March 28, 2024, 10:20:52 PM
Forum Rules: Read This Before Posting


Topic: Nobel prize 2005  (Read 11019 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Borek

  • Mr. pH
  • Administrator
  • Deity Member
  • *
  • Posts: 27633
  • Mole Snacks: +1799/-410
  • Gender: Male
  • I am known to be occasionally wrong.
    • Chembuddy
ChemBuddy chemical calculators - stoichiometry, pH, concentration, buffer preparation, titrations.info

Offline AWK

  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7979
  • Mole Snacks: +555/-93
  • Gender: Male
« Last Edit: October 06, 2005, 06:08:03 AM by AWK »
AWK

Offline movies

  • Organic Minion
  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1973
  • Mole Snacks: +222/-21
  • Gender: Male
  • Better living through chemistry!
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2005, 03:57:46 PM »
The president of Caltech, himself a Nobel Laureate (in medicine, I think), referred to metathesis as "esoteric" in his press release about Grubbs.

Gosh, way to be condescending.  

Any organic chemist or polymer chemist knows that metathesis has had a huge impact in their fields.  How many labs out there exist solely to work on new variations of metathesis?  It's ridiculous!

My point: just because something doesn't relate directly to biology or medicine doesn't mean that it is "esoteric" or useless.

Offline Mitch

  • General Chemist
  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 5298
  • Mole Snacks: +376/-3
  • Gender: Male
  • "I bring you peace." -Mr. Burns
    • Chemistry Blog
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2005, 04:21:11 PM »
Grubbs is a real nice guy, I've met him several times. That has to be one of the fastest  Nobel Prizes given to a new invention. Only around 10 years or so after his blockbuster catalyst.
Most Common Suggestions I Make on the Forums.
1. Start by writing a balanced chemical equation.
2. Don't confuse thermodynamic stability with chemical reactivity.
3. Forum Supports LaTex

Garneck

  • Guest
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2005, 06:32:40 PM »
Geeeez, I'm laughing so hard, because idiots in polish public television said on the news that this is possible due to the usage of molybdenium-praseodymium catalysators.. I checked out one of the links, I'm looking at the structure - ok, there's the molybdenium atom, but where is that praseodymium.. ok.. there it is.. iPr - but that stands for an isopropyl group, not praseodymium..

and they said that on the news..   ::)

Offline movies

  • Organic Minion
  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1973
  • Mole Snacks: +222/-21
  • Gender: Male
  • Better living through chemistry!
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2005, 04:37:04 PM »
A whole lot of metals have been used for metathesis.  Ruthenium and Molybdenum seem to be the best in terms of selectivity though.  Some Tungsten ones are useful as well.

I have to agree with Mitch that Grubbs is a heck of a nice guy.  Did you know that the second generation catalyst was made by an undergrad student?  I just found that out last week.  Amazing.  Grubbs has actually been working on metathesis for a long time, definitely more than ten years, but the Ru catalyst (the Grubbs first generation catalyst) isn't that old.  The second gen. catalyst is what really made metathesis insanely useful in organic chemistry.  It just fixed all the problems with the other metathesis catalysts.  There is also a lot to be said for the way that Grubbs packaged the chemistry.  There is a great full paper in JACS about selective cross-metathesis that really lays out how to use to catalyst for what you want.  He also did some really interesting work on the fate of the Ru catalyst and what the decomposition pathways are.  Great chemistry all around!

Offline Mitch

  • General Chemist
  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 5298
  • Mole Snacks: +376/-3
  • Gender: Male
  • "I bring you peace." -Mr. Burns
    • Chemistry Blog
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2005, 05:18:11 PM »
It was also an undergrad that found out Mercury was a superconductor at low temperatures. Of course the professors just swoop in and get the glory and Nobels apparently. ;)
Most Common Suggestions I Make on the Forums.
1. Start by writing a balanced chemical equation.
2. Don't confuse thermodynamic stability with chemical reactivity.
3. Forum Supports LaTex

Offline movies

  • Organic Minion
  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1973
  • Mole Snacks: +222/-21
  • Gender: Male
  • Better living through chemistry!
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #7 on: October 10, 2005, 12:36:49 AM »
Yeah, that's for sure.  Only very rarely is there a grad. student that gets recognized for their work, much less an undergrad.

A couple of notable exceptions: Stork-Danheiser chemistry (Danheiser was an undergrad at the time), the Diels-Alder reaction (Alder was a graduate student, he actually did get the Nobel prize though), also there was an undergrad student who pointed out to Watson and Crick that they were trying to build models with the wrong tautomers of the base pairs so the hydrogen bonds in DNA didn't make sense.  The second name on all of the name reactions that are named for E.J. Corey are the names of the students that worked on them, but I think that is more important to keep all the "Corey reagents" straight.

Actually, in the Grubbs group they refer to the different metathesis catalysts by the name of the person that first made the catalyst.  So whereas the rest of the community would call it the "second generation Grubbs catalyst," at a Grubbs group meeting they would call is "<student>'s catalyst."  (Sorry I don't know the student's name.)  It probably makes it a lot easier to keep track since there are so many slight variants of the Grubbs catalyst motif.

Offline AWK

  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7979
  • Mole Snacks: +555/-93
  • Gender: Male
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2005, 02:39:52 AM »
Bragg (the younger) got Nobel prize for his work did as a student. This is about 0.3 % of Nobel prize winners. Mitch, you have still run a chance.
« Last Edit: October 11, 2005, 02:44:34 AM by AWK »
AWK

Offline movies

  • Organic Minion
  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1973
  • Mole Snacks: +222/-21
  • Gender: Male
  • Better living through chemistry!
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2005, 04:19:47 PM »
Bragg of Bragg's Law fame?

Crystallography is cool.

Offline AWK

  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 7979
  • Mole Snacks: +555/-93
  • Gender: Male
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2005, 06:27:02 AM »
Bragg of Bragg's Law fame?

Exactly this Bragg.
He was a student of physics, but during summer vacations he worked as volunteer in his father lab, and just for this work father and son got the prize.
AWK

Offline mike

  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1245
  • Mole Snacks: +121/-35
  • Gender: Male
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #11 on: October 13, 2005, 12:00:23 AM »
Bragg of Bragg's Law fame?

A good old Adelaide boy from South Australia!
There is no science without fancy, and no art without facts.

Offline Donaldson Tan

  • Editor, New Asia Republic
  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 3177
  • Mole Snacks: +261/-13
  • Gender: Male
    • New Asia Republic
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #12 on: October 13, 2005, 05:29:54 PM »
I didn't know the Bragg family is Australian
"Say you're in a [chemical] plant and there's a snake on the floor. What are you going to do? Call a consultant? Get a meeting together to talk about which color is the snake? Employees should do one thing: walk over there and you step on the friggin� snake." - Jean-Pierre Garnier, CEO of Glaxosmithkline, June 2006

Offline mike

  • Retired Staff
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1245
  • Mole Snacks: +121/-35
  • Gender: Male
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #13 on: October 13, 2005, 10:13:26 PM »
Well Bragg (the younger) was born in Adelaide, Australia while his father worked at the University of Adelaide, he then studied at Adelaide Uni before the family moved (to England I think).

Adelaide Uni has some physics laboratory buildings named after the Braggs.

Another famous Adelaide boy was Howard Florey (of penicillin fame)
« Last Edit: October 13, 2005, 10:15:09 PM by mike »
There is no science without fancy, and no art without facts.

meh

  • Guest
Re:Nobel prize 2005
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2005, 06:37:59 AM »
also has a lecture theatre named after bragg as well, though the lec is a bit dilapitated. incidentally florey has a lecture theartre at adelaide as well

Sponsored Links