This year's Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded in equal parts to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless for developing way of "snapping molecules together."
Stanford's Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson are honored for their "inventions of new auction formats." Auctions are now used to price Internet ads, wholesale electricity and fishing permits.
The scientists' work led to a test to protect blood transfusion recipients from hepatitis C and drugs to treat the infection that have saved millions of lives, according to the Nobel Assembly.
Esther Duflo is the first female economist to win the Nobel Prize. Planet Money talks to her about her win, the state of gender inequality in economics, and her new book.