I look forward to our future with molecular machines - it will be interesting to know where they first show up in commercialized products, and what they look like (and how much they look like the machines of Sauvage, Stoddart and Feringa.)
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
BREAKING: Sauvage, Stoddart and Feringa are 2016 Nobel Prize Laureates in Chemistry
I look forward to our future with molecular machines - it will be interesting to know where they first show up in commercialized products, and what they look like (and how much they look like the machines of Sauvage, Stoddart and Feringa.)
I, for one, welcome our new molecular motor overlords.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently sitting on a faculty search committee and we have a former Stoddart group member in the candidate pool.
ReplyDeleteHis/her stock just went way up among the committee.
It makes perfect sense, because the (recent) former Ph.D. or Postdoc is likely largely responsible for the groundbreaking discoveries the Stoddart group achieved in the 80's and will surely bring equal esteem to your department.
Delete*sarcasm off* but seriously, they are likely a reasonably good candidate coming from Northwestern, but thats such a silly reason to hire a potentially lifelong colleague....
Why? Pretty silly committee you have there.
ReplyDeletereally glad to know my hard work and X publications are worth something compared to my post doc decision - currently on the faculty search @anon 10/5. hope i didn't apply to your superficial dept. @anon 10/5 3:12
ReplyDeletethis noble seems premature and a tip of the hat to nano to me. a lot of molecular machines still have debates over movement/direction due to k_bT compared to directional molecular design. see a lot of the work on "cars" and the currently scheduled "race." i'd like to see some more concrete application/benefit compared to hypotheticals of this award
ReplyDeleteIt's an outstanding award. Congratulations to all who worked on it. Obviously there are going to be more people who are upset then pleased that a hiring pool would be impressed by someone who was mentored by a top notch scientist.
ReplyDeleteIts not the fact that people are impressed by that, working for top notch scientists has a lot of merit, mostly because space in their groups is often competitive and a reasonable indicator that the pupil is at least reasonably good to have gotten that far. It is the fact that their stock has suddenly gone up as a result of the award. It should be impressive enough that someone went to NU and worked for a renowned scientist, the fact that they are suddenly worth more because said scientist won the Nobel (after the fact) is silly. Now, someone who got a job with a Nobel prize winner AFTER they had already won, is completely different, because that position, whether postdoc or Ph.D. will be even more competitive to get, and should be a good indicator that said candidate is already of considerable caliber. Just my thoughts, not upset, just sometimes marvel at how even the supposedly most intelligent people in our society can be blinded by branding and shiny things.
DeleteMeh, I just can't see how this has changed the world, or done anything other than be "neat"
ReplyDeleteMaybe the committee were worried the inventors would die of old age before a useful application was found, rendering them ineligible for the award
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