Three scientists who discovered powerful techniques to decode and even design novel proteins — the building blocks of life — were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday. Their work used advanced technologies,

John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton shared the award for their work on artificial neural networks and machine learning

Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper were part of a Google DeepMind team whose A.I. technology predicts the shape of proteins. David Baker designed “a new protein that was unlike any other,” the committee said.