VOA News - Two Americans and an Israeli have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for mapping the structure of key protein-making parts of cells. Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz, and Israeli Ada Yonath (photo) will share the $1.4 million prize announced Wednesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

  The researchers used a method called X-ray crystallography to pinpoint the position of hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.

The academy says their work has helped researchers develop antibiotic cures for various diseases.

Each of them will also receive a diploma and an invitation to the prize ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden on December 10.

On Monday, American scientists Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells. That discovery has inspired new areas of research into cancer.

Three American physicists Charles Kao, Willard Boyle, and George Smith won a Nobel Prize Tuesday for developing fiber optic communication networks and the technology behind digital photography.

The prizes are named after Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite. He established the prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace in his will.

The prize ceremonies will be held on December 10, the anniversary of his death in 1896.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.