German wins chemistry Nobel Prize

German scientist Gerhard Ertl won this year’s chemistry Nobel Prize today for research that has helped explain the thinning of the ozone layer.

His research, starting in the 1960s, also has helped explain how fuel cells work, how catalysts work in cars and even why even why iron rusts, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

“Surface chemistry can even explain the destruction of the ozone layer as vital steps in the reaction actually take place on the surfaces of small crystals of ice in the stratosphere,” the award said.

Americans Mario R. Capecchi and Oliver Smithies, and Britain’s Martin Evans, won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for groundbreaking discoveries that led to a powerful technique for manipulating mouse genes.

Yesterday, France’s Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg won the physics award for discovering a phenomenon that lets computers and digital music players store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks.

Prizes for literature, peace and economics will be announced over the coming days.