Hall, Rosbash, Young Win Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

(Bloomberg) -- Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm.

The winners were able to "peek inside our biological clock and elucidate its inner workings," the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet said in a statement on Monday. "Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the earth's revolutions.”

Annual prizes for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, peace and literature were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896. The prize in economic sciences was added by Sweden's central bank in 1968. The total amount for each of the 2017 prizes is 9 million kronor ($1.1 million), up from 8 million kronor last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Niklas Magnusson in Stockholm at nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net, Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net, Veronica Ek