The Japanese Eiichi Negishi, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010 for his work to synthesize complex organic compounds, died at the age of 85 in Indianapolis (United States), where he served as a university professor for more than 40 years, it was reported this Saturday ( 06.12.2021).
Born in 1935 in ancient Manchuria under Japanese colonial rule (today located in the Chinese province of Liaodong), Negishi died on June 6, according to Purdue University, where he developed most of his career, reported this Saturday the Japanese media.
After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1958, he worked for the Teijin textile company before beginning his studies in the US on a Fulbright scholarship. In 1963 he received a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, where he had worked as a postdoctoral researcher. He began teaching classes in Purdue’s Chemistry department in 1979, until his retirement in 2019.
The Japanese was Purdue’s second Nobel Prize after British chemist Herbert Charles Brown, awarded in 1979, and from whom he received training. Negishi himself would say that his career as a researcher took off after attending a presentation by Brown in 1962.
In 2010 he was recognized with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Akira Suzuki, also from Japan, from the University of Hokkaido (Japan), and the American Richard Heck, from the University of Delaware (USA), for their contributions to the study of the carbon-carbon, with applications in medicine, agriculture or electronics.
Some examples of his research applications include antibiotics that work with drug-resistant bacteria, fluorescent labeling for DNA sequencing, agricultural chemicals that protect crops from fungi, or materials for LED displays.
gs (efe, Kyodo News)
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
What have the Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry discovered?
Not everyone knows exactly what their contributions are. In this gallery of images we show you some everyday applications of the discoveries made by several scientists awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
Double G receptors that make the perception of flavors possible
There are millions of double G protein receptors in our body. Located on the surface of cells, they enable them to perceive what is happening around them and send signals to regulate various functions. These receptors also participate in the perception of tastes and smells. Brian Kobilka shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on this family of proteins.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
Life factory
Proteins congregate in small factories, ribosomes. Each ribosome synthesizes thousands of different components. How are these factories of life formed? Ada Yonath, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz answered this question, which earned them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
Decipher the genetic code
It took 13 years to complete the ambitious task of decoding the human genome sequence. The pioneering work of Walter Gilbert and Fred Sanger was instrumental in producing definitive results. Both shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980 for the development of methods to sequence DNA.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
The energy of the forests
The most important chemical reaction is photosynthesis. Thanks to this process, plants, algae and bacteria capture CO2 and produce oxygen, aided by a protein complex inside the cells. Robert Huber, Hartmut Michel and Johann Deisenhofer received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988 for determining the structure of one of these photosynthetic nuclei.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
Light in the darkness
This glowing body is the Aequorea victoria jellyfish. It owes its bioluminescence to a green fluorescent protein, which today is often used as a genetic marker. A pioneer in this technique is Martin Chalfie, who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for his work with this protein in the evolution of nerve cells.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
Water for cells
Just as pipes carry water into houses and carry waste away, there are structures in cell membranes that carry water in and out. That’s what Peter Agre discovered in 1988. For his research on porous proteins, he shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
Fit with ATP
The main energy transporter for cells is ATP or adenosine triphosphate. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to move a muscle. It is estimated that adult humans metabolize half their body weight into ATP each day. In 1997, Sir John Walker shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for showing how ATP is synthesized in cells.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
Green chemistry
The goals of green chemistry are no longer a utopia thanks to the work of Robert Grubbs, Richard Schrock and Yves Chauvin. Winners of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry investigated an elegant system for synthesizing complex compounds. The results serve pharmaceutical purposes, for example. Thus, some organic compounds can be used more efficiently, avoiding harmful substances.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
The soccer molecule
Even if you’ve never heard of fullerene, you can surely draw the basic structure of these fascinating molecules. Think of a soccer ball made of pentagons and hexagons. That’s the structure of the 60 carbon atoms that make up fullerene. Robert Curl, Sir Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for their discoveries about these compounds.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
Save the ozone layer
We can safely expose ourselves to the sun – always protected by sunscreen – thanks to the Earth’s ozone layer, which absorbs most of the harmful rays. Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland showed the factors that thin the ozone layer and for this they received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
See inside the body
The heart, brain, and bones can be seen in detail using MRI images. It is a way of locating tumors in the body, for example. For his contributions to the development of this technique, Richard Ernst received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1991.
-
The Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry in daily life
Frying with quasicrystals
The next time you fry an egg, think of Dan Schechtman’s discovery: quasicrystals, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 2011. For a long time, the idea that atoms are structured in regular, but not iterative, patterns was rejected. , like medieval Islamic mosaics. The non-stick properties of quasicrystals rival those of Teflon.
Author: Gianna Grün / MS
We would like to give thanks to the writer of this write-up for this outstanding content
Japanese Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Eiichi Negishi dies | DW | 06.12.2021
