Han Li wrote:
Nobel winners made carbon dance
诺贝尔奖得主使碳原子惟命是从
from
news@nature http://www.nature.com/drugdisc/news/articles/051003-7.html 05 October 2005
Philip Ball
The fathers of a powerful catalytic tool nab this year's chemistry award.
高效催化方法之父摘取今年的诺贝尔化学奖
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to three researchers who made the everyday task of making molecules infinitely easier for working chemists.
今年的诺贝尔化学奖归属于三名研究者，他们毕生都致力于使化学工作者越来越易于掌控分子的研究工作。
Yves Chauvin of the French Oil Institute in Rueil-Malmaison near Paris showed how a type of reaction known as metathesis actually works.
伊夫·肖万在位于巴黎附近Rueil-Malmaison的法国石油研究所工作，他证明了一种已知的化学复分解反应如何实际地在起作用。
The process transforms a certain class of carbon compounds and has been known to the petrochemicals industry since the 1950s.
这个过程可以转换某一类的碳化合物，自50年代就在石油化学工业中为人所知。
Chauvin's explanations in the early 1970s helped Richard Schrock at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge and Robert Grubbs of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, to develop catalysts that make metathesis more controllable and reliable.
肖万对复分解反应的解释促使理查德·施罗克（剑桥的麻省技术研究所（MIT））和罗伯特·格拉布（加利福尼亚技术研究所，Pasadena）研究出了催化剂，这使得复分解反应更易于控制，也更加稳定。
Thanks to the work of these three, metathesis is now widely used in the synthesis of all manner of organic (carbon-based) compounds, from plastics to pharmaceuticals and herbicides.
正是由于这三位科学家的研究工作，现在，复分解反应广泛应用在所有种类有机（碳原子为基础）化合物的合成中，从塑料制品到医药品，甚至除草剂的合成无不如此。
"It has fundamentally transformed the way chemists think about building molecules," says Gregory Fu at MIT, who was a postdoc with Grubbs when he devised his catalyst in the early 1990s.
“这是化学家构建分子的基本转换途径，”在MIT工作的Gregory Fu说。
格拉布在90年代早期发明他的催化剂时，Gregory Fu曾是与格拉布共同工作的博士后。
The award "is what we've all been waiting for", says Steven Ley, an organic chemist at the University of Cambridge, UK.
这个奖励“正是我们一直期待的”，英国剑桥大学的有机化学家Steven Ley说，
"The work is spectacularly useful and important; it is the discovery in chemistry of the past 30 years."
“这项工作非常的有用和重要；这是在过去的30年中化学上的重大发现。
”
All change, please
请都换一下位置
Metathesis has taken a route, not unusual in chemistry, from industry to the academic laboratory and then back out to industry.
复分解反应的研究路线是从工业到学术实验室，然后再应用到工业，这在化学上并不是个例外。
Along the way, it was transformed from a curious observation to a systematic and useful piece of science.
沿着这条路线，它完成了从难以理解的实验现象到有用的科学作品的转变。
"People knew there was this funny reaction in petroleum refining," says John Brown, an organic chemist at the University of Oxford, UK.
“人们知道这在石油加工中是一个有趣的反应，”英国牛津大学的有机化学家John Brown说。
"Chauvin gave the first serious mechanism that turned it into rational science.
“肖万首先阐明了它的一系列机制，使它变成了理性科学。
But it was still just a party piece until Schrock came along."
但这只是”助兴表演”，直到施罗克继续这项研究工作，情况才有所改变。”
The process involves two molecules that each contain a double bond between carbon atoms.
这个过程涉及两个分子，即每个碳原子之间都包含了一个双键。
The bond acts rather like a double handclasp between a pair of dancers, and during the reaction, which requires a catalyst containing metal atoms, the molecules effectively exchange partners (metathesis simply means 'changing places').
这个键的作用就像舞伴之间牵着的双手，在发生反应时，需要一种包含金属原子的催化剂，才能使这两个分子有效的更换舞伴（复分解反应仅仅是’改变位置’）。
"The molecules are cut in half and put back together again," explains Brown.
“这些分子被从中间截断，然后又连在一起，”Brown解释道。
Quick step
加速的一步
In 1971 Chauvin and his student Jean-Louis Hérisson showed how the metal-atom catalyst coordinates the rearrangement of carbon bonds.
1971年，肖万和他的学生Jean-Louis Hérisson证明了金属原子催化剂如何协调了碳原子键之间的重排。
Soon after, Schrock began to look for more effective catalysts than those found by trial-and-error in industry.
不久之后，施罗克开始寻找比在通过工业试验和差错中的这些发现更为有效的催化剂。
Between 1980 and 1990 he found that compounds containing molybdenum and tungsten were particularly efficient.
在1980到1990年之间，他发现包含钼和钨的化合物催化作用尤其突出。
But Schrock's catalysts still had a drawback:
但是，施罗克的催化剂仍有一个缺点： they tended to react with other molecular groups attached to the double bonds, which chemists often needed to put there to create their target molecule.
它们有与附着在双键上的其它分子团反应的倾向，这些分子团通常是化学家构建他们的目的分子所需要的。
In 1992, Grubbs discovered that ruthenium compounds interfered less, and were more stable in air.
1992年，格拉布发现钌化合物的这种干扰作用更小，并且在空气中更稳定。
"That is really what rocketed the reaction into common use," says Ley.
“这实实在在地使这个反应快速进入了普通应用领域，”Ley说。
The chemists' prize
诺贝尔化学奖
"It has revolutionized organic synthesis," he adds.
“这是一个革命性的有机合成反应，”他补充道。
"I don't think there is a single organic chemist who hasn't used metathesis... and if they haven't, they should have."
“我想不到有那位有机化学家从来都不用复分解反应......，如果他们没有用到，那他们确实应该用一下了。”
The award is a reminder that in chemistry the most valued contributions to the field are often not discoveries, but tools.
这个奖励提示我们，化学上对这一领域最有价值的贡献通常不是发现，而是方法。
A general way to make molecules, such as that which the metathesis catalysts provide, can find many different applications.
一个构建分子的普通方法就可以获得很多不同的应用，就像复分解反应催化剂提供给我们的一样。
"Most people have these catalysts on their shelves," says Fu.
“大多数人都把这些催化剂搁置起来了，”Fu说。
"It's a real chemists' award," adds Ley, "and these are absolutely the obvious people to give it to."
“这是一个真正的化学奖，”Ley补充道，“并且这绝对是这些著名人物应该得到的。
”
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