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The first Nature issue of the new year (January 2,
1997, pp 1316) featured the annual commentary on
anniversaries of scientific discoveries and inventions through the
centuries, a brief tour de force in the history of science. This year's
enlightening list includes, among other things, the discovery of
the electron (1897) and of mountains on the moon (1647), and the
first description of Herba inebrians, now commonly known as tobacco
(1497). A new book reviewed in the January 16 issue (pp 215216),
The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past
and Present, describes lives and scientific contributions of the 100
most important scientists, as perceived by author John
Simmons. "Top-of-the-line" scientists include Isaac Newton (No.
1), Niels Bohr (3),
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Niels Bohr
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and Sigmund Freud (6). Three (!) women (Marie Curie, Lynn Margulis, and Gertrude Elion) made
the exclusive list.
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Marie and Pierre Curie
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Gertrude Elion
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If nothing else, this book should prove to
be an excellent starting point for discussions with students
of who deserves to be included in this elite group, and
induce us to come up with our own personal rankings.
The scientific community recently mourned the
deaths of four eminent members. The obituary for hominid
paleontologist Mary Leakey, who passed away in 1996,
appeared in the January 2 issue (p 28). Her archaeological work
in the Olduvai Gorge in Africa has been crucial for our
current understanding of the evolution of Homo
sapiens from its hominid ancestors. Renowned astronomer Carl
Sagan lost his long battle with bone marrow disease late in
1996. Aside from his planetary research efforts, Carl Sagan
devoted a large part of his professional life to popularizing
astronomy. His obituary appeared in the in the
January 30 issue of the journal (p 400). Alex Todd
passed away in early 1997 and was eulogized in the
February 6 issue (p 492). Although less well known
to the public at large, his pioneering studies on structure and synthesis of purines and
pyrimidines laid the foundation for the subsequent elucidation of the structure of DNA.
He was rewarded with a Nobel prize in 1957. Nobel
laureate Melvin Calvin's obituary in the February 13 issue
(p 586) tells about the dissection by his research team of
the pathway by which higher plants fix and reduce carbon
dioxide during photosynthesis, the process that generates
carbon sources for almost all life on Earth.
This time, it was particularly difficult to choose a
research article for this column because of the multitude
of interesting papers that have appeared in
Nature from November to March. We finally decided to report on the
successful growth of diamonds under hydrothermal
conditions similar to those believed to have produced the precious
crystals naturally.
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Hydrothermally grown diamond crystal. Photograph courtesy of X.-Z. Zhao (Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China) and R. Roy (The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA).
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Zhao et al. (February 6 issue, pp 513-515) have grown diamonds several millimeters in size
from glassy carbon in water under relatively "mild" conditions (800 °C and 1.4 kbar) in the presence of nickel, and have characterized the resultant crystals by three independent methods to distinguish them from the much smaller seed crystals used as nucleation sites. This technology
shows great promise towards being able to grow larger diamonds hydrothermally in the future.
Last, but not least, the article reporting the cloning of a lamb from cells of an adult sheep (February 27 issue, pp 810-813) will undoubtedly make the greatest splash among
scientists, politicians, and the lay public alike. This finding has already revived the somewhat stagnant debate about
the ethics of performing this type of research in the first
place. Get ready for some heated discussions in the classroom!
Notes
1. Photos from the web site of the Institut für
Theoretische Physik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am
Main, Germany:www.th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~jr/gil/phys/.
2. Photo from "Nobelists Find All Eyes on Prize" found
on the web site of The Scientist:
www.the-scientist.library.upenn.edu/yr1995/nov/fame_951113.html.
Sabine Heinhorst (heinhrst@whale.st.usm.edu) and Gordon Cannon (gcannon@whale.st.usm.edu.II) are in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5043.
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