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Today's Doodle celebrates chemist Sir John Warcup Cornforth, born in Sydney on this date in 1917. During childhood, Cornforth began to lose his hearing, and he was completely deaf by the age of 20. Unable to hear the lectures in his classes at the University of Sydney, he devoured chemistry textbooks on his own.
One fateful day at university, Cornforth met fellow chemist Rita Harradence. She had broken a flask in the lab and asked Cornforth — an accomplished glassblower — to repair it. Thus began a long professional and romantic partnership. In 1939, Cornforth and Harradence both won scholarships to study at Oxford, and they married two years later. Together they wrote more than 40 scientific papers. (Now that's chemistry!)
At Oxford, Conforth joined the team that made great strides in the study of penicillin. He then returned to his earlier research on the three-dimensional structure ("stereochemistry") of various chemical reactions. In 1975, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for this work. Cornforth and co-laureate Vladimir Prelog studied the enzymes that activate changes in organic compounds. Their conclusions opened the door to many discoveries, including the development of cholesterol-lowering drugs.
When the Nobel Prize was announced, the press release admitted, "This subject is difficult to explain to the layman." But it was already clear that millions of people would benefit from Cornforth's lifelong curiosity about the workings and wonder of the natural world.
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[1] 07.09.2017-Thursday-வியாழன்-Doodle-Sir John Cornforth’s 100th Birthday-JPEG.
ReplyDelete[2] Today's Doodle celebrates chemist Sir John Warcup Cornforth, born in Sydney on this date in 1917. During childhood, Cornforth began to lose his hearing, and he was completely deaf by the age of 20. Unable to hear the lectures in his classes at the University of Sydney, he devoured chemistry textbooks on his own.
One fateful day at university, Cornforth met fellow chemist Rita Harradence. She had broken a flask in the lab and asked Cornforth — an accomplished glassblower — to repair it. Thus began a long professional and romantic partnership. In 1939, Cornforth and Harradence both won scholarships to study at Oxford, and they married two years later. Together they wrote more than 40 scientific papers. (Now that's chemistry!)
At Oxford, Conforth joined the team that made great strides in the study of penicillin. He then returned to his earlier research on the three-dimensional structure ("stereochemistry") of various chemical reactions. In 1975, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for this work. Cornforth and co-laureate Vladimir Prelog studied the enzymes that activate changes in organic compounds. Their conclusions opened the door to many discoveries, including the development of cholesterol-lowering drugs.
When the Nobel Prize was announced, the press release admitted, "This subject is difficult to explain to the layman." But it was already clear that millions of people would benefit from Cornforth's lifelong curiosity about the workings and wonder of the natural world.
prof premraj pushpakaran writes -- 2017 marks the 100th birth year of John Warcup Cornforth !!!
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