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Nikolai Nikolaevic Semenov was born in Saratov on April 3, 1896. He graduated from Petrograd University in 1917 and in 1920 he took charge of the electron phenomena laboratory of the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute. He lectured at the Polytechnical Institute and was appointed Professor in 1928. In 1931, he became Director of the Institute of…

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The undisputed master of chemistry is Nature, and the variety of substances it routinely creates has long been a source of inspiration and perspiration for chemists. Investigating and recreating the natural substances essential for life is a painstaking process; their size and complexity makes anything other than the simplest compounds almost impossible to reproduce under…

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007   In the catalysts of cars poisonous carbon monoxide reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide before the exhaust is emitted. This reaction takes place on a surface of platinum, for instance. Ertl has shown that the reaction is considerably more complicated than could be expected and in this…

No Nobel Prize was awarded this year. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.

I was born in Ludwigsburg, Württemberg, in the southwestern part of the Federal Republic of Germany on July 18, 1948, as the elder son of Karl and Frieda Michel. My ancestors lived in that area for generations, mainly as farmers. There the inherited land is equally divided among sisters and brothers, and not enough land…

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In this compilation of short, educational videos called Chemistry matters, 16 Nobel Prize laureates discuss new frontiers in their field and explore what life as a chemist entails. They also describe the beauty inherent in chemistry and recall the eureka moments when they discovered ‘a little of nature’s logic’. Chemistry matters: Beyond the textbook Learn…