Frenchman and two Americans got Nobel chemistry prize

France's Yves Chauvin and Americans Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock won the 2005 Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday, for their work to reduce hazardous waste in forming new chemicals. The trio won the award for their development for the metathesis method in organic synthesis.

The Nobel Prize committee honored the laureates for their findings in metathesis, which focuses on how chemical bonds are broken and made between carbon atoms.

The process is used "daily in the chemical industry, mainly in the development of pharmaceuticals and advanced plastic materials," reports the AP. I.L.