In a decision that many scientists had long been expecting, the 2012 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has been won jointly by the biologists John Gurdon of the United Kingdom and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan. They received their award for “the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.”

“Their findings,” said the members of the award committee, “have revolutionised our understanding of how cells and organisms develop.” The work had also opened up lines of research culminating in developments from mammalian cloning to the proposed use of stem cells in regenerative medicine.

John Gurdon, sometime professor of cell biology at Cambridge University, is now a group leader at the …