UPDATE! Awarded to Robert J Lefkowitz and to Brian K Kobilka “for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors“.
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Thomson Reuters predicts conventional areas of research for the Chemistry Nobel
1. Louis E. Brus
For discovery of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots)
2. Akira Fujishima
For the discovery of photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide (the Honda-Fujishima Effect)
and
3. Masatake Haruta and Graham J. Hutchings
For independent foundational discoveries of catalysis by gold
But Swedish Radio is predicting / hoping that it might be awarded to a Swedish scientist Svante Pääbo who is himself the son of a Nobel laureate. He is Director, Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. In February 2009 the Max Planck Institute completed the first draft version of the Neanderthal genome. In 2010 they discovered the Denisovan genome. The techniques developed by Pääbo and his team for the DNA analysis of ancient specimens is what might be acknowledged.
The k2p blog 