Chemistry

View a list of Spheres of Influence

Achievements

The following achievements are associated with this Sphere of Influence:

Contributing to the development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry
Our current level understanding of enzymatic processes would not have been possible without the work of Derek Barton. He coined the term "conformation analysis" which has become a term familiar to all scientists.

Discovery of Isotopes
The value and use of isotopes in research and their importance in technology and applications to society today would have astounded Soddy.

Discovery of Protactinium
Protactinium is a chemical element with the symbol Pa and atomic number 91. It was discovered by John Arnold Cranston.

Discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and determination of their place in the periodic system
William Ramsay published several notable papers on the oxides of nitrogen in the 1880s and followed those up with the discovery of argon, helium, neon, krypton, and xenon in the 1890s.

Founding the study of Organic Crystallography
John Monteath Robertson ("JM") was a pioneer in the field of X-ray crystallography and the founder of organic crystallography.

The light harvesting complex from photosynthetic bacteria.
The model of the light harvesting complex, the first of such protein structures to be determined in the UK, demonstrates how the photosynthetic bacteria capture and transmit energy from the sun.

Work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes
The 1957 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Sir Alexander Todd for his work on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes. His research led directly to the understanding of nucleic acids and Watson and Crick discovering the helical structure of DNA in 1953.