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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Dátum pridania: | 21.08.2007 | Oznámkuj: | 12345 |
Autor referátu: | holdenko | ||
Jazyk: | Počet slov: | 10 788 | |
Referát vhodný pre: | Gymnázium | Počet A4: | 37.9 |
Priemerná známka: | 2.95 | Rýchle čítanie: | 63m 10s |
Pomalé čítanie: | 94m 45s |
3.13 Applied Chemistry
A few Nobel Prizes for Chemistry have recognized contributions outside the conventional basic chemical fields. The prize in 1931 went to Carl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius , both from Heidelberg, "for the invention and development of chemical high pressure methods". Bosch had modified Haber's method for ammonia synthesis (see Section 3.6) to make it suitable for large-scale industrial use. Bergius used high-pressure methods to prepare oil by the hydrogenation of coal, and Bosch, like Bergius working at the large concern I. G. Farben, later improved the procedure by finding a good catalyst for the Bergius process.
Work in agricultural and nutritional chemistry led to the award of Artturi Ilmari Virtanen from Helsinki in 1945. The citation particularly stressed his development of the AIV method, so named after the inventor's initials. Virtanen had first carried out biochemical studies of nitrogen fixation by plants with the aim of producing protein-rich crops. He then found that the fodder could be preserved with the aid of a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acid (AIV acid).
Finally, basic work in atmospheric and environmental chemistry was recognized in 1995 with the prize to Paul Crutzen, from the Netherlands, working at Stockholm University and later at the Max-Planck-Institute in Mainz, Mario Molina of MIT and F. Sherwood Rowland of UC, Irvine. These three investigators have studied in detail the chemical processes leading to the formation and decomposition of ozone in the atmosphere. In particular, they have shown that the atmospheric ozone layer is very sensitive to emission chemicals produced by human activity, and these discoveries have led to international legislation.
4. Concluding Remarks
The first hundred years of Nobel Prizes for Chemistry give a beautiful picture of the development of modern chemistry. The prizes cover the whole spectrum of the basic chemical sciences, from theoretical chemistry to biochemistry, and also a number of contributions to applied chemistry. From a quantitative point of view, organic chemistry dominates with no less than 25 awards. This is not surprising, since the special valence properties of carbon result in an almost infinite variation in the structure of organic compounds. Also, a large number of the prizes in organic chemistry were given for investigations of the chemistry of natural products of increasing complexity and thus are on the border to biochemistry.
As many as 11 prizes have been awarded for biochemical discoveries. Even if the first biochemical prize was already given in 1907 (Buchner), only three awards in this area came in the first half of the century, illustrating the explosive growth of biochemistry in recent decades (8 prizes in 1970-1997). At the other end of the chemical spectrum, physical chemistry, including chemical thermodynamics and kinetics, dominates with 14 prizes, but there has also been 6 prizes in theoretical chemistry. Chemical structure is another large area with 8 prizes, including awards for methodological developments as well as for the determination of the structure of large biological molecules or molecular complexes. Industrial chemistry was first recognized in 1931 (Bergius, Bosch), but many more recent prizes for basic contributions lie close to industrial applications, for example, those in polymer chemistry.
Science is a truly international undertaking, but the western dominance of the Nobel scene is striking. No less than 49 scientists in the United States have received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, but the majority have been given the prize after World War II. The first US prize was awarded in 1915 (for 1914, Richards), and only two more Americans got the prize before 1946 (Langmuir in 1932, Urey in 1934). German chemists form the second most awarded group with 26 Laureates, but 14 of these received the prize before 1945. Of the 25 British investigators recognized, on the other hand, no less than 19 got the prize in the second half of the century. France has 7 Laureates in chemistry, Sweden and Switzerland 5 each, and the Netherlands and Canada 3. One prize winner each is found in the following countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway and Russia.
Extrapolating the trend of the 20th century Nobel Prizes for Chemistry, it is expected that in the 21st century theoretical and computational chemistry will flourish with the aid of the expansion of computer technology. The study of biological systems may become more dominant and move from individual macromolecules to large interactive systems, for example, in chemical signaling and in neural function, including the brain. And it is to be hoped that the next century will witness a wider national distribution of Laureates.
5. References
Zdroje: Westgren, A., Nobel – The Man and His Prizes, ed. Odelberg, W. (Elsevier, New York, 1972), pp. 279-385., Kormos Barkan, D., Walther Nernst and the Transition in Modern Physical Science, (Cambridge University Press, 1999)., Rife, P., Lise Meitner and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, (Birkhäuser, 1999).