Chloroform is a simple molecule. It was discovered by three researchers from different countries, all independently, in around 1831. Only one of those three was a chemist. Why then would a pharmacist and a medical doctor be involved in seeking new chemical entities?
Chemistry in its elements: Chloroform, Chemistry World, 27 July 2011
You find a lady clad in a filthy ragged coat. She is holding onto something in her right hand and flipping it at a regular pace. She is mumbling, almost as if chanting, and her eyes are transfixed on something. What separates her from what she is staring at is a glass window.
The scene is not set in a Buddhist monastery in Cambodia or a busy temple in India but in a chemistry lab. The lady is a chemist wearing a stained old lab coat, holding her lucky charm and staring at the flask in her fume cupboard, in a hope that her reaction works this time.
Get Real – Chemistry World, March 2011 issue
UK researchers reported a new highly effective method to construct large molecules of a defined size using simple templates. Taking inspiration from nature, which uses sophisticated templates such as the ribosome to make precise complex molecules, Harry Anderson’s group at the University of Oxford has developed a new strategy to synthesise macromolecules with precise lengths using basic templates.
Macromolecules from miniature templates, Chemistry World, 5 January 2011
Akshat Rathi 