Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Boo, ribosomes.

I have a vision: one day, some other Nobel prize will be stolen by a chemist![1] Why wouldn't cheap and plentiful solar cells made by chemists that solve the world's energy crisis be eligible for the Nobel Peace prize? Couldn't Pd coupling or Click chemistry be eligible for the Medicine prize for their contributions to drug discovery?

Alternatively, we could try to go the other route and try to get someone like Roald Hoffman a literature prize.





[1] In the Pipeline has a good description of the chemistrybiology behind this year's Chemistry prize. Ribsome interactions with antibiotics actually does sound pretty cool. Just not Chemistry, that's all.

[2] LOLcatz courtest of Paul Krugman, who posted it when he won an Economics prize last year.

2 comments:

Ψ*Ψ said...

i LOVE hoffmann's writing. if everyone could hack out papers so clearly, it would be much more pleasant to read journals.
if i ever met him, i think i'd have to get him to sign my forehead or something.

Joel Kelly said...

I actually did meet Hoffman a couple of years ago when my undergrad's chemistry and drama departments teamed up to put on one of his plays, Should've.

He's a really interesting fellow, to say the least. I wish I had known more physical chemistry at the time so I would have realized the potential forehead signing opportunities.