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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2021: Random Thoughts On....


 The Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year went to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan. Apparently, they independently discovered a new more efficient way of linking molecules to each other, creating new synthetic chemicals. 

The new way is called "asymmetric organocatalysis." It means -- well, I'm not very sure what it means.

A member of the chemistry Nobel committee explains why it has mattered.

"This new toolbox is used widely today, for example in drug discovery, and in fine chemicals production and is already benefitting humankind greatly." 

Drug discovery. Hmmm. Is this the Nobel Committee's indirect way of congratulating the researchers toiling in the field of Covid vaccine and treatment?

Another question comes to mind, concerning List. News reports say that he is "professor at and director of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research."

What a name? Max Planck was a subatomic physicist, wasn't he? Did he do any "coal research"? 

Those Germans and their complicated names...

I've pasted Max Planck's ominous visage above. .



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  1. Mr. Mark ThomasOctober 24, 2021 at 8:23 AM

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  2. HemantOctober 25, 2021 at 11:49 PM

    There are many educational institutions named after Max Planck. The pioneering geneticist/anthropologist Svaante Paabo (not the right spelling of his name, some of the 'a's in the name should have umlauts added) works in the Max Planck Institute of Human Origins (or some variant of that).

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