Crystallography Time Line

A century of discoveries and prizes.

Oct 8, 2009

By Jason Socrates Bardi, Devin Powell, Martha Heil and Chris J. Nicolini
Inside Science News Service

The 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry went to three researchers for their studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, a tiny machine within the cell that translates genetic material into the proteins every living cell needs to survive.

To do this, the team used a technique called "X-ray crystallography" to study the arrangement of atoms in these tiny molecular machines. X-ray crystallography has a long history of aiding discoveries that eventually earned the Nobel Prize.

A timeline of Nobel Prizes is shown below. Click anywhere on the time line or use this link to download this graphic.