Simulating reactions in cyberspace earns Nobel Prize in chemistry

Research that created computer simulations of complex chemical reactions has won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Martin Karplus of Harvard University and the University of Strasbourg, Michael Levitt of Stanford University and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California will share the prize.

Using computer programs that marry the power of quantum physics with the low computing demands of classical physics, the three scientists made it possible to describe ultrafast chemical reactions.