Newspaper Article

5 Win the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics

Broad, William J

1989

Overview

The discovery of catalytic RNA may solve this chicken-and-egg problem. ''It is very likely that the RNA molecules were the first biomolecules to contain both the genetic information and play a role as biocatalysts,'' said the Swedish academy. 'Are You Sure?' Dr. [Norman F. Ramsey], 74 years old, won the prize for work he did in the late 1940's and early 1950's. When an Associated Press reporter called him yesterday morning to tell him he had won the prize, he asked, ''Are you sure?'' and then said he was ''delighted.'' Martin Deutsch, a colleague at M.I.T., said Dr. Ramsey had made a large number of ''significant and insightful'' contributions to physics. ''He's a man of great intellectual integrity,'' he continued. ''You can trust him, intellectually and personally.'' #9,192,631,770 a Second Dr. Ramsey's work centered on perfecting a way to study the structure of atoms by firing them through two oscillating electromagnetic fields. He discovered that such a process produced an interference pattern that gave important clues to atomic structures and behavior.

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION / BROAD, WILLIAM J / CECH, THOMAS R / CHEMISTRY / DEHMELT, HANS / NOBEL PRIZES / PAUL, WOLFGANG / PHYSICS / RAMSEY, NORMAN F