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Scientists Inducted Into Chemistry "Hall of Fame"

Posted by samzenpus on from the welcome-to-the-club dept.

First time accepted submitter ACXNew writes "The scientists behind three inventions that touch the lives of millions of people around the world will be inducted into a coveted scientific 'Hall of Fame' as the latest Heroes of Chemistry named by the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. Established in 1996, the ACS Heroes of Chemistry program recognizes scientists whose work in various fields of chemistry and chemical engineering has led to the successful innovation and development of commercial products that benefit humankind."

22 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. You'd think the summary could at least list... by BitterOak · · Score: 5, Informative

    You'd think the summary could at least list the 3 inventions that the scientists are being honored for: The first is an oral Hepatitis C drug, the second is a leukemia drug, and the third is for developing atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition technology, which can be used, among other things, for coating glass with certain chemicals to help change solar heating properties in windows, etc.

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    1. Re:You'd think the summary could at least list... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's interesting that only one of these is really "chemical." Old school chemistry is dead.

    2. Re:You'd think the summary could at least list... by jo_ham · · Score: 2

      It's interesting that only one of these is really "chemical." Old school chemistry is dead.

      Everything is a chemical.

      Anyone who makes anything, or studies something that is made of "stuff" is really just an applied chemist.

      (and yes, yes, us chemists are just applied physicists...) ;)

    3. Re:You'd think the summary could at least list... by c0lo · · Score: 1

      It's interesting that only one of these is really "chemical." Old school chemistry is dead.

      Everything is a chemical.

      It's a bit funny to pretend a neutron start is "chemical", don't you think? (go no further than the Sun for a counter-example).

      Anyone who makes anything, or studies something that is made of "stuff" is really just an applied chemist.

      Well, can you write the chemical reaction between oxygen and the Higgs boson? (you know? The later is still "stuff").

      (and yes, yes, us chemists are just applied physicists...) ;)

      Oblig xkcd

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    4. Re:You'd think the summary could at least list... by RaceProUK · · Score: 1

      Squirrel!

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      No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
    5. Re:You'd think the summary could at least list... by NeverVotedBush · · Score: 1

      Or even the names of the three scientists being inducted into the "Hall of Fame"?

    6. Re:You'd think the summary could at least list... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      Drug synthesis isn't "chemistry?" Wow, the meth cookers will be queueing up to get you to testify at their trials.

      Interactions between a gas and a surface are not chemistry?

      Go on, enlighten us with your definition of what "old school chemistry" is. I'll get some Marmite toasties and a cuppa. (I can't stand popcorn.)
      (Oh, for the record ; IANA-Chemist ; but my day job involves understanding and advising on tonnes of chemistry being mixed by machines supervised by people who don't call themselves chemists either ; I deal with the interaction of those tonnes of chemistry with tonnes of other (natural material) chemistry. But I also used to enjoy making my own explosives from things I could buy in town.)

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    7. Re:You'd think the summary could at least list... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      I'd recommend investing in "The Dragon's Egg" by Robert Forward.

      Safe to say it can withstand scratching by the hardest of hard-SF. And it's a damned good story too.

      As for a reaction between a Higg's boson and an oxygen atom ... I don't see that as a problem. No more a problem than (say) the reaction between a free electron and a metal plate. There will be a lot of "stuff" floating around in either reaction which doesn't actually play a meaningful role in the interaction , and conventionally one doesn't bystanders any more that the cricket commentator mentions that the ice-cream seller has fallen asleep while describing the hitting of a six. But, yeah, if you think that the protons (say) are important as your Higgs interacts with one gluon inside one neutron inside the oxygen atom inside the molecule. You didn't specify mono-oxygen, di-oxygen or tri-oxygen. Which do you want?

      Which XKCD is that? Oh, the one that leaves out the pointless topologists. Riiiight, them's fighting photons!

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  2. Laugh by koan · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is one of them the inventor of LSD?

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    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:Laugh by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      No, but at least one of his colleagues, who is a Nobel Prize winning scientist and inventor of PCR DNA testing, swears by it!

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      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    2. Re:Laugh by vlm · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Is one of them the inventor of LSD?

      Nominations are only accepted by corporations. Sounds weird but true. The ACS then guilt trips the nominating corp into paying all expenses for the "winner" to visit the conference. Its a weird intersection of the old "whos who" scam and "best employer award" scam and a way for a (very good) manager to get budget approved for conferences "Well see here boss, one of my guys just won an award, what do you mean we don't have budget for travel expenses, maybe since we're famous award winners now we could get the money from PRs budget?" Note these chemists (AFAIK) are cool and they do cool work and are totally above board, its just the "award" thats semi-shady.

      How that intersects with your concern is I have absolutely no idea in 2012 what corporation makes money off acid who has a acid related chemist on staff. A psych hospital might make money off it, but who's on staff that directly contributes to the chemistry? Maybe a CSI forensic chemist with a new detection scheme?

      This is why you will only see "Big Pharma" nominees, and not see, for example, a high school chemistry teacher or educator in general.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    3. Re:Laugh by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Nobel prize winners do seem to have a much higher than normal tendency to go completely off the deep end.

  3. Number one on the list? by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 3, Funny

    Kieth Richards!

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    1. Re:Number one on the list? by 1u3hr · · Score: 1
      Walter White.

      It's CHEMISTRY, bitch.

  4. Timing by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    These guys certainly did interesting research... but it's doubtful many people actually care who they are. Plus - "Heroes of Chemistry", really? Who came up with THAT?

    This whole thing smacks of a PR move by someone (or a group of "someone"s) who's irked at all the physics and NASA press of the last several years. "These guys are getting all the headlines! We need to find a way to get chemistry a piece of that pie!" But the problem is, no matter how important chemistry is - it's pretty boring stuff to non-chemists. This group has even admitted as much by picking winners doing research that most people wouldn't identify as chemistry at all.

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    1. Re:Timing by vlm · · Score: 1

      research that most people wouldn't identify as chemistry at all.

      Can't do any of those projects without a pretty good research chemist on staff.

      This brings up an interesting question of are there any current "big science" chemistry projects?

      In the past, sure. For all you pyros out there, there's "Ignition! an informal history of rocket propellant chemistry" was pretty hard core "big science" chemistry work. And "excuse me sir would you like to buy a kilo of isopropyl bromide" which is a biography of a guy who probably contributed to more EPA superfund sites than any other dude on the planet. There's probably megatons of interesting chem warfare stories that are still classified.

      Try as I might I'm having issues thinking of a good "big science" chemistry project. Seemingly all physics and bio and enviro need a chemist on staff, but none of the projects are purely chem projects...

      CS is very much like this. No big projects. Big engineering and IT challenges, like how to stack, power, and cool 5000 1U servers instead of the previous supercomputer award winner having only 1000 1U servers. But no strictly computer science "big science" projects that I can think of.

      If anyone can think of a current "big science" chem or CS project... post... who knows maybe you'll win a "Heros of Slashdot" award and you company can send you all the way to Michigan for ... whoever's left ... to crown you.

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      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    2. Re:Timing by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Can't do any of those projects without a pretty good research chemist on staff.

      I totally agree with you - but it's a big jump from "staff chemist" to "Hero of Chemistry".

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    3. Re:Timing by paiute · · Score: 1

      And "excuse me sir would you like to buy a kilo of isopropyl bromide" which is a biography of a guy who probably contributed to more EPA superfund sites than any other dude on the planet.

      http://www.scribd.com/doc/92823392/Excuse-Me-Sir-Would-You-Like-to-Buy-a-Kilo-of-Isopropyl-Bromide

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    4. Re:Timing by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      It makes up for the fact that the Nobel Prize for Chemistry keeps being handed out to non-chemists I suppose.

      We were all shocked that the recent one was given to Suzuki for his eponymous palladium coupling reactions since it was actually awarded to a chemist for once.

      I know it's because there is no Nobel for biology etc, but you think they'd correct that rather than shoehorn everything into the one prize at the expense of chemists all over the place.

      Although, I'm unlikely to ever have to worry about being denied winning one, although I did invent a method for holding a round bottom in my f/h without having to clamp it and without needing a cork ring, I'm sure it's not unique and certainly not world-renowned research. It just saves me time.

  5. how about Barry Bonds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    He could get elected to both the Chemistry and Baseball HoF's.

  6. Inducted by rossdee · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought Induction was an electromagnetism thing (ie physics) rather than a chemistry thing

  7. Uni of Nottingham doing a chemistry celebration by jo_ham · · Score: 1

    My university and it's popular chemistry Youtube channel (winner of a webby, no less) is doing a "one day, one video per hour" celebration of one of the early pioneers of chemistry, Jons Jacob Berzellius - it's his birthday tomorrow.

    If you're interested in the elements, molecules and chemistry in general you should have a look at the channel - it has a video for every element on the table, along with many videos on chemistry itself including topical subjects that show up in the news. Come for the chemistry, stay for the explosions, or the dissolving of a Big Mac in conc. HCl.

    The videos feature many of my friends and former lecturers and are put together by a nice guy called Brady.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos?feature=g-all-bul