The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper examine two complementary computational problems: designing proteins with desired properties and predicting the structures adopted by natural amino acid sequences. Baker describes the development of methods for creating new protein structures and functions. Hassabis discusses the use of artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery, while Jumper explains the integration of chemical and biological reasoning into protein-structure prediction. The programme connects sequence, three-dimensional structure and function, and shows how computational approaches changed what researchers can attempt in protein science. It preserves the distinction between de novo design and prediction while explaining why advances in both can support biological understanding and the creation of useful molecules.

John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton explain how ideas from physics helped establish computational models that store patterns and learn from data. Hopfield develops a physical perspective on collective computation, including associative memories in which network dynamics recover stored patterns from incomplete or distorted inputs. Hinton examines Boltzmann machines, connecting probabilistic neural networks and learning to concepts from statistical physics. Together, the lectures link energy landscapes, interacting units and stochastic behaviour with mechanisms for representation and computation. They provide the scientific background to the neural-network contributions recognised by the 2024 physics prize and the conceptual route from models of collective systems to machine learning.

Aleksey Yekimov, Louis Brus and Moungi Bawendi trace the discovery and chemical development of quantum dots: semiconductor particles whose electronic and optical behaviour changes with their size. Yekimov examines confinement effects in small crystals embedded in glass, while Brus develops the study of semiconductor particles dispersed in solution. Bawendi explains the synthetic challenge of producing high-quality nanocrystals with controlled dimensions and how more reliable preparation made their properties experimentally and practically useful. The lectures bring together the physics of confinement, the chemistry of colloidal materials and the control of particle growth, showing why both discovery and synthesis were essential to the emergence of quantum-dot science.

Anne L’Huillier, Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz explain how light pulses became short enough to resolve electron dynamics. The lectures follow the development of high-order harmonics generated when intense laser light interacts with atoms, the formation and characterisation of attosecond pulse trains, and the isolation of individual attosecond pulses. These experimental advances provide complementary ways to probe processes that occur too rapidly for earlier optical techniques. The programme connects the physical mechanisms of pulse generation with the measurement of subatomic motion and the research possibilities created by access to this timescale, covering the distinct contributions recognised by the 2023 physics prize.

Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless explain the development of reliable reactions for connecting molecular components and the extension of those reactions into biological systems. Meldal and Sharpless describe the ideas and discoveries behind click chemistry, including efficient azide–alkyne coupling, and its use as a practical strategy for building functional molecules. Bertozzi addresses the additional challenge of performing chemical reactions in living systems without disrupting their normal processes. Her account connects the study and labelling of cell-surface glycans with the emergence of bioorthogonal chemistry and its biological and medical applications. The lectures distinguish robust synthetic coupling from the further requirements imposed by chemistry in cells and organisms.

Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger describe how questions about the foundations of quantum mechanics became experimentally testable and technologically productive. The lectures connect Bell’s inequalities with measurements of correlations between entangled photons, explaining how experiments discriminate between quantum predictions and local hidden-variable descriptions. Clauser and Aspect discuss the development of tests and the importance of their experimental assumptions and loopholes. Zeilinger develops the use of entanglement as a resource, including experiments on quantum teleportation and information processing. The programme follows the path from foundational doubts to controlled manipulation of quantum states, bringing together conceptual questions, experimental design and the origins of quantum information science.

Benjamin List and David MacMillan explain how small organic molecules became versatile catalysts for constructing other molecules. Their lectures follow the independent development of asymmetric organocatalysis and the chemical reasoning that allows a catalyst to favour one mirror-image product over another. The central problem is control: accelerating useful reactions while steering their stereochemical outcome. The programme connects the early discoveries with the expansion of catalytic methods and their use in efficient synthesis, including molecules relevant to medicines. It presents organocatalysis as a broadly usable approach to molecular construction and examines how catalyst design can make selective chemical transformations more accessible.

The three lectures examine how physical theory can make sense of complex systems with fluctuations and many interacting components. Syukuro Manabe describes the construction of climate models that connect atmospheric radiation, heat transport and carbon dioxide to changes in surface temperature. Klaus Hasselmann addresses the relationship between short-term weather variability and long-term climate, including methods for distinguishing human influence from natural variation. Giorgio Parisi examines disordered systems and the coexistence of multiple equilibria, with spin glasses providing a central setting for understanding apparently irregular collective behaviour. The programme preserves both parts of the prize: quantitative climate science and the statistical physics of disorder, rather than treating either as a substitute for the other.

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna explain the discovery and biochemical development of CRISPR-Cas9 as a programmable tool for modifying DNA. The scientific story begins with bacterial defence against invading genetic material and the role of tracrRNA in the CRISPR system. It proceeds through the reconstruction and simplification of the RNA-guided machinery and the demonstration that a chosen guide can direct DNA cleavage to a specified sequence. The lectures connect basic research on microbes and RNA with a method that transformed experimental genetics. They explain the molecular logic of the system and the possibilities it opened for studying gene function, engineering organisms and developing therapeutic approaches.

How can black holes be established both as a consequence of gravitational theory and as objects in the sky? Roger Penrose examines the mathematical development of gravitational collapse and space-time singularities, explaining why black-hole formation does not depend on perfectly symmetric idealisations. Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez trace the observational effort to establish a massive compact object at the centre of the Milky Way. Their accounts connect infrared observations, improvements in imaging through atmospheric distortion, and long-term measurements of stellar motions around Sagittarius A*. Together, the lectures present the theoretical and observational foundations of the 2020 physics prize: the robustness of black-hole formation in general relativity and the evidence for the Galactic Centre’s supermassive black hole.