Skip to main content

Sir John Cornforth, a Nobel Laureate is Trending in Australia

By
john-cornforth.jpg

Sir John ‘Warcup’ Cornforth was an Australian-British chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1975 for his work on stereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions. Stereochemisty is the study of the spatial arrangement of atoms that form a molecule and how that affects the properties of a chemical compound. This field of study is confusing that even Cornforth had difficulties explaining it, and had once admitted that it is difficult to explain it to a layman.

He met the love of his life over a broken beaker. Busy working in the lab as a second year, Cornforth was approached for help one day by fellow student Rita Harredence, who had cracked a Claisen flask by accident. An accomplished glassblower, John was able to repair the receptacle using a blowpipe. Their eyes met as he returned it to her and, by all accounts, sparks flew. The pair were inseparable from that moment on and married in 1941, having three children together: John, Brenda and Philippa.


This popular scientist is exceptional that even his hearing defect could not deter him from being celebrated. Google’s new Doodle marks the centenary of Australian scientist Sir John Warcup Cornforth (1917-2017), winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1975.


READ: History of Aguleri - Indigene Account
Labels:

Comments

  1. prof prem raj pushpakaran27 November 2017 at 15:11

    prof premraj pushpakaran writes -- 2017 marks the 100th birth year of John Warcup Cornforth !!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. C. C. Ozeh27 November 2017 at 17:15

    Nice observation Prof. Thanks

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tips for Emerging Successful in the English Proficiency Test of the Post Graduate School, University of Ibadan

By
A Focus on the Nature of the Test English proficiency test for the University of Ibadan Postgraduate school was a recent innovation by the Board of the PG School at ensuring quality of the students admitted to the school for postgraduate studies. They stated that they have noticed an unprecedented poor use of English among students of the University of Ibadan; that if such was the case with the students of the prided University of Ibadan, how much more students from other universities that belonged to the lower rung of ranking in academic excellence. They posited that English language was the language of instructions and as such, a test for proficiency for prospective students is to say the least, imperative. The test is a one hour exercise in which you are required to answer 100 questions. To be on a very safe side and finish before the time allowed elapses, you are therefore required to answer each question within 30 seconds. I bet this is challenging; so brace up against it i...
114 comments
Read more

Postgraduate (MSc) Programme of the University of Ibadan - Basic Information

By
Becoming a postgraduate student (MSc level) in the University of Ibadan is not difficult if you are a hardworking student. There are few things that you need to know. You are therefore in the right place in your search for information on this. This simple piece, will tell you some of the basic processes involved in it; how to emerge successful in admission and how to avoid falling victim of fraud by the bad eggs. Rough budget for the programme from the standpoint of my department, the department of political science will also be discussed. Basic Processes Involved
36 comments
Read more

LIMITATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: A FOCUS ON THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATIONS

By
Introduction International relations which was generally seen as relations among nations and entities in the international arena begets international organizations. An international organization is a union of actors in the international arena, formed to perform specified functions and/or solve identified problems for the members and/or non members. The concept of an international organization can also be seen on the one hand as a logical progression in the evolution of political entities from the basic family or tribal grouping of pre- and early historic times to the feudal arrangements of early Europe which emerged following Peace of Westaphalia in 1648 (Imber 1984). A second perspective on international organization is that as being something antithetical to the state in effect an external entity which may subsume or destroy the state. This latter view is held by many chauvinists and protectionists who find the economic, political and cultural mongrelization which they claim...
15 comments
Read more