Just when they believed they were passed over for this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry, two scientists from Google's DeepMind AI research team got the call -- mere minutes before they were announced as honorees.

Half the prize goes to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper from Google DeepMind for using AI to solve protein folding, and the other to David Baker for tools to help design new proteins.

The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to three scientists today — two of whom are significant figures at Google DeepMind — for their work around proteins, which the Nobel Prize committee describes as the “chemical tools of life.”