The work of Benjamin List of Germany and Scotland-born David W.C. MacMillan has allowed scientists to produce those molecules more cheaply, efficiently, safely — and with significantly less environmental impact.
Two scientists won the Nobel Prize for chemistry Wednesday for finding an “ingenious” and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules that can be used to make a variety of compounds, including medicines and pesticides. The work of Benjamin List of Germany and Scotland-born David W.C. MacMillan has allowed scientists to produce those molecules more cheaply, efficiently, safely — and with significantly less environmental impact. “It’s already benefiting humankind greatly,” said Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, a member of the Nobel panel. It was the second time in as many days that a Nobel went to work that had environmental implications. The physics prize honored developments that expanded our understanding of climate change, just weeks before the start of global climate negotiations in Scotland. The chemistry prize focused on the business of making molecules. That requires linking individual atoms together in specific arrangements — a difficult and slow task. Until the beginning of the millennium, chemists had only two methods — or catalysts — to speed up the process, using either complicated enzymes or metal catalysts. That all changed in 2000, when List, of the Max Planck Institute, and MacMillan, of Princeton University, independently reported that small organic molecules can be used to do the same job. The process has also made the production of drugs easier, including an antiviral and an anti-anxiety medication, according to the Nobel panel. “One way to look at their work is like molecular carpentry,” said John Lorsch, director of the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
