Chemistry
Adolf von Baeyer – Biographical
Biographical
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer was born on October 31, 1835, in Berlin, as the son of Johann Jakob Baeyer and Eugenie née Hitzig. He came from a family distinguished both in literature and the natural sciences. His father, a lieutenant-general, was the originator of the European system of geodetic measurement. Even as a…
morePaul Karrer – Biographical
Biographical
Paul Karrer was born in Moscow on April 21, 1889. His parents, Paul Karrer and Julie Lerch, were Swiss nationals and in 1892 the family returned to Switzerland where he received his early education at Wildegg and at the grammar school in Lenzburg, Aarau, where he matriculated in 1908. He studied chemistry at University of…
moreGiulio Natta – Biographical
Biographical
Giulio Natta was born at Imperia on February 26, 1903. He graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan in 1924 and passed the examinations entitling him to teach there in 1927. In 1933 he was established on the staff of Pavia University as a full professor and at the same time was appointed…
morePress release
Press release
11 October 1977 has decided to award the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Professor Ilya Prigogine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures ORDER FROM DISORDER LED TO NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY Thermodynamics is a central branch of modern science, and its general laws…
moreAward ceremony speech
Award ceremony speech
Presentation Speech by Professor Ingvar Lindqvist of the Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, Throughout history, there has been a tendency for people to take a stereotyped view of their fellow men in other occupations or with different backgrounds. I think that we all would agree that these stereotypes are harmful, and yet…
moreSpeed read: Bringing Chemistry to Biology
Speed read
The second Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Emil Fischer, who showed how establishing key relationships in biology can be a matter of finding the right chemistry. Fischer showed how piecing together intricate chemical details about substances in Nature that are essential for life can reveal vital information about their functions and uncover unexpected…
moreOrganic synthesis – science and art
The history of organic synthesis starts with the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler who, in 1828, succeeded to make urea from simple materials. This was the first time when organic (=living) matter was produced from inorganic (=dead) matter. This was not believed to be possible, at the time. By the end of the nineteenth century…
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