Quintet Nabs Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry

The Nobel Prizes for Chemistry and Physics were awarded yesterday to scientists and researchers working in molecular synthesis and superconductivity.

American scientists Donald J. Cram and Charles Pedersen, and French researcher Jean-Marie Lehn, received the prize in Chemistry for their work in molecular synthesis.

Physicists Georg Bednorz of West Germany, and K. Alex Mueller of Switzerland were named Nobel Laureates for discoveries in superconductivity.

Cram, Pedersen, and Lehn were recognized for their pioneering work in synthesizing molecules that can aid in separating radioactive and non-radioactive tissues and purifying molecules.

"The essence of the work was the discovery of crown-ethers made by Pedersen several years ago," said Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science Dudley R. Herschbach, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry last year. "Cram and Lehn were among the leaders in following up Pedersen's work."

"[Their research] led to the fact that crown-others give you a molecular cage, or molecular house, in which you can create many things by bringing in tiny molecular components and putting them together," Herschbach explained.

The Swedish Academy of Sciences credited the three award-winners with making comparatively simple compounds which behave like natural proteins. Scientists may someday be able to separate radioactive and non-radioactive tissue and purify molecules using this knowledge.

Physicists Bednorz and Mueller were awarded for their discovery of materials which allow for superconductivity--the flow of electric current without resistance in certain metals and alloys--at higher temperatures.

Michael Tinkham, Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard, who has concentrated on the study of superconductivity for the past 30 years, said that the discovery has had an "immediate and immense impact on all of physics."

Tinkham said Bednorz and Mueller winning the Nobel prize within a year of the discovery is testimony to the importance of their achievement.

The Nobel prize winners took the first step in an area which scientists have been trying to explore for over a decade. Since Bednorz and Mueller made their discovery, others researching high temperature superconductors have made further developments in the field, Tinkham said.

The discovery of higher temperature, and eventually room-temperature, superconductors could lead to many technological innovations, including faster computers, and improvements in generation and transmission of electric power.

The scientists will receive their prizes December 10, in Stockholm.