Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry awarded to boffins studying complex systems, organic catalysts

The Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry were this week awarded to scientists for groundbreaking research into climate, complex systems, and a new type of catalyst. Princeton University's Syukuro Manabe, 90; Klaus Hasselman, professor emeritus at the University of Hamburg, 89; and Giorgio Parisi, 73, of the Sapienza …

[Pascal Monett]

"This is the first time the Nobel Prize has been awarded for [..] the study of climate change"

Good.

[Graham Cunningham]

Re: "This is the first time the Nobel Prize has been awarded for [..] the study of climate change"

Just checking: I assume you mean "good that it has now been done" rather than "good that it has never previously been done"?

[werdsmith]

I understand that many footballers in a single month gain greater reward than these people get for a life’s work because what they draw a very big audience etc, and of course there is more to life than cash but I do admire the scientists and engineers far more than sports and entertainers.

[Doctor Syntax]

"Scientists earlier thought there were only two types of catalysts: metals and enzymes."

I remember we used to use vanadium pentoxide to catalyse 3C2H2 -> C6H6

[Anonymous Coward]

An aromatic benzene ring is a nice start when you are making LSD.

[Doctor Syntax]

It's also a nice endpoint when you're preparing a carbon dating sample for the scintillation counter. Char sample to carbon. Heat with lithium to form lithium carbide. Add water (oh, look, South Belfast water supply from Silent Valley has radon in it) to form acetylene. Clean up the acetylene at low pressure given acetylene's tendency to explode. Convert to benzene.