On being a scientist: A personal view by John C. Polanyi1986 Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry This article was published on 12 March 2001. Doing science Science never gives up searching for truth, since it never claims to have achieved it. It is civilizing because it puts truth ahead of all else, including personal interests.…

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Presentation Speech by Professor Gerard de Geer, President of , on December 10, 1921 Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen. As long ago as the Ice Age, when our species was in its childhood, man found in fire a powerful ally in his fight against cold and darkness, and it helped him make…

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007 This year’s chemistry laureate Gerhard Ertl has succeeded in providing a detailed description of how chemical reactions take place on surfaces and has in this way laid the foundation of modern surface chemistry. He is awarded the prize for showing how reliable results can be obtained in this area…

1771 Joseph Priestley, England, discovers that plants can “purify” air that has been “burned out” by a candle. 1779 Jan Ingenhousz, The Netherlands, demonstrates that the plant in Priestley’s experiment is dependent on light and its green parts. 1782-1804 Several researchers show that carbon dioxide and water are stored as organic matter by plants. 1845…

John Charles Polanyi was born in 1929 in Berlin, Germany, of Hungarian parents, Michael and Magda Elizabeth Polanyi. The family moved to England in 1933 where he received his education. His University training was at Manchester University, where he obtained his B.Sc. in 1949, and his Ph.D. in 1952. From 1952-1954, he was a Postdoctoral…

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Contents: Based on materials from the 1988 Nobel Poster for Chemistry.

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