AMERICAN GETS NOBEL IN CHEMISTRY; PHYSICS GOES TO 2 EUROPEANS
Author: Associated Press
Date: Thursday, October 18, 1984
Page: 9
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN
An American biochemist yesterday won the 1984 Nobel Prize in chemistry for
research that led to safer medication, and the prize in physics was awarded to
an Italian-Dutch team of nuclear physicists who found particles scientists had
sought for 50 years.
The chemistry prize went to R. Bruce Merrifield, 63, of Rockefeller
University in New York. He was honored for work he did in the 1950s and 1960s,
developing a new method of synthesizing amino acid compounds called peptides,
which has revolutionized the manufacture of drugs such as high blood pressure
medicine, insulin and other hormone medications, and has been used in gene
technology.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences gave the Nobel Prize in physics to
Carlo Rubbia, 50, of Italy, a professor at Harvard University, and Simon van
der Meer, 59, of the Netherlands, for discovering the W and Z subatomic
particles that are believed to carry one of nature's four basic forces - the
''weak interaction force" - in much the same way that photons carry light.
The other natural forces are atomic interaction, electromagnetism and
gravitation. Physicists have been working since the atom smasher was developed
in the 1930s to prove that the four forces actually are one, Albert Einstein's
''unification theory."
Unlike the Rubbia-van der Meer discovery, which has no immediate practical
application, Merrifield's development of a simple peptide-synthesis process
has "become a basic tool that all laboratories use," said Professor Bengt
Lindberg of the Swedish Academy.
Merrifield found that by attaching amino acid chains - peptides or
proteins - to a long plastic molecule, the smaller chains would multiply.
The discovery revolutionized organic chemistry, allowing simpler and
faster production of synthetic peptides, that in turn led to medicines with
fewer harmful side effects.
Merrifield, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, described his prize-winning
work as "an idea I had 25 years ago." He said he didn't know he had won until
he arrived five minutes late to his laboratory and got the news from the
cleaning woman. "Some years ago, I knew that somebody had nominated me. But
that was years ago and I had assumed that nothing had happened," Merrifield
said in a telephone interview, his voice still shaking.
Rubbia, caught up in an air traffic controllers strike, learned that he
and van der Meer had won the Nobel Prize while he was trying to catch a plane
to Trieste, Italy.
The existence of W and Z particles had been predicted before, by 1979
Nobel laureates Sheldon L. Glashow and Steven Weinberg of the United States
and Abdus Salam of Pakistan. Glashow is chairman of Harvard's physics
department. CORRECTION: Because of a reporting error, a story in the national
section of yesterday's Globe incorrectly identified the chairman of Harvard
University's Physics Department. The chairman is Prof. Richard Wilson.
The particles were not found, however, until Rubbia and van der Meer
discovered them last year in a particle accelerator they built for the
European nuclear research organization, CERN, in Geneva.
"What Rubbia and van der Meer did was to take twisted pieces of equipment
from old accelerators and build a new 4 1/2-mile-long particle accelerator -
like a Rube Goldberg contraption," said Charles C. Mann, a New York-based
writer who interviewed them for his book, "Einstein's Children."
The physicists then had to find a way to send protons and antiprotons
flying around the tunnel in opposite directions at close to the speed of light
and make them collide in a six-inch section of the accelerator in order to
study the various reactions.
But antiprotons have always been difficult to store because they disappear
as soon as they come in contact with matter.
That's where van der Meer came in. He invented a 2000-ton atom-smashing
machine that allowed the scientists to slowly manufacture and store enough
antiprotons to be fed into the main accelerator in the proper number.
When he was told about his prize in Geneva, van der Meer said: "I hope it
gives a boost to CERN and allows it to continue the research despite criticism
for being too expensive."
Scientists at the Swedish Academy said the W and Z discovery has no
practical application at the moment. But they said it already has solved many
theoretical puzzles.
It is another step toward proof of the unification theory, a concept that
preoccupied early 20th century scientists such as Einstein and Enrico Fermi.
It helps explain the process by which matter decays, giving off beta rays,
which is essential to archaeological dating. It is also an illustration of how
the sun's nuclear generators work to keep from overheating and destroying life
on earth.
Experts of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that it was unusual
to honor scientific work so soon after it was done, but they said that because
of its obvious importance they saw no need to wait in bestowing the prize.
AA0703;10/17,16:24 CORCOR;10/19,13:40 NOBEL18A
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