MODULE 32 NOBEL PRIZES LEARNING OBJECTIVES Nobel Prize Brief outline of the pioneering work by eminent scientists 32.1 INTRODUCTION Nobel prize is the annual international award to honour the eminent persons in academic, cultural and /or social activities. Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel established the prizes in the year 1895 and the first prizes were awarded in the year 1901 in various categories,Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physiology of Medicine 32.2 Nobel Prize winners 1901 Physics - W. C. Roentgen - Discovery of X-rays X-rays were accidentally discovered by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a German Physicist, on 8th November 1895 when he was working with cathode ray tube. He explored various properties of X-rays when it interacts with matter. He also contributed to the study of modification of the planes of polarized light by electromagnetic influences, of thermal conductivity of crystals and worked out on the influence of pressure on the refractive indices of various fluids. 1914 Physics - Diffraction of X-rays by crystals - M. Von Laue Max Theodor Felix von Laue was greatly excited by Einstein's theory of relativity and published papers on the application of this theory. His major contribution is the discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals, which was an evidence for the fact that X-rays are electromagnetic in nature. His research was also in other areas like optics, quantum theory, superconductivity and theory of relatively. 1915 Physics - Use of X-rays to determine crystal structure - W. H. Bragg and W. L. Bragg William Henry Bragg's work majorly concerned with the “Theory of the Ionization of Gases” and Ionization Curves of Radium”. He is the inventor of X-ray spectrometer to examine the diffraction of X-rays from crystals. William Lawrence Bragg, son of W.H. Bragg derived a relationship between the wavelength of X-rays, inter-planar spacing and he angle of diffraction. Nobel prize was awarded jointly to father and son for their contribution in the field of X-ray diffraction. 1917 Physics - Discovery of the characteristic Roentgen radiation of the elements - C. G. Barkla In 1909, characteristic X-rays were discovered by Charles Glover Barkla. He was the first to show that secondary emission is of two kinds, one consisting of X-rays scattered unchanged and the other a fluorescent radiation characteristic to the particular substance. He received Nobel prize in 1917 for the invention of secondary X-rays. He had shown both the applicability and the limitation of the quantum theory in relation to Röntgen radiation. 1929 Physics - The wave nature of the electron - L.-V. de Broglie Prince Louis-Victor de Broglie received Nobel prize for the discovery of wave nature of electron particle. He discovered a series of important findings on quantum theory in his doctoral thesis which later served as a basis for developing “wave mechanics”. He also worked on Dirac's electron theory and the general theory of spin particles and the applications of wave mechanics to nuclear physics, etc.UNESCO awarded him the first Kallinga award in 1952, for the efforts he took to explain the phenomenon of modern physics to the layman. 1936 Chemistry - For the contributions towards understanding molecular structure through his investigations on dipole moments and on the diffraction of X-rays and electrons in gases - P. J. W. Debye Peter Joseph William Debye, physical chemist, contributed enormously in the investigations of dipole moments, X-rays and light scattering in gases. His major work was on understanding the dipole moments to determine the degree of polarity of covalent bonds and to determine bond angles. The spatial configuration of molecules, say for example, the planarity of the benzene ring was confirmed by the measurements of dipole moments. He utilized the concept of dipole moment to understand the charge distribution in asymmetric molecules. He also analyzed the effect of temperature on X-ray diffraction patters of crystalline solids which is generally termed as Debye - Waller factor. 1937 Physics - Diffraction of electrons by crystals - C. J. Davisson and G. Thompson Clinton Joseph Davisson and George Paget Thompson shared the prize in Physics in the year 1937 for their experimental discovery of the interference phenomena arising when crystals are exposed to electronic beams. Davisson performed experiments on the diffraction of electrons form the surface of a solid crystal. Thompson carried out experiments on the behaviour of electrons going through very thin films of metals, which showed that electrons behave as waves in spite of being particles. 1946 Chemistry - For his discovery that enzymes can be crystallised - J. B. Sumner His ambitious idea to isolate an enzyme in pure form in this case urease, against the doubt on many of his colleagues and became successful. He was the first to crystallize an enzyme. Sumner had devised a general crystallization method for enzymes. 1954 Chemistry - For his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances - L. C. Pauling He suggested, and attempted to carry out, an experiment on the orientation of iron atoms by a magnetic field, through the electrolytic deposition of a layer of iron in a strong magnetic field Nature of chemical bond. His contribution also concerns with the application of quantum mechanics to physical and chemical problems, including dielectric constants, X-ray doublets, momentum distribution of electrons in atoms, rotational motion of molecules in crystals, Van der Waals forces. Determination of structure of proteins, especially the nature of 1962 Physiology or Medicinealpha - The helix helical structure of DNA - F. Crick, J. Watson and M. Wilkins The Nobel Prize was awarded jointly to Francis Harry Compton Crick, James Dewey Watson and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material. The formulation of double helical structure of the DNA with specific pairing of the organic bases, opened the most spectacular possibilities for the unravelling of the details of the control and transfer of genetic information. 1962 Chemistry - For their studies of the structures of globular proteins - J. C. Kendrew and M. Perutz Kendrew produced a low-resolution 6 Å structure of myoglobin in the year 1957 and the high-resolution 2 Å structure in 1959. Perutz completed a low-resolution 5.5 Å map of hemoglobin that same year and a high-resolution 2.8 Å map in 1968. In recognition of what they had accomplished, Perutz and Kendrew shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962. 1964 Chemistry - Structure of many biochemical substances including Vitamin B12 - Structure of many biochemical substances including Vitamin B12 - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin She received nobel prize for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances. She has solved the structures of pencillin and Vitamin B12 among others. Her pioneering work helped unravel the structures of proteins, including insulin, which she studied for more than 30 years. 1972 Chemistry - Folding of protein chains - Christian B. Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, William H. Stein Anfinsen proposed that the information determining the tertiary structure of a protein resides in the chemistry of its amino acid sequence and also for his work on ribonuclease. One half of the prize was shared by Anfinsen and other half was equally shared by Moore and Stein for their contribution to of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule. 1976 Chemistry - Structure of boranes - W. N. Lipscomb William N Lipscomb was awarded Nobel prize for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bondin. He has studied the pure electrically neutral borane molecules and also investigated charged borane molecules and other molecules closely related to the boranes. He has also contributed notably in the studies of the structure and mechanism of enzymes. 1982 Chemistry - Development of crystallographic electron microscopy and discovery of the structure of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes - A. Klug The method developed by Klug is based on an ingenious combination of electron microscopy with principles from direct methods which allows electron microscope pictures of high quality to be obtained with very low radiation doses and without the use of heavy metal stains. He has also shown that the three-dimensional reconstruction of the object can be obtained by collecting the images / pictures in several different directions of projection. His method made it possible to determine structures at high resolution of functionally important molecular aggregates. 1985 Chemistry - Development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures - H. Hauptman and J. Karle Nobel prize was jointly awarded to Hauptman and Karle in the year 1985 for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures. Direct methods are used to directly solve the phase problem by the use of phase relationships based on the observed intensities. Herbert Hauptman was the first mathematician to receive the Nobel Prize but in the field of chemistry. 1988 Chemistry - For the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre - J. Deisenhofer, R. Huber and H. Michel They unraveled the full details of how a membrane-bound protein is built up, revealing the structure of the molecule atom by atom.Hartmut Michel succeeded in crystallizing the membrane bound protein and the structure was determined by Deisenhofer and Huber which clearly illustrated the reaction centre in a membrane in a photosynthetic bacterium. 1991 Physics - Methods of discovering order in simple systems can be applied to polymers and liquid crystals - P.-G. de Gennes Pierre-Gilles de Gennes has received the prize for his pioneering work on lliquid crystals and polymers.