Oxygen

• Roald Hoffmann ^[1] ; Carl Djerassi ^[2]
  1. [1] Cornell University

     Cornell University

     City of Ithaca, Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] Stanford University

     Stanford University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 78, Nº 3, 2001, pág. 283
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • We've written a play on the Nobel Prize--the ultimate reward in the kudos-driven culture of science--as well as on a chemical theme, the discovery of the element oxygen. What is discovery? Why is it so important to be first? These are the questions that trouble the people in this play. Oxygen alternates between 1777 and 2001--the Centenary of the Nobel Prize--when the Nobel Foundation decides to inaugurate a "Retro-Nobel" Award for those great discoveries that preceded the establishment of the Nobel Prizes one hundred years before. The Foundation thinks this will be easy, that the Nobel Committees who select the laureates can reach back to a period when science was done for science's sake, when discovery was simple, pure, and unalloyed by controversy, priority claims, and hype.