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Protein Work Wins Nobel Chemistry Award U.S.S.R/s Dr. Lev Landau gets physics prize for pioneering theories for condensed matter
Molecular biology is not only a fashionable research subject but it wins prizes for its most persistent devotees. This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to two of them—Dr. Max Ferdinand Perutz, chairman of Britain's Medical Research Council's laboratory of molecular biology at Cambridge, and Dr. John Cowdery Kendrew, head of the laboratory's structural studies division and its deputy chairman. Sharing an award of $50,000, the two British scientists won their prize for studies of the structures of globular proteins.
Soviet physicist Dr. Lev Davidovic Landau receives the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his "pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially helium."
Dr. Perutz and Dr. Kendrew have been working on the elucidation of the structures of hemoglobin and the muscle pigment myoglobin. They have both worked out the structures of these two proteins by x-ray crystallography—Dr. Perutz concentrating on hemoglobin from horse blood, Dr. Kendrew working on the simpler myoglobin from sperm whales.
In 1953 Dr. Perutz found that by attaching single additional heavy atoms (such as mercury) to all the hemoglobin molecules in a crystal, he
could produce slight changes in the pattern of x-ray spots produced. It was known that x-ray spots produced in this way in simpler crystals could help to elucidate the structures of the material under study.
In early 1960, Dr. Perutz and Dr. Kendrew displayed their models of hemoglobin and myoglobin. Dr. Perutz was the first scientist to produce a three-dimensional model of the hemoglobin structure, which Dr. Kendrew calls "formidably complicated." Both scientists are now looking through "still sharper spectacles" to complete their work on the structure of the two proteins.
Beginnings. Dr. Perutz was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1914 and, after attending the university there, settled in Cambridge, England, in 1936. There he began his work on hemoglobin. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1954. Dr. Kendrew, 44, was born at Oxford, England, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He has been a part-time adviser to Britain's Defence Ministry since 1960. In World War II, he worked with the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and in 1944 was made an honorary wing commander in the Royal Air Force. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1960.
Wide World Photos
Dr. John Kendrew Looking for sharper spectacles
Wide World Photos
Dr. Max Perutz Unraveling a formidable structure
The award of the 1962 Nobel Chemistry Prize to these two Cambridge scientists puts four Nobel laureates under the roof of Britain's Medical Research Council's laboratory of molecular biology. Dr. Francis H. C. Crick, who was awarded a share in the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on the structure of DNA, and Dr. F. Sanger, who won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his elucidation of the structure of insulin, are both working at the laboratory.
The Nobel Physics Prize winner, Dr. Landau, was born at Baku, U.S.S.R., in 1908. He is now recovering from severe injuries sustained in an automobile accident in January. He suffered 11 broken bones, a fractured skull, and other injuries in the accident. Dr. Landau obtained his doctorate in Leningrad when he was 19. In 1932, he became a professor in Kharkov. He settled in Moscow in 1937.
U.S. Instrument Exports Are Booming U.S. companies exported $296 million worth of scientific and industrial instruments during this year's first six months. That's a new record. It tops 1961's January-June volume by a healthy 55%, according to the Commerce Department's Business and Defense Services Administration.
Instrument exports will continue to increase during the rest of the year, BDSA predicts. Many U.S. instrument manufacturers are stepping up their foreign sales efforts, others are just starting export programs.
The key reason why U.S. instrument makers can compete successfully with foreign instrument makers is technical superiority, the agency says. Superior quality has been largely responsible for growing instrument sales in such highly industrialized countries as Canada, West Germany, France, and Japan, BDSA feels.
Exports of all types of scientific instruments increased by 106% to $172.9 million in this year's first half compared to the same period in 1961. This BDSA category includes optical, surveying, engineering, and navigational instruments, and lab apparatus. Exports of industrial and process instruments rose from $107 million to $123 million (an increase of almost 15%). This group includes electrical and mechanical measuring equipment and automatic control devices.
NOV. 12, 1962 C & E N 27
