Archive for the 'Awards' Category

Very early tomorrow morning, some lucky biologist will receive a call that he’s won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Just kidding—it will probably be a medical doctor or a physicist.

When Roger Kornberg won the Nobel last year for transcription crystallography, a stink erupted not over whether his work was worthy of recognition, but whether it was chemistry.  But that’s old news. The big story this week is this year’s Nobel, and I know that the person who still reads this blog daily despite the fact that it’s never updated is interested in hearing revised odds for tomorrow’s winner.

I’m kind of torn about my final pick. On one hand, I’m thinking about adopting the same approach I used pre-2005 when I guessed that metathesis would win every year. My new perennial guess would be GFP/fluorescent probes, because I’m still of the opinion that these guys absolutely deserve to win it. It’s less a question of “if” and more a question of “when”—GFP and similar probes are ubiquitous in research nowadays.

On the other hand, given the stink made in the media over biology getting shoe-horned into the chemistry prize last year, I think the Swedes might feel some pressure to pick a pure chemist this year (Palladium couplings, anyone?). As Excimer points out, the stars might be aligned for the more physical achievements this time around due to the composition of the Nobel committee. That, plus the fact that the last two prizes have been organic and biological, means that this year’s prize stands a good chance of having some element of physical flavor, which GFP has none of.

So, in a nutshell, just about anyone could win the Nobel this year. My pick is GFP, but I expect to be surprised.

Now, back to the odds. I’ve revised them a little bit from earlier this year, thanks to reader input and personal changes of heart. Remember that these numbers address the question of who will win the Prize, not who should win it. As always, feel free to share your criticism in the comments. Also, my judgment is very probably impaired due to the fact that I’ve been inhaling a large quantity of thiols over the past several months.  Forgive me.

The Field (everything not listed below), 3-1
Molecular Studies of Gene Recognition, Ptashne, 15-1
Nuclear Hormone Signaling, Chambon/Evans/Jensen, 15-1
Fluorescent Probes/GFP, Tsien/Prasher/Shimomura, 15-1
Modern Surface Chemistry, Somorjai/Ertl/Whitesides/Nuzzo/+/–, 15-1
Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Cross-Couplings, Suzuki/Heck/Sonogashira/Tsuji/+/–, 17-1
Instrumentation/Techniques in Genomics, Venter/+, 19-1
Biological Membrane Vesicles, Rothman/Schekman/+, 19-1
Techniques in DNA Synthesis, Caruthers/Hood/+, 19-1
Molecular Structure of the Ribosome, Steitz/Moore/Yonath/+/–, 29-1
Telomeres & Telomerases, Blackburn/Greider/Szostak, 29-1
Application of Lasers to the Study of Chemical Reactions, Zare, 39-1
Bioinorganic Chemistry, Lippard/Holm/Gray/+/–, 39-1
Mechanistic Enzymology, Walsh/Knowles/Abeles, 49-1
Combinatorial Chemistry/DOS, Schreiber/+, 49-1
Pigments of Life, Battersby/+, 49-1
Global Warming, Thatcher/Gore, 99-1
Development of the Birth Control Pill, Djerassi, 99-1
Development of Chemical Biology, Schultz/Schreiber/+, 99-1
Molecular Modeling and Assorted Applications, Karplus/Houk/Schleyer/+/–, 99-1
Contributions to Organic Synthesis, Evans/Danishefsky/Nicolaou/Ley/Trost/Stork/Wender/Kishi/Overman/+/–, 149-1
Fluorocarbons, Dupont/Curran/–, 199-1
Dendrimers, Frechet/Tomalia/+, 199-1
Application of NMR to Organic Chemistry, Roberts, 199-1
Understanding of Organic Stereochemistry, Mislow, 199-1
Mechanical Bonds and Applications, Sauvage/Stoddart/+, 199-1
Self-Assembly Whitesides/Nuzzo/Stang/+/–, 199-1
Nobel Gas Reactivity, Bartlett/+, 199-1
Tissue Engineering, Langer/+, 199-1
Contributions to Bioorganic Chemistry, Breslow/Eschenmoser/+, 199-1
Molecular Recognition, Dervan/+, 399-1
Development of Nanotechnology, Lieber/Whitesides/Alivisatos/Seeman/+/–, 399-1
Astrochemistry, Oka, 399-1
Zeolites, Flanigan, 399-1
Molecular Machines, Stoddart/Tour/+/–, 499-1
Studies in the Origin of Life, Miller/Orgel/+/–, 99999-1

Past Awards & the “Pre-Nobels”
Past Nobel Prizes in Chemistry
Lasker Award for Basic Research
Wolf Prize in Chemistry
Welch Award in Chemistry
Kyoto Prize
Von Hippel Award
Science Magazine’s Breakthroughs of the Year

Stories
The History of GFP
History of Pd-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions
History of Telomeres and Telomerases
A Really Biased History of the Global Warming Issue
History of Noble Gas Compounds

Buzz in the Blogosphere
ChemBark: 2007-1
Derek Lowe, In the Pipeline: 2005, 2006, 2007
Sceptical Chymist: 2006
Curious Wavefunction: 2006, 2007
Endless Frontier: 2006-1, 2006-2, 2006-3
Carbon-Based Curiosities: 2007
The Chem Blog: 2007

• The ACS announced this week that Gabor Somorjai is the 2008 Priestley Medalist. The award is well deserved, but I was kind of surprised to see two surface scientists get it back-to-back. Since this year’s Nobel Committee for Chemistry seems stacked towards the physical side of the field, will 2007 be the year the surface crowd hits paydirt?
• .
• The Class of 2007 graduated from Harvard this week and left its report card for each “concentration” (that’s Hahvahd speak for “major”). The CCB department had a poor showing: Chemistry placed in the bottom half of the table with 3.69/5.00 (20th of 31) and Biochemical Sciences fared even worse (3.27, 27th). Earth and Planetary Sciences (5.00) earned a spot in the Champions’ League by topping the table, while Biology (3.06) finished dead last and faces relegation.
• .
• Dr. Free-Ride (who was extensively quoted in a recent issue of C&EN) at Adventures in Ethics and Science has an interesting pair of posts about the consequences of graduate students’ blowing the whistle on fraudulent research. Post #1 is based on a news story in Science about probable scientific misconduct by a geneticist at Wisconsin. Post #2 is Dr. Free-Ride’s analysis of the current system. Both posts are good reads—read post #2 even if you don’t give a lick about scientific misconduct.

I know you’ve all been asking yourselves, “Who’s going to win the next Nobel Prize in Chemistry?”

Well, bookmakers at the fabulous ChemBark Hotel & Casino have been hard at work revising last year’s odds. The new line is presented below, and the first thing you’ll notice is that more than a few biological achievements have crept into the mix.

Remember that these numbers address the question of who will win the Prize, not who should win it. As always, feel free to share your criticism in the comments. The odds may change as the event draws closer.

The Field (everything not listed below), 3-1
Molecular Studies of Gene Recognition, Ptashne, 15-1
Nuclear Hormone Signaling, Chambon/Evans/Jensen, 15-1
Fluorescent Probes/GFP, Tsien/+, 17-1
Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Cross-Couplings, Suzuki/Heck/Sonogashira/+/–, 17-1
Instrumentation/Techniques in Genomics, Venter/+, 19-1
Self-Assembled Monolayers, Whitesides/Nuzzo/+, 19-1
Biological Membrane Vesicles, Rothman/Schekman/+, 19-1
Techniques in DNA Synthesis, Caruthers/Hood/+, 19-1
Modern Surface Chemistry, Somorjai, 29-1
Molecular Structure of the Ribosome, Steitz/Moore/Yonath/+/–, 29-1
Telomeres & Telomerases, Blackburn/Greider/Szostak, 29-1
Application of Lasers to the Study of Chemical Reactions, Zare, 39-1
Bioinorganic Chemistry, Lippard/Holm/Gray/+/–, 39-1
Mechanistic Enzymology, Walsh/Knowles, 49-1
Fluorocarbons, DuPont/Curran/–, 49-1
Combinatorial Chemistry/DOS, Schreiber/+, 49-1
Pigments of Life, Battersby/+, 49-1
Global Warming, Thatcher/Gore, 99-1
Dendrimers, Frechet/Tomalia/+, 99-1
Development of the Birth Control Pill, Djerassi, 99-1
Development of Chemical Biology, Schultz/Schreiber/+, 99-1
Molecular Modeling and Assorted Applications, Karplus/Houk/Schleyer/+/–, 99-1
Contributions to Organic Synthesis, Danishefsky/Nicolaou/Evans/Ley/Trost/Stork/Wender/Kishi/+/–, 199-1
Application of NMR to Organic Chemistry, Roberts, 199-1
Understanding of Organic Stereochemistry, Mislow, 199-1
Mechanical Bonds and Applications, Sauvage/Stoddart/+, 199-1
Nobel Gas Reactivity, Bartlett/+, 199-1
Molecular Recognition, Dervan/+, 399-1
Contributions to Bioorganic Chemistry, Westheimer/Breslow/+, 399-1
Development of Nanotechnology, Lieber/Whitesides/Alivisatos/Seeman/+/–, 399-1
Molecular Machines, Stoddart/Tour/+/–, 499-1
Studies in the Origin of Life, Miller/Orgel/+/–, 99999-1

Past Awards & the “Pre-Nobels”
Past Nobel Prizes in Chemistry
Lasker Award for Basic Research
Wolf Prize in Chemistry
Welch Award in Chemistry
Kyoto Prize
Von Hippel Award
Science Magazine’s Breakthroughs of the Year

Stories
The History of GFP
A Really Biased History of the Global Warming Issue
History of Noble Gas Compounds

Buzz in the Blogosphere
Derek Lowe, In the Pipeline: 2005, 2006
Sceptical Chymist: 2006
Curious Wavefunction: 2006
Endless Frontier: 2006-1, 2006-2, 2006-3

The First Annual Chemmy Awards will be announced here on ChemBark at a special ceremony on Boxing Day.  To supplement our undisclosed nominees, please use the comments to submit nominations in the following categories:

Best Organic Paper/Achievement
Best Physical Paper/Achievement
Best Inorganic Paper/Achievement
Best Biological Paper/Achievement
News Story of the Year
Comeback of the Year
Molecule of the Year
Villain of the Year
Worst Accident
Outstanding Academic Department
Good Citizenship Award
Lifetime Achievement Award

People interested in voting for the Best Chemistry Blog of the Year should visit Mitch at ChemicalForums.  My vote goes to Tenderbutton, even though it’s dead.  I also hope that Paul at TotallySynthetic is going to post a poll for Total Synthesis of the Year, but I’ve got no idea who should win that one.