DOCSLIB.ORG

Economic Review 1, 2020

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Economic Review 1, 2020 Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review 2020:1 SVERIGES RIKSBANK SVERIGES RIKSBANK ECONOMIC REVIEW is issued by Sveriges Riksbank. Editors: MARIANNE NESSÉN AND ULF SÖDERSTRÖM Advisory editorial committee: MIKAEL APEL, HANNA ARMELIUS, DAVID KJELLBERG, DILAN ÖLCER, AND THE COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION Sveriges Riksbank, SE-103 37 Stockholm, Sweden Telephone +46 8 787 00 00 The opinions expressed in signed articles are the sole responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of Sveriges Riksbank. The Review is published on the Riksbank’s website www.riksbank.se/Economic-Review Order a link to download new issues of Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review by sending an e-mail to: [email protected] ISSN 2001-029X SVERIGES RIKSBANK ECONOMIC REVIEW 2020:1 3 Dear readers, This year’s first edition of Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review contains articles written before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe. In some cases, this is of little importance, in other cases the pandemic would probably have affected the content of the article. However, it is too early to draw any far-reaching conclusions regarding how the pandemic will affect the economy in the long run, and the questions the articles raise will probably be topical for some time to come. We therefore believe there is good reason to publish these well-written articles. We hope that our readers will agree with us. Below you will find short descriptions of the articles. • Global warming from an economic perspective Conny Olovsson describes how economic theory can be used to understand the interaction between people and the climate, why global political measures are necessary to counteract global warming and which political measures can be expected to function. The most important results of his reasoning are summarised into four brief insights. • 30 years of combating money laundering in Sweden and internationally – does the system function as intended? Markus Forsman describes how the regulatory framework for combating money laundering has developed over the years and how international agreement is reached in this context. After that, he describes in detail how the system for combating money laundering and terrorist financing functions in Sweden, and summarises how the effectiveness of the Swedish system has been assessed internationally. He concludes with a brief comment on the publicity in recent years regarding Danske Bank and Swedbank in particular. • The future isn’t what it used to be – perspectives on changes in the Swedish economy This article, written by Erik Frohm and Stefan Ingves, is a summary of discussions in recent years, both internally at the Riksbank and in various international contexts, on how structural changes affect the economy. The authors begin by describing the structural transformation in the Swedish economy from the 19th century to the middle of the 1990s. After that, they discuss developments in recent decades, with the focus on the effects of globalisation, digitalisation and the shift towards services accounting for a growing share of the economy. The article does not deal with the coronavirus pandemic, but its main conclusion – that it is important to have a good capacity to adapt to comprehensive changes in the economy – has become even more relevant today. • The new macroeconomic landscape after the global financial crisis Björn Andersson, Magnus Jonsson and Henrik Lundvall provide an overview of some of the various structural changes that have impacted the macroeconomic environment since the global financial crisis in 2007–2009: the weaker productivity growth, the lower long-term real interest rate, the growing debts among households and states and the weakened correlation between unemployment and the rate of wage increase. They discuss factors behind these changes and what significance the changes may have for the conditions for conducting monetary policy going forward. 4 SVERIGES RIKSBANK ECONOMIC REVIEW 2020:1 • What is driving the global trend towards lower real interest rates? In a separate article, Henrik Lundvall goes into more depth in the analysis of why real interest rates have shown a falling trend in many countries, a question that is particularly important with regard to monetary policy’s capacity to stabilise the economy. He reviews various structural explanations and examines which factors, according to the academic literature, can best explain why real interest rates have fallen. Read and enjoy! Marianne Nessén and Ulf Söderström SVERIGES RIKSBANK ECONOMIC REVIEW 2020:1 5 Contents Global warming from an economic perspective 6 Conny Olovsson 30 years of combating money laundering in Sweden and internationally – does the system function as intended? 24 Markus Forsman The future isn’t what it used to be – perspectives on changes in the Swedish economy 56 Erik Frohm and Stefan Ingves The new macroeconomic landscape after the global financial crisis 74 Björn Andersson, Magnus Jonsson and Henrik Lundvall What is driving the global trend towards lower real interest rates? 105 Henrik Lundvall 6 GLOBAL WARMING FROM AN ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE Global warming from an economic perspective Conny Olovsson* The author works in the Research Division of the Riksbank A global climate policy is necessary to reduce global warming sufficiently. With a smart and cost-efficient climate policy, it would not be expensive to limit increases in temperature to 2 degrees by the year 2100. Economists have important knowledge and tools in this area to evaluate which instruments that can be expected to be effective for this purpose. The most cost-efficient measure would be a carbon tax that is the same in every country. In addition, an ambitious climate policy would be a cheap form of insurance against future high and uncertain expenses, but only if it is cost-efficient. Otherwise, an ambitious policy would risk being very expensive and, in a worst-case scenario, also ineffective. The most important way of reducing warming is to reduce the use of coal. Measures that do not contribute to this will be ineffective. 1 Introduction In this article, I discuss how economic theory can be used to understand the interaction between human activity and the climate, why global political measures are necessary, and which political measures can be expected to be effective and which cannot. I formulate important results in a number of insights. An initial question may be what economists have to say about a scientific problem such as global warming. When you think about it, it is actually obvious that the greenhouse gases emitted by people are a result of economic activity – of consumption, production and investment – and are affected by factors such as technological development, economic growth, natural resources and institutions. All of these things are exactly what economists have been studying and attempting to understand for a very long time. But economists also study how economic instruments can counteract so-called market failures.1 The Stern Review from 2007 described global warming as the greatest market failure in history.2 To manage climate change, it is then necessary to make sure that house­ holds have economic incentives to take decisions that are less harmful to the climate and that companies have economic incentives to develop new technologies that can replace the need for fossil fuels. There is no shortage of suggestions in the general debate for how we should manage global warming. These include everything from taking shorter showers, stopping travelling or stopping having children to, investing in sustainable companies and subsidising green energy. But how effective are these suggestions in actually reducing global warming? An economic analysis is also valuable here to evaluate which measures are good and which are too expensive, ineffective or both. The proposals I discuss in this article include both policies such as taxes and the quantity regulation of carbon emissions, and measures such as subsidies for green energy, sustainable financing and green bonds. The conclusions and reasoning are based entirely on economic * I would like to thank Mikael Apel, Tor Jacobson, Marianne Nessén and Ulf Söderström. The interpretations in the essay are the author’s own and shall not be perceived as the views or stances of the Riksbank. 1 A market failure occurs when free markets cannot be expected to allocate resources in an efficient manner. 2 See Stern (2007), p. viii. SVERIGES RIKSBANK ECONOMIC REVIEW 2020:1 7 research. The article also builds further on and deepens some of the reasoning I previously expressed in Olovsson (2018). 2 The economy and the climate affect each other Before I start discussing various measures to reduce global warming, it is necessary to provide a short description of how the climate interacts with our economies. I have, however, kept this section brief, as several of these aspects are complex and could each be dealt with in its own paper. 2.1 The human impact on the climate The Earth’s temperature varies naturally for many reasons that are not connected with human behaviour. For example, the Earth’s orbit around the sun varies according to a cyclical pattern. There are also variations in the tilt of the Earth’s axis (known as Milankovitch cycles). These and other phenomena affect the Earth’s climate entirely without the help of people. However, humans can also affect the climate, among other means by releasing greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is the dominant greenhouse gas with a human source and is responsible for about 75 per cent of total emissions.3 Carbon dioxide is primarily emitted as a by­product from the burning of fossil fuels coal, oil and natural gas. How the greenhouse effect works For over 100 years, we have known that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affects the Earth’s energy budget, which is to say the difference between incoming energy – in the form of solar radiation – and outgoing energy – among other things, in the form of thermal radiation.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Metagenomics Approaches for the Detection and Surveillance of Emerging and Recurrent Plant Pathogens
    microorganisms Review Metagenomics Approaches for the Detection and Surveillance of Emerging and Recurrent Plant Pathogens Edoardo Piombo 1,2 , Ahmed Abdelfattah 3,4 , Samir Droby 5, Michael Wisniewski 6,7, Davide Spadaro 1,8,* and Leonardo Schena 9 1 Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA), University of Torino, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy; [email protected] 2 Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Uppsala Biocenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7026, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden 3 Institute of Environmental Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology, Petersgasse 12, 8010 Graz, Austria; [email protected] 4 Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, University of Stockholm, Svante Arrhenius väg 20A, 11418 Stockholm, Sweden 5 Department of Postharvest Science, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), The Volcani Center, Rishon LeZion 7505101, Israel; [email protected] 6 U.S. Department of Agriculture—Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Kearneysville, WV 25430, USA; [email protected] 7 Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Technical University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA 8 AGROINNOVA—Centre of Competence for the Innovation in the Agroenvironmental Sector, University of Torino, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy 9 Department of Agriculture, Università Mediterranea, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +39-0116708942 Abstract: Globalization has a dramatic effect on the trade and movement of seeds, fruits and vegeta- bles, with a corresponding increase in economic losses caused by the introduction of transboundary Citation: Piombo, E.; Abdelfattah, A.; plant pathogens. Current diagnostic techniques provide a useful and precise tool to enact surveillance Droby, S.; Wisniewski, M.; Spadaro, protocols regarding specific organisms, but this approach is strictly targeted, while metabarcoding D.; Schena, L.
    [Show full text]
  • Hunnic Warfare in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries C.E.: Archery and the Collapse of the Western Roman Empire
    HUNNIC WARFARE IN THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES C.E.: ARCHERY AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE A Thesis Submitted to the Committee of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science. TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada © Copyright by Laura E. Fyfe 2016 Anthropology M.A. Graduate Program January 2017 ABSTRACT Hunnic Warfare in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries C.E.: Archery and the Collapse of the Western Roman Empire Laura E. Fyfe The Huns are one of the most misunderstood and mythologized barbarian invaders encountered by the Roman Empire. They were described by their contemporaries as savage nomadic warriors with superior archery skills, and it is this image that has been written into the history of the fall of the Western Roman Empire and influenced studies of Late Antiquity through countless generations of scholarship. This study examines evidence of Hunnic archery, questions the acceptance and significance of the “Hunnic archer” image, and situates Hunnic archery within the context of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. To achieve a more accurate picture of the importance of archery in Hunnic warfare and society, this study undertakes a mortuary analysis of burial sites associated with the Huns in Europe, a tactical and logistical study of mounted archery and Late Roman and Hunnic military engagements, and an analysis of the primary and secondary literature. Keywords: Archer, Archery, Army, Arrow, Barbarian, Bow, Burial Assemblages, Byzantine, Collapse, Composite Bow, Frontier, Hun, Logistics, Migration Period, Roman, Roman Empire, Tactics, Weapons Graves ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Europe's Favorite Chemists?
    ability and on uncertainty evaluation of chemical mea- surement results. Participants can take this expertise back to their home countries and/or become regional coordinators for IMEP in their respective countries. In collaboration with EUROMET and CCQM, IMEP samples are offered for the organization of EUROMET key or supplementary comparisons and, where appro- priate, for the organization of CCQM key comparisons or pilot studies. In its role as a neutral, impartial international evalu- ation program, IMEP displays existing problems in chemical measurement. IRMM is dedicated to tackling this problem and will, where possible, collaborate with international bodies, education and accreditation au- thorities, and NMIs to achieve more reliable measure- ments and contribute to setting up an internationally structured measurement system. Ellen Poulsen (Denmark) preparing graphs for the IMEP-9 participants’ report on trace elements in water. Europe’s Favorite Chemists? Choosing Europe’s Top 100 Chemists: birth of Christ is quite forgotten in general. An addi- A Difficult Task tional irony lies in the fact that recent evidence from history, archaeology, and astronomy suggests a birthdate This article by Prof. Colin Russell (Department of His- about seven years earlier, so the real millennium came tory of Science and Technology, Open University, and went unnoticed in the early 1990s. However that Milton Keynes, England MK6 7AA, UK) was com- may be, the grand spirit of revelry and bonhomie can- missioned by Chemistry in Britain and published by not be quenched by such mundane considerations, and that magazine in Vol. 36, pp. 50–52, February 2000. celebration there shall be. Nor are societies to be left The list of Europe’s 100 distinguished chemists was behind in the general euphoria.
    [Show full text]
  • Molecular Transport and Reactivity in Confinement
    Molecular Transport and Reactivity in Confinement THU NGOC LE A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University College London Department of Chemical Engineering Primary Advisor: Professor Alberto Striolo December 2016 Declaration I, Thu Ngoc Le confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that they have been properly indicated in the thesis. 1 To my parents Phuong Le and Thu Do Kính tặng bố mẹ vì tình yêu thương vô bờ dành cho con 2 Acknowledgements It is my genuine pleasure to express my deepest thanks and gratitude to my advisor Professor Alberto Striolo, whose expertise, support and guidance have helped me tremendously in completing my PhD study. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Professor Heath Turner from University of Alabama for his generosity, kindness and encouragement on the most difficult topic of my study. I would like to give immense appreciation to Dr. Paul Ashby from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Professor Roy Penny from University of Arkansas for teaching me, not only valuable academic knowledge, but also how to be a better person. Thank you for having much faith in me. This thesis is especially dedicated to my Father and Mother, who have always been my inexorable stronghold. Being brought to the world as your daughter is the upmost divine blessing I could ever ask for in this life. To my sisters Han Le and Tran Le, I am thankful for being my upright idols, my greatest supports, and my best friends.
    [Show full text]
  • ARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE Opened up the Science of Radioactivity
    ARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE opened up the science of radioactivity. She is best known as the discoverer of the radioactive elements polonium and radium and as the first person to win two Nobel prizes. For scientists and the public, her radium was a key to a basic change in our understanding of matter and energy. Her work not only influenced the development of fundamental science but also ushered in a new era in medical research and treatment. This file contains most of the text of the Web exhibit “Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity” at http://www.aip.org/history/curie/contents.htm. You must visit the Web exhibit to explore hyperlinks within the exhibit and to other exhibits. Material in this document is copyright © American Institute of Physics and Naomi Pasachoff and is based on the book Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity by Naomi Pasachoff, Oxford University Press, copyright © 1996 by Naomi Pasachoff. Site created 2000, revised May 2005 http://www.aip.org/history/curie/contents.htm Page 1 of 79 Table of Contents Polish Girlhood (1867-1891) 3 Nation and Family 3 The Floating University 6 The Governess 6 The Periodic Table of Elements 10 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907) 10 Elements and Their Properties 10 Classifying the Elements 12 A Student in Paris (1891-1897) 13 Years of Study 13 Love and Marriage 15 Working Wife and Mother 18 Work and Family 20 Pierre Curie (1859-1906) 21 Radioactivity: The Unstable Nucleus and its Uses 23 Uses of Radioactivity 25 Radium and Radioactivity 26 On a New, Strongly Radio-active Substance
    [Show full text]
  • Wilhelm Ostwald – the Scientist
    ARTICLE-IN-A-BOX Wilhelm Ostwald – The Scientist Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald was born on September 2, 1853 at Riga, Latvia, Russia to Gottfried Ostwald, a master cooper and Elisabeth Leuckel. He was the second son to his parents who both were descended from German immigrants. He had his early education at Riga. His subsequent education was at the University of Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) where he enrolled in 1872. At the university he studied chemistry under the tutelage of Carl ErnstHeinrich Schmidt (1822– 1894) who again was a pupil of Justus von Liebig. Besides Schmidt, Johannes Lemberg (1842– 1902) and Arthur von Oettingen (1836–1920) who were his teachers in physical chemistry were also principal influences. It was in 1877 that he defended his thesis ‘Volumchemische Studien über Affinität’. Subsequently he taught as Privatdozent for a couple of years. During this period, his personal life saw some changes as well. He wedded Helene von Reyher (1854–1946) in 1880. With Helene, he had three sons, and two daughters. Amongst his children, Wolfgang went on to become a famous colloid chemist. On the strength of recommendation from Dorpat, Ostwald was appointed as a Professor at Riga Polytechnicum in 1882. He worked on multiple applications of the law of mass action. He also conducted measurements in chemical reaction kinetics as well as conductivity of solutions. To this end, the pyknometer was developed which was used to determine the density of liquids. He also had a thermostat built and both of these were named after him. He was prolific in his teaching and research which helped establish a school of science at the university.
    [Show full text]
  • Jordanes and the Invention of Roman-Gothic History Dissertation
    Empire of Hope and Tragedy: Jordanes and the Invention of Roman-Gothic History Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Brian Swain Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Timothy Gregory, Co-advisor Anthony Kaldellis Kristina Sessa, Co-advisor Copyright by Brian Swain 2014 Abstract This dissertation explores the intersection of political and ethnic conflict during the emperor Justinian’s wars of reconquest through the figure and texts of Jordanes, the earliest barbarian voice to survive antiquity. Jordanes was ethnically Gothic - and yet he also claimed a Roman identity. Writing from Constantinople in 551, he penned two Latin histories on the Gothic and Roman pasts respectively. Crucially, Jordanes wrote while Goths and Romans clashed in the imperial war to reclaim the Italian homeland that had been under Gothic rule since 493. That a Roman Goth wrote about Goths while Rome was at war with Goths is significant and has no analogue in the ancient record. I argue that it was precisely this conflict which prompted Jordanes’ historical inquiry. Jordanes, though, has long been considered a mere copyist, and seldom treated as an historian with ideas of his own. And the few scholars who have treated Jordanes as an original author have dampened the significance of his Gothicness by arguing that barbarian ethnicities were evanescent and subsumed by the gravity of a Roman political identity. They hold that Jordanes was simply a Roman who can tell us only about Roman things, and supported the Roman emperor in his war against the Goths.
    [Show full text]
  • Arctic Samples
    ch08_4569.qxd 8/29/06 3:31 PM Page 223 CHAPTER 8 Global Climate Change and Human Agency Inadvertent Influence and “Archimedean” Interventions J AMES R ODGER F LEMING Wallace Broecker has referred to the global climate sytem as a “massive staggering beast.” To emphasize rapid climate changes, Richard Alley added the adjective “drunken.” When I introduced Richard’s lecture at Colby last year (2005), I noted that it was not wise to anger such a beast, yet this is just what we were doing with anthropogenic emissions, which were, in effect, our sticks to prod the beast. Since then (2006), I have become interested in longer sticks, Archimedean levers to “tip” the climate system in supposedly favorable directions though geoengineering. But what would be the consequences of such intervention? TIPPING POINTS: PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL At the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco in December 2005, climate scientist James Hansen of NASA warned that the Earth’s cli- mate was nearing an unprecedented “tipping point”—a point of no return 223 ch08_4569.qxd 8/29/06 3:31 PM Page 224 INTIMATE UNIVERSALITY that could only be avoided if the “growth of greenhouse gas emissions is slowed” in the next two decades: The Earth’s climate is nearing, but has not passed, a tipping point beyond which it will be impossible to avoid climate change with far- ranging undesirable consequences. These include not only the loss of the Arctic as we know it, with all that implies for wildlife and in- digenous peoples, but losses on a much vaster scale due to rising seas ...
    [Show full text]
  • Theoretical Medicine's Special Issue on the Nobel Prizes and Their Effect
    Current CXmwn43rM@ EUGENE GARFIELD INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC INFORMATIONCP 3S41 MARKET ST., PHIL40ELPHIA, PA 19104 Theoretical Medicine’s Special Issue on the Nobel Prizes and Their Effect on Science Number 37 September 14, 1992 h the last two issues of Current Contents@ (CC @),we reptited an article by myself and my scientificassistan~Al&d Welljams-llorof, on “Of Nobel Class: A CitationPerspectiveon High Impact Research Authors.’’2.2The essay that follows focuses on the articles in the spe- cial June issue of llieoretical Mediciw+ in which our article appeared. The special issue, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in The Netherlands,is devoted entirely to paptm coneeming the factors infhreneing the selec- tion of Nobel prize winners, or with the effect of the awards on scienee. An abridged version of the introduction to the issue follows. It has been specially prepared for CC by B. Ingemar B. Lindahl, the journal editor. He rdso edhed the special issue. We’ve also included abstracts and au- thor affiliations for the papers appearing in B. lngemar B. Lindahl the issue, other than our own, in the table. I was pleased to learn from Lindahl that can be tracked over time, showing the criti- earlier citation studies published in CC, es- cal point in the path of discovery.7,s But pecially those forecasting Nobel prize win- even these do not include necessarily the ners, were the prime source of inspiration identification of important qualitative links. for this speeiai issue. He parrictdarly referred As Llndahl points out below, the five ar- to an early paper Ofmine in Nature,5 which ticles in this special issue of Theoretical discussed the use of citation indexing for Medicine highlight the interaction between historical research.
    [Show full text]
  • Wittenberg History Journal Spring 2016
    Wittenberg History Journal Spring 2016 Unexpected Tensions: Social Conflict from the Viking Age to World War II Wittenberg History Journal Spring 2016 Unexpected Tensions: Social Conflict from the Viking Age to World War II Wittenberg History Journal Contents Spring 2016 | Volume XLV Hartje Award Winner 1 Half-Peace: The Successes and Failures of the Peace Process Unexpected Tensions: Social Conflict from the Viking Age to World War II in Northern Ireland Wittenberg University Springfield, Ohio Keri Heath 2016 Editorial Board I. Renaissance Reversed: Social Conflicts Senior Editors in Florence Keri Heath ‘16 Kaitlyn Vazquez ‘16 5 The Tensions Hidden Beneath Religious Festivities and Carnivals: A Social Analysis of Public Celebrations in Renaissance Florence Junior Editors Kristen Brady Kristen Brady ‘17 Vivian Overholt ‘17 Gil Rutledge ‘17 11 From the Bottom Up: Influence on the Upper Class by the Faculty Advisor Florentine Underground in the Renaissance Joshua Paddison Keri Heath Wittenberg History Journal is affiliated with the Gamma Zeta chapter of Phi Alpha Theta. 17 The Ospedale Degli Innocente: A Microhistory The Hartje Paper Hannah Hunt The Martha and Robert G. Hartje Award is presented annually to a senior in the spring semester. The History Department determines the three or four finalists who then write a 600 to 800 word narrative II. Forgotten Stories: Cartoonists and Kings essay on an historical event or figure. The finalists must have at least a 2.7 grade point average and 26 Kings at Sea: Examining a Forgotten Way of Life have completed at least six history courses. The winner is awarded $500 at a spring semester History Department colloquium and the winner paper is included in the History Journal.
    [Show full text]
  • By Brendan Gibbons, Pages 4-A and 5-A
    Page 4A — TUESDAY, July 16, 2013 COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN TUESDAY, July 16, 2013 — Page 5A LIFE & LEGACY OF HERMAN SCHLUNDT your firm to the best of my ability.” ratory of Marie Curie, who won a Nobel Prize in New York about 1931 to test two women who had This kind of arrangement seems to have been physics and chemistry for her work on radioac- worked at the Radium Corp. factory in the late against the chemistry department’s rules at the tivity. Curie wrote a thank you letter to Schlundt 1910s, and he published a report of his work there. time. A set of university policies the department through Miner. “The two girls, who after a lapse of nearly 12 recommended to the university’s executive boards “I will soon receive the preparation of Radiotho- years, are still radioactive, present cases of more in 1916 forbade faculty from using university rium, which Mr. Pr. Schlundt offered to prepare in than passing interest, inasmuch as they stand as Schlundt risked health for research laboratories, equipment or materials for commer- his laboratory,” Curie wrote to Miner in French. striking examples of the tolerance of living per- cial activities without the consent of the dean or “I would ask you to thank Mr. Pr. Schlundt on my sons for radium,” he wrote. SCHLUNDT from page 1A The company made mantles for gas lanterns, a department chair. behalf.” crucial item before the rise of electricity. Miner It could have helped that Schlundt was chair Curie’s letter came in 1930 and marks the height Declining health was one of the chemists who perfected the use of of the chemistry department from 1910 until of Schlundt’s prominence in his field.
    [Show full text]
  • Angwcheminted, 2000, 39, 2587-2631.Pdf
    REVIEWS Femtochemistry: Atomic-Scale Dynamics of the Chemical Bond Using Ultrafast Lasers (Nobel Lecture)** Ahmed H. Zewail* Over many millennia, humankind has biological changes. For molecular dy- condensed phases, as well as in bio- thought to explore phenomena on an namics, achieving this atomic-scale res- logical systems such as proteins and ever shorter time scale. In this race olution using ultrafast lasers as strobes DNA structures. It also offers new against time, femtosecond resolution is a triumph, just as X-ray and electron possibilities for the control of reactivity (1fs 10À15 s) is the ultimate achieve- diffraction, and, more recently, STM and for structural femtochemistry and ment for studies of the fundamental and NMR spectroscopy, provided that femtobiology. This anthology gives an dynamics of the chemical bond. Ob- resolution for static molecular struc- overview of the development of the servation of the very act that brings tures. On the femtosecond time scale, field from a personal perspective, en- about chemistryÐthe making and matter wave packets (particle-type) compassing our research at Caltech breaking of bonds on their actual time can be created and their coherent and focusing on the evolution of tech- and length scalesÐis the wellspring of evolution as a single-molecule trajec- niques, concepts, and new discoveries. the field of femtochemistry, which is tory can be observed. The field began the study of molecular motions in the with simple systems of a few atoms and Keywords: femtobiology ´ femto- hitherto unobserved ephemeral transi- has reached the realm of the very chemistry ´ Nobel lecture ´ physical tion states of physical, chemical, and complex in isolated, mesoscopic, and chemistry ´ transition states 1.
    [Show full text]