Chemistry
Chemistry is getting right down into the minutiae…which is OK I guess since it’s all about molecules.
But the pioneering days are long over. It’s all about discovering or inventing complex systems these days.
Hardly the stuff to rivet the masses with the genius of the scientist!
By way of example I have listed the last 10 and the first 10 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry below.
As a trained research chemist I can’t get excited about any of the last ten prizes.
They are, all of them, just another branch of research chosen above all the other thousands, to be important.
God knows on what basis. Given time, most of this will be forgotten and just absorbed into the body of knowledge.
I wonder if the Nobel Prize people should stop prizes in Chemistry and look into some field that is far more pioneering.
If they don’t the whole thing might become redundant.
Here is the last ten Nobel Prizes in Chemistry:
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013
Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel
“for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012
Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka
“for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2011
Dan Shechtman
“for the discovery of quasicrystals”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010
Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki
“for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath
“for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008
Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien
“for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007
Gerhard Ertl
“for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006
Roger D. Kornberg
“for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2005
Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock
“for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004
Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose
“for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2003
“for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes”
Peter Agre
“for the discovery of water channels”
Roderick MacKinnon
“for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels”
Here is the first ten Nobel prizes in Chemistry:
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911
Marie Curie, née Sklodowska
“in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1910
Otto Wallach
“in recognition of his services to organic chemistry and the chemical industry by his pioneer work in the field of alicyclic compounds”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1909
Wilhelm Ostwald
“in recognition of his work on catalysis and for his investigations into the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibria and rates of reaction”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908
Ernest Rutherford
“for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1907
Eduard Buchner
“for his biochemical researches and his discovery of cell-free fermentation”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1906
Henri Moissan
“in recognition of the great services rendered by him in his investigation and isolation of the element fluorine, and for the adoption in the service of science of the electric furnace called after him”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1905
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer
“in recognition of his services in the advancement of organic chemistry and the chemical industry, through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1904
Sir William Ramsay
“in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and his determination of their place in the periodic system”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1903
Svante August Arrhenius
“in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1902
Hermann Emil Fischer
“in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his work on sugar and purine syntheses”
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1901
Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff
“in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions”
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