The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded since 1901. Her first laureate was Jacob Vant-Hoff. This scientist received a prize for the laws of osmotic pressure and chemical dynamics, discovered by him. Of course, it is impossible to tell about all the laureates in one article. We will talk about the most famous, as well as those who have been awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in the past few years.
Ernest Rutherford
One of the most famous chemists is Ernest Rutherford. He received the Nobel Prize in 1908 for studying the decay of elements of radioactive substances. The years of life of this scientist are 1871-1937. This is an English physicist and chemist born in New Zealand. Thanks to his success, while studying at Nelson College, he received a scholarship that allowed him to go to Christchurch, the New Zealand city where Canterbury College was located. In 1894, Rutherford became a bachelor of science. After some time, the scientist was awarded a scholarship to Cambridge University located in England and moved to this country.
In 1898, Rutherford began to carry out important experiments related to the radioactive emission of uranium. After some time, two of its species were discovered by him: alpha rays and beta rays. The former penetrate only a short distance, while the latter penetrate much more. After some time, Rutherford found out that thorium emits a special radioactive gaseous product. He called this phenomenon "emanation" (emission).
New studies have shown that sea anemone and radium also emanate. Rutherford, on the basis of his discoveries, came to important conclusions. He found out that alpha and beta rays emit all radioactive elements. In addition, their radioactivity decreases after a certain period of time. Based on the findings, an important assumption could be made. All radioactive elements known to science, as the scientist concluded, belong to the same family of atoms, and the decrease in radioactivity can be taken as the basis for their classification.
Marie Curie (Sklodowska)
The first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was Marie Curie. This important event for science occurred in 1911. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to her for the discovery of polonium and radium, the separation of radium, and also for the study of the compounds and nature of the last element. Maria was born in Poland, after a while she moved to France. The years of her life - 1867-1934. Curie won the Nobel Prize not only in chemistry but also in physics (in 1903, together with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel).
Marie Curie had to face the fact that women in her time had almost closed the path to science. They were not accepted to the University of Warsaw . In addition, the Curie family was poor. However, Mary managed to get a higher education in Paris.
The most important achievements of Marie Curie
Henri Becquerel in 1896 found that uranium compounds emit radiation that can penetrate deeply. The Becquerel radiation, in contrast to that discovered by W. Roentgen in 1895, was not the result of excitation from some external source. It was an internal property of uranium. Maria was interested in this phenomenon. In early 1898, she began to study it. The researcher tried to determine if there are other substances that have the ability to emit these rays. In December 1898, Pierre and Marie Curie discovered 2 new elements. They were called radium and polonium (in honor of the motherland of Mary of Poland). This was followed by work on their selection and study of their properties. In 1910, together with Andre Debirn, Maria isolated metallic radium in its pure form. Thus, the research cycle begun 12 years ago was completed.
Linus Carl Pauling
This man is one of the greatest chemists. He received the Nobel Prize in 1954 for studying the nature of chemical bonds, as well as for using it to elucidate the structure of compounds.
The years of Pauling's life are 1901-1994. He was born in the United States, in Oregon (Portland). As a researcher, Pauling studied X-ray crystallography for a long time. He was interested in how rays pass through the crystal and a characteristic pattern appears. From this figure, it was possible to determine the atomic structure of the corresponding substance. Using this method, the scientist studied the nature of bonds in benzene, as well as in other aromatic compounds.
In 1928, Pauling created the theory of hybridization (resonance) of chemical bonds that occurs in aromatic compounds. In 1934, the scientist turned his attention to biochemistry, especially to the biochemistry of proteins. Together with A. Mirsky, he created the theory of protein function and structure. Together with C. Corwell, this scientist studied the effect of oxygen saturation (oxygenation) on the magnetic properties of hemoglobin protein. In 1942, the researcher was able to change the chemical structure of globulins (proteins contained in the blood). In 1951, Pauling, together with R. Cory, published a work on the molecular structure of proteins. It was the result of work that continued for 14 years. Using x-ray crystallography to study proteins in muscles, hair, hair, nails and other tissues, scientists made an important discovery. They found that in the protein chain of amino acids are twisted into a spiral. This has become a big advance in biochemistry.
S. Hinshelwood and N. Semenov
You probably want to know if there are Russian Nobel Prize winners in chemistry. Although some of our compatriots were nominated for this award, only N. Semenov received it. Together with Hinshelwood, he was awarded the prize for research on the mechanism of chemical reactions in 1956.
Hinshelwood is an English scientist (years of life - 1897-1967). His main works were connected with the study of chain reactions. He investigated homogeneous analysis, as well as the mechanism of reactions of this type.
Semenov Nikolay Nikolaevich (years of life - 1896-1986) is a Russian chemist and physicist hailing from the city of Saratov. The first scientific problem that interested him was the ionization of gases. The scientist, while still a university student, wrote the first article on collisions between molecules and electrons. After some time, he began to study more deeply the processes of recombination and dissociation. In addition, he became interested in the molecular aspects of vapor condensation and adsorption occurring on a solid surface. The studies carried out by him allowed us to find the relationship between the surface temperature with which condensation is carried out and the vapor density. In 1934, a scientist published a work in which he proved that many reactions, including polymerization, proceed using a branched or chain reaction mechanism.
Robert Burns Woodward
All Nobel laureates in chemistry have made a great contribution to science, but R. Woodward stands out among them. His achievements are very important today. This scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1965. He received it for his contribution in the field of organic synthesis. The years of Robert's life - 1917-1979. He was born in the USA, in the American city of Boston, located in the state of Massachusetts.
Woodward made his first achievement in chemistry during World War II, when he was a consultant to Polaroid Corporation. Because of the war, quinine began to be missed. This is an antimalarial drug that has also been used in the manufacture of lenses. Woodward and W. Doering, his colleague, having readily available materials and standard equipment, synthesized quinine after 14 months of work.
After 3 years, along with Schramm, this scientist created a protein analog by combining amino acid links into a long chain. The polypeptides resulting from this have been used in the manufacture of artificial antibiotics and plastics. In addition, protein metabolism was studied with their help. Woodward in 1951 began working on the synthesis of steroids. Among the obtained compounds were lanosterol, chlorophyll, reserpine, lysergic acid, vitamin B12, colchicine, prostaglandin F2a. Subsequently, many of the compounds received by him and the employees of the Siba Corporation Institute, of which he was the director, began to be used in industry. Nefalosporin C was one of the most important of them. It is an antibiotic such as penicillin, which is used against infectious diseases caused by bacteria.
Our list of Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry will be supplemented by the names of scientists who won it in the 21st century, in the second decade.
A. Suzuki, E. Negishi, R. Heck
These researchers received an award for the development of new methods of bonding carbon atoms with each other to create complex molecules. They were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Hyuk and Negishi are Americans, and Akiro Suzuki is a Japanese citizen. Their goal was to create complex organic molecules. At school, we learn that organic compounds have carbon atoms that form the skeleton of a molecule. For a long time, the problem of scientists was that carbon atoms are difficult to connect with other atoms. Due to the catalyst made of palladium, this problem was solved. Under the action of the catalyst, carbon atoms began to interact with each other, forming complex organic structures. These processes were studied by Nobel Prize winners in chemistry this year. Almost simultaneously, reactions named after these scientists were carried out.
R. Lefkowitz, M. Karplus, B. Kobilka
Lefkowitz (pictured above), Kobilka and Karplus - these are the ones who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012. The award went to three of these scientists for the study of G-protein-coupled receptors. Robert Lefkowitz is a U.S. citizen born April 15, 1943. Most of his research is about bioreceptors and their signal conversion. Lefkowitz described in detail the functional features, structure and sequence of Ξ²-adrenergic receptors, as well as 2 types of regulatory proteins: Ξ²-arrestin and GRK kinases. This scientist in the 1980s, together with his colleagues, carried out the cloning of the gene responsible for the functioning of the Ξ²-adrenergic receptor.
B. Kobilka is a native of the United States. He was born in Little Falls (Minnesota). After graduation, the researcher worked under the leadership of Lefkowitz.
The 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was also awarded to M. Karplus. He was born in Vienna in 1930. Karplus was a native of a Jewish family who had to move to the United States, fleeing Nazi persecution. The main field of research of this scientist was nuclear magnetic spectroscopy, quantum chemistry and the kinetics of chemical processes.
M. Karplus, M. Levitt, A. Warshall
We now turn to the winners of the 2013 award. Scientists Karplus (pictured below), Warshall and Levitt received it for the model of complex chemical systems.
M. Levitt was born in South Africa in 1947. When he was 16, Michael's family moved to the UK. In London, he entered King's College in 1967, and then continued his studies at Cambridge University. His work in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of this university is associated with the creation of models of spatial structures of tRNA. Michael is considered one of the founders of computer modeling and study of the structures of various protein molecules (mainly proteins).
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was also awarded to Ari Worschel. He was born in Palestine in 1940. In 1958-62 he served as captain in the Israel Defense Forces, and then began his studies at the Jerusalem Institute. In 1970-72 He worked at the Weizmann Institute as an assistant professor, and since 1991 became a professor of biology and chemistry in Southern California. Worshell is considered one of the creators of computational enzymology - a branch of biology. He studied the mechanisms and structure of the catalytic action, as well as the structure of enzyme molecules.
S. Hell, E. Betzig, and W. Merner
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Merner, Betzig, and Hell. These scientists have created new microscopy methods that exceed the capabilities of our usual light microscope. The results of their work allow us to consider the paths of molecules inside the cells of living organisms. For example, these methods make it possible to monitor the behavior of the proteins responsible for the occurrence of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Currently, the studies of these scientists are increasingly used in science and medicine.
Hell was born in Romania in 1962. He is a German citizen today. Eric Betzig was born in 1960 in Michigan. William Merner was born in 1953 in California.
Hell has been working on STED microscopy on spontaneous suppressed emission since the 1990s. The first laser in it is excited before the appearance of a fluorescent glow recorded by the receiver. Another laser is used to improve the resolution of the device. Merner and Betzig, Hell's colleagues, independently carrying out their own research, laid the foundations for another type of microscopy. It is about microscopy of single molecules.
T. Lindahl, P. Modric and Aziz Sanjar
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Swede Lindahl, American Modric and Turk Sanjar. Scientists who shared the award among themselves, independently explained and described the mechanisms by which cells βrepairβ DNA and protect genetic information from damage. It was for this that they were awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The scientific community in the 1960s was convinced that these molecules are extremely strong and remain practically unchanged throughout life. Carrying out his research at the Caroline Institute, the biochemist Lindal (born in 1938) showed that various defects accumulate in the work of DNA. This means that there must be natural mechanisms by which DNA molecules are repaired. Lindahl in 1974 found an enzyme that cleans damaged cytosine from them. In the 1980s and 90s, a scientist who had moved to the UK by that time showed how glycosylase works. This is a special group of enzymes that works in the first stage of DNA repair. The scientist was able to reproduce this process in laboratory conditions (the so-called "excision repair").
Other winners of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry are noteworthy. Aziz Sanjar was born in 1946 in Turkey. He received a medical degree in Istanbul, after which he worked for several years as a rural doctor. However, in 1973, Aziz became interested in biochemistry. The scientist was struck by the fact that bacteria, after receiving a dose of ultraviolet radiation, which is deadly for them, quickly recover their strength if irradiation is carried out in the blue spectrum of the visible range. Already in the Texas laboratory, Sanjar identified and cloned an enzyme gene that is responsible for repairing damage caused by ultraviolet radiation (photolyase). This discovery in the 1970s did not arouse much interest in the universities of America, and the scientist went to Yale. It was here that he described the second system of "repair" of cells after they were exposed to ultraviolet radiation.
Paul Modric (born 1946) was born in the United States (New Mexico). He discovered a way in which cells during cell division correct errors that appear in DNA during cell division.
So, we already know who received the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. It remains only to guess who will be awarded this award in the next, 2016. I would like to believe that in the near future, domestic scientists will stand out and new Nobel Prize in Chemistry from Russia will appear.