The 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded for the development of the world's smallest machines. Three scientists, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa will share the prize of 8 million kroner (which is around 8 million Chinese yuan).

The tiny machines the three scientists developed are made with individual molecules and are around a thousand times thinner than a human hair. Working at this small scale is called nanotechnology. These nano machines are small enough to be injected into the human body, to do jobs like delivering medicine or treatment right to the place where it is needed. The machines could also be used to make new smart materials. The prize winners managed to put molecules together at a tiny scale to design motors, a four-wheel-drive car and even muscles.

Bernard Feringa's team works in the Netherlands. In 1999, Prof Feringa led the first research to produce a molecular motor that always spins in the same direction. In 2011, his group built a four-wheel-drive nanocar. The car's body is a molecule that holds together four motors that work as wheels.

Speaking about the award, Professor Feringa said "I feel a little bit like the Wright Brothers who were flying 100 years ago for the first time and people were saying why do we need a flying machine, and now we have a Boeing 747 and an Airbus. The opportunities are great."

Jean-Pierre Sauvage is a professor at the University of Strasbourg and a director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. In 1994, Prof Sauvage's research group were able to make one molecule spin around another when energy was applied. They had made a molecular motor.

Sir Fraser Stoddart is from Edinburgh in the UK. He works at Northwestern University, in the US. His team has built many molecular machines, including a lift, a muscle and even a computer chip.