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istry and physics of these new materials was on. Physics Nobel honors work Working independently, Smalley and on helium-3 superfluidity Kroto again were at the forefront. But now they led a growing horde of chemists The 1971 discovery that helium-3 becomes a superfluid at a temperature of worldwide. As the Royal Swedish Acade0.0027 K has garnered David M. Lee, my of Sciences put it in announcing the Douglas D. Osheroff, and Robert C. Nobel Prize: "A whole new chemistry has Richardson the 1996 Nobel Prize in developed to manipulate the fullerene Physics. Lee and Richardson are physstructure. . . . It is possible to produce suics professors at Cornell University. Osperconducting salts of C^, new threeheroff, a Cornell graduate student at the dimensional polymers, new catalysts, and time of the discovery, is now a physics new materials. ... From a theoretical viewprofessor at Stanford University. point, the discovery of the fullerenes has When the trio made its discovery, influenced our conception of such widely scientists had known for more than separated scientific problems as the galacthree decades that helium-4, when cooled to around 2 K, becomes a sutic carbon cycle and classical aromaticity, a perfluid. In this exotic state where keystone of theoretical chemistry." quantum effects dominate macroNo one has yet developed a practical use scopic properties, the atoms move cofor fullerenes, though it's not for lack of tryherently, leading to an absence of vising. But the real significance of the cosity. As a result, a superfluid can befullerenes may be that they forced chemists have bizarrely, such asflowingup and and physicists to view carbon differently. In over a container wall or slipping efa talk earlier this year, Smalley called Ca) "a fortlessly through tiny pores that sort of Rosetta Stone of what we now realwould impede a normal fluid. Opinion on the likelihood of findize is an infinity of new structures made of ing superfluidity in the rare isotope carbon one way or another." helium-3 changed from pessimism to Carbon nanotubes, for example, are optimism through the years, and not fullerenes, but the fullerene structural many groups tried unsuccessfully to motif provides a ready explanation for the observe it The Cornell team's breakstructure of nanotubes. Much of Smalley's through and subsequent work at a research now focuses on nanotubes, and number of labs have shown that superhis lab recently reported a method for profluid helium-3 is stranger and more ducing crystalline bundles of metallic, sincomplex than superfluid helium-4. The gle-wall carbon nanotubes (C&EN, July 29, discovery 'transformed the direction of theoretical and experimental research page 5). These nanotubes "appear to be in low-temperature physics," says one molecularly perfect," Smalley tells C&EN. physicist, and has implications for a "I am convinced they are truly metallic, range of phenomena, from superconcomparable to copper." He says he exductors to cosmic strings. pects nanotubes "to find practical applicaRon Dagam tions much more quickly than fullerenes." Smalley was born in 1943 in Akron, Ohio. He received a B.S. degree in chemisal from the complex. Rather, the fullerene tryfromthe University of Michigan, Ann Arshrank by a successive loss of twcxarbon bor, in 1965 and a Ph.D. degree in chemisatom fragments—the shrink wrapping— try from Princeton University in 1973, after until a critical size was reached that varied a stint as a research chemist at Shell Chemical Co. from 1965 to 1969. Smalley joined with the size of the encapsulated metal. But efforts at Rice and Sussex to pro- the Rice faculty in 1976. duce macroscopic amounts of fullerenes Curl was born in 1933 in Alice, Texas. were unsuccessful. Then, in 1990, came a He received a B.A. degree in chemistry bombshell: Two physicists, Wolfgang from Rice University in 1954 and a Ph.D. Kratschmer of Max Planck Institute for degree in chemistry from the University Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany, of California, Berkeley, in 1957. He and Donald R. Huffman of the University joined the Rice faculty in 1958. of Arizona, Tucson, reported a simple way Kroto was born in 1939 in Wisbech, to vaporize graphite to produce CCiL) and Cambridgeshire, England. He received a other fullerenes. All of the powerful struc- Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the Uniture determination tools of chemistry versity of Sheffield in 1964. He joined the were brought to bear on C^, C70, and oth- faculty of the University of Sussex in er fullerenes—immediately confirming the 1967. In 1991, he was named Royal Socifullerene hypothesis. ety Research Professor. And the race to understand the chemRudy Baum 8 OCTOBER 14, 1996 C&EN
Immunologists win Nobel in medicine The 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to immunologists Peter C. Doherty of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, and Rolf M. Zinkernagel of the University of Zurich for their discovery that a two-part signal is needed for an immune-system cell to recognize that another host cell is infected with a virus and to kill the virus.
Doherty (above), and Zinkernagel laid basis for unraveling cellularQ immunity.
Their discovery "laid a foundation for an understanding of general mechanisms used by the cellular immune system to recognize both foreign microorganisms and self-molecules," says the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, which awards the prize. "It relates both to efforts to strengthen the immune response against invading microorganisms and certain forms of cancer, and to efforts to diminish the effects of autoimmune reactions in inflammatory diseases . . . multiple sclerosis, and diabetes." The killer cells are T-lymphocytes, so called because they reach immunological maturity in the thymus gland. In humans, a virus-infected cell manages to digest some of the virus protein, bind the fragments to its own native proteins—called human leukocyte group A (HLA) antigens—and send the molecular packages to its cell surface for display. HLA antigens identify a cell as "self." In mice, which were the subjects of Doherty's
and Zinkernagel's work, the self-/nonselfantigens are called the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Doherty and Zinkernagel were research fellows at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra, Australia, in 1974 when they found that mouse T-cells incubated with other virusinfected mouse cells need to recognize the virus protein in company with MHC antigen to become activated and destroy the infected cell. The tip-off came when they incubated T-cells from one strain of mice with virus-infected cells from another strain. The T-cells did not kill the infected cells. The infected cells were displaying virus protein, but in association with different MHC antigens. Doherty, 55, was born in Australia. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in veterinary medicine in 1962 and 1968, respectively, from the University of Queensland, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1970. He joined John Curtin as a research fellow in 1972. He chairs the immunology department at St. Jude and is a professor of pediatrics and pathology at the University of Tennessee School of Medicine in Memphis. Zinkernagel, 52, was born in Switzerland and received an M.D. degree at the University of Basel in 1968. After postdoctoral study in tropical medicine at the University of Zurich, he became a research fellow at John Curtin in 1973, while working on a Ph.D. degree at the Australian National University. He decided to collaborate with Doherty because the lab at John Curtin was bigger. Zinkernagel is director of the Institute of Experimental Immunology in Zurich. Stephen Stinson
Two Mitsui chemical firms agree to merge After years of on-and-off talks, Japan's Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals and Mitsui Petrochemical Industries have agreed to merge on Oct. 1, 1997—creating Mitsui Chemicals Inc. Mitsui Petrochemical President Shigenori Koda will chair the new firm, and Mitsui Toatsu President Akio Sato will be its president. Counting only sales of chemicals, the new company will be the third largest Japanese chemical firm; combined sales of the two totaled $7.7 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31. A joint statement by the two Mitsui companies explains the merger by citing
At a glance Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals3 Saks: $4.2 billion Earnings (net): $43 million Employees: 4,980 Major products: Resins; industrial and basic chemicals, especially phenol
Mitsui Petrochemical Industries9 Sales: $3.5 billion Earnings (net): $88 million Employees: 3,440 Major products: Resins; specialty chemicals; industrial and basic chemicals, especially phenol and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) a Fiscal year ended March 31, 1996.
the bleak business outlook in Japan's chemical industry. It also notes rising international competition from U.S., European, and Asian firms. In the past fiscal year, Mitsui Toatsu's profit was only 1% of sales; Mitsui Petrochemical's was 2.5% (C&EN, Sept. 30, page 18). However, the firms provide few details of how the merger will help them. They allude to a common vision, "complementarity" in product lines, and past cooperation. But they lack specifics on rationalizing operations and improving the bottom line. Analysts expect more details in about a month when interim results are announced. But while the companies' explanations leave analysts puzzling over the merger's benefits, many problems that will afflict the new entity have rapidly emerged. For example, the touted complementarity of their product lines belies the fact that they have very few overlapping businesses to rationalize. One obvious exception is phenol, where the two firms command a 56% share of the Japanese market. But this causes a problem: "There is no way that the Japanese Fair Trade Commission is going to put up with that," notes Joel Scheiman, a chemical industry analyst for securities firm ING Barings in Tokyo. A spokesman for Mitsui Petrochemical says the two firms have set up a number of joint committees to firm up a strategy and resolve remaining contentious issues. One issue: Average salaries at Mitsui Petrochemical are about 18% higher than at Mitsui Toatsu. But raising Mitsui Toatsu sala-
ries might be difficult, given the firms' low profitability in recent years. The companies have agreed that Mitsui Petrochemical will be the surviving legal entity, and that Mitsui Toatsu will give up one share of its stock for each 0.6 share it receives in the new company. Stock market analysts were somewhat dissatisfied with the merger stock ratio, which they believe overvalues Mitsui Toatsu's stock. The day after the merger announcement, Mitsui Petrochemical's stock dropped about 5.5% in Tokyo. Moreover, the two firms have set peculiarly modest profit goals for the next 10 years. In 2007 they expect a net income of $269 million on sales of $10.8 billion (at current exchange rates)—representing a return of 2.5%. Jean-Francois Tremblay
Olin to slim down by spin-off, divestitures Olin is continuing to become leaner and more focused (see page 17). Last week, the company announced it will spin off its ordnance and aerospace divisions; sell its isocyanates business; and look for a buyer for its polyol, glycol, and surfactants businesses. As if this weren't enough, Olin will use some of the proceeds from these sales to repurchase its shares. And the company also announced a stock split. The businesses to be spun off and divested had combined sales in 1995 of more than $950 million—about 30% of Olin's total sales. Arco Chemical will buy Olin's isocyanates business for $565 million in cash. The sale includes Olin's toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and aliphatic diisocyanate (ADI) facilities in Lake Charles, La. The TDI and ADI operations had 1995 sales of about $260 million, but in the first six months of this year, they already had $160 million in sales. These operations account for most of the 550 employees in Lake Charles. Olin will retain its Lake Charles hydrazine business. Arco Chemical's president and chief executive officer, Alan R. Hirsig, points out, "We believe this acquisition will complement our existing TDI business and thereby strengthen our urethanes position.'' He also views the ADI acquisition as a bonus, supporting Arco Chemical's growth in elastomers, adhesives and sealants, and coatings markets. Olin's polyol, glycol, and surfactants operations that are being offered for sale OCTOBER 14, 1996 C&EN 9
