Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410130047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN LENGTH: Medium
The physics prize will be shared by Clifford G. Shull of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bertram N. Brockhouse of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Both researchers, pioneers in the field of neutron scattering, developed neutron spectroscopy, a method of studying atoms, the elements that make up all matter.
The sole winner of the $930,000 award for chemistry was George A. Olah, 67, of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Olah revolutionized the study of hydrocarbons, the ingredients of oil and natural gas, and uncovered new ways to use them.
In the early 1960s, he and his colleagues discovered that extremely strong acids, called superacids, could be used to modify hydrocarbons so they were easier to study.
``His work ... has a prominent position in all modern textbooks,'' the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement announcing the award.
It has allowed improvements in combustion engines by raising the octane of fuel without adding to pollution, the academy said.
It also has enabled scientists to make plastics and other petroleum-based products with less damage to the environment.
``There is nothing in our life that is not touched by hydrocarbons, from pharmaceuticals to gasoline,'' Olah said when reached at his home in Beverly Hills.
``Hydrocarbons are the ingredients of oil and natural gas. When you fill up your car in the morning, it is composed of hydrocarbons,'' he said. He said he was going to ``donate'' his prize money to his wife.
Olah, who was born in Hungary, has 85 patents from seven countries, including four for the transformation of natural gas into the type of hydrocarbons used in gasoline.
Brockhouse, 76, and Shull, 79, carried out their research in the years following World War II at some of the first nuclear reactors.
A Swedish professor and member of the Academy of Sciences, Karl Erik Larsson, said the nuclear power debate kept the Nobel committee from honoring the physicists until now.
``Politics should not affect us, but we are only humans,'' Larsson said.
Ironically, Brockhouse and Shull were never interested in nuclear power. They merely used the primitive research reactors to study how neutrons are scattered when bouncing against atoms.
Using beams of neutrons the same way as a microscope uses light, the researchers were able to reveal the atoms' structure and movement. Essentially, Brockhouse and Shull helped answer the questions of what atoms are and what they do.
The groundbreaking research led several governments and institutions to pour billions of dollars into special facilities for neutron scattering.
The Nobel Prize in literature is scheduled to be announced today. The Nobel Peace Prize, reportedly to be given to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, is to be formally announced Friday.
by CNB