'Matchmaker' reactions scoop chemistry Nobel

[n2doc]

Andy Coghlan, reporter
Last year the Nobel prize in chemistry went to scientists who studied the ribosome. In 2008, it was scooped by the discoverers of green fluorescent protein, both advances rooted in biology.

Signs of a dying subject? Think again. This year the prize is for chemistry proper, awarded to the three organic chemists who devised reactions that allow carbon-based molecules to be joined together using palladium as a catalyst.

Thanks to these chemical reactions, chemists have been able to synthesise anti-cancer drugs such as paclitaxel, also known by its brand name Taxol, previously only obtainable from the bark of the yew tree, weedkillers such as prosulfuron and a poison from Panamanian frogs called pumiliotoxin, which kills mosquitoes.

The prize was shared by Richard Heck of the University of Delaware in Newark, Ei-ichi Negishi of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and Akira Suzuki of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, each of whom has a reaction based on palladium named after them.

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http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/10/chemical-marriage-broker-vital.html

[phantom power]

1. Nice.