly influenced by under risk” (D. Kahneman & A. Tversky have each now appointed senior faculty in their perceptions and emotions. He found Econometrica 47, 263–291; 1979). Unlike the the subdisciplines the duo pioneered. I