Alfred Nobel and Nobel prizes in chemistry, medicine

ALFRED Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden on the 21st of October 1833 to Mr. and Mrs. Immanuel and Andriette Nobel. He attended Saint Jacob’s Primary School, Stockholm in 1841 and 1842 before relocating to St. Petersburg, Russia to join his family in the same year. Here in Petersburg, Alfred received private lessons with his two senior brothers, Robert (born in 1829) and Ludvig (born in 1831) from 1843 to 1850. Alfred was the third son of eight children from his parents. At 17 years in 1850, Alfred set out on a two-year tour of Western Europe and the United States, learning different languages and seeking ideas and contacts in Chemistry and Engineering. By 1852, he had established a Chemistry Laboratory in Petersburg, Russia, studying the properties of the violent explosive liquid, nitroglycerin for six good years (1852 to 1858). By 1863, aged 30 years, Alfred returned back to Stockholm, Sweden where he built a big factory for the manufacture of nitroglycerin. A similar factory was also built in Hamburg, Germany for the same purpose. His product was shipped to various parts of the world, bringing immense wealth to the young man. His two factories produced various types of explosives which were duly patented. It must be stated here that the violent explosive liquid, nitroglycerin, drew much criticisms from all over the world because of its accidental explosions during its transportation to various Countries and during its storage.

In 1864, the younger brother of Alfred, Emil Nobel, was killed in an explosion in the Stockholm factory. This disaster pained Alfred so much but encouraged him to find ways of making nitroglycerin safe. Success did not come easily at all since early experiments including the mixing of nitroglycerin with gunpowder (mixture of sulphur, charcoal and potassium nitrate) resulted in an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of fifteen (15) people in San Fransisco where one of his factories was located. This sad incident occurred in 1866 and to prevent such explosions, Alfred Nobel developed methods of absorbing his explosive liquids into solid materials. Thus, absorption of liquid nitroglycerin into diatomaceous earth (silica) produced a stable paste that could be shaped into ‘solid sticks’. These ‘solid sticks’ when thrown unto rocks or mines (that is, when agitated), produced very powerful explosions that completely demolished the objects. This is how dynamite was invented in 1867 and patented in the same year, making it safe and easy to blast through mountains, mines, rocks, construction and railway tracks and the demolition of old buildings or industries.

Alfred Nobel’s many inventions earned him 355 patents, making him the richest man during his time on earth. In 1870, aged 37 years, he moved the headquarters of his company from Stockholm to Paris in France and continued the development of other explosives, including ballistite, blasting cap and gelatinous dynamite. He remained here till 1891 when the use of ballistite by the Italian military made him very unpopular in France, informing his relocation to San Remo, Italy, where he died of a stroke as a bachelor on the 10th of December, 1896, aged 63 years. Alfred Nobel was a reserved and shy Chemist and hated publicity to a fault. He loved his mother, Andriette (1805 – 1889) so much and took very good care of her till her death on 7th December 1889. Alfred Nobel was a competent Chemist by age 16 and was fluent in English, French, German, Russian and Swedish languages. The Nobel Prize is one of the highest honours that an individual researcher can receive and was established by Alfred Nobel in 1895. In his will which was written before he died in December 1896, he directed that the bulk of his estate, worth over $250M at that time, should fund annual prizes for those who, in the previous year, had benefited mankind immensely in any of the following five specified subjects: Chemistry, Medicine, Physics, Literature and Peace. This informed the birth of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden for the award of the Nobel Prizes every year. Every winner receives a gold medal, a scroll and a cash award of over one Million U.S dollars ($1,000,000). The Nobel prize winners are announced by the 15th of November every year and prizes are awarded on the 10th of December to commemorate the death of Alfred Nobel.

The first Nobel prize winners in Chemistry and Medicine (1901) were Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff of the Netherlands and Emil Adolf von-Behring of Germany respectively. The current (2019) Nobel laureates are John B. Goodenough (USA), M. Stanley Whittingham (U.K) and Akira Yoshino (Japan) for Chemistry while Sir Peter J. Ratchiffe (U.K), William G. Kaelin Jr. (USA) and Gregg L. Semenza (USA) are for Medicine. We have had 184 Nobel prize winners in Chemistry till date, 74 (or 40.2 per cent) from the USA, 33 (or 17.9 per cent) from Germany, 31(or 16.9 per cent) from the United Kingdom, 09 (or 4.9 per cent) from France, 08 (or 4.3 per cent) from Japan, 08 (or 4.3 per cent) from Switzerland and 21 (or 11.4 per cent) from other nations. In the field of medicine, we have 219 Nobel laureates to date, comprising 100 (or 45.7 per cent) from the USA, 30 (or 13.7 per cent) from the United Kingdom, 18 (or 8.2 per cent from Germany, 11 (or 5.0 per cent) from France, 07 (or 3.2 per cent) from Switzerland, 06 (or 2.7 per cent) from Italy, 05 (or 2.3 per cent) from Japan and 42 (or 19.2 per cent) from other nations.It is pertinent to note here that we are yet to produce a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry or Medicine in Africa since Prof Sydney Brenner from South Africa who won the Nobel prize in medicine together with Robert Horvitz (USA) and Sir John E. Sulston (U.K) in 2002 is a white man.

When this writer left his highly equipped research laboratory at Lensfield Road, Cambridge, England in 1981 to join the services of the University of Ibadan as a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, his aim was to establish an Organometallic Chemistry Research Laboratory for the training of our bright students in view of its importance in the technological development of a nation. All efforts to have an equipped laboratory for solid research work proved abortive due to financial constraints. I have had the good fortune of receiving several applications from very bright graduates overseas including the USA requesting to do postdoctoral work with me in synthetic and Mechanistic Organometallic Chemistry. (See the rest on www.tribuneonlineng.com)

• Professor Odiaka, FAS, the current Head of the Chemistry Department, is a former Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Ibadan

Little do they know that 95 per cent of my publications are based on research work in highly equipped laboratories at Cardiff, Cambridge, Ottawa in Canada and Witten-Herdecke in Germany. Unfortunately, I could only but reject their applications on the false pretence that I would be on sabbatical leave outside the country and will not be available to interact with them at Ibadan. This is a shame to the nation since the six criteria for world University Rankings include Academic reputation (40%), Employer reputation (10%), Faculty/Student Ratio (20%), citations per Faculty (20%), International Faculty Ratio ((5%) and International Student Ratio (5%). The truth is that the top Universities from these Rankings produce most of the Nobel Laureates. There is no doubt in my mind that we are yet to have an African Nobel Laureate in any Science subject since the commencement of the award in 1901. This is really a shame to the African continent and the reasons for this sad reality especially here in Nigeria are not farfetched. As at today, it will be a mirage for a Nigerian Scientist to win a Nobel prize in the Sciences for the following reasons:

1. Very poor funding of Universities by the Federal Government who established them
2. Unnecessary Government interference in University matters even by those who do not have secondary school education.
3. Poor academic quality of Nigerian politicians and the Heads of State.
4. Enormously huge salaries of Nigerian politicians at the expense of the hungry masses and our youths who cannot be gainfully employed after several years of graduation from the University. In Germany, University teachers earn far more than the politicians. Consequently, only those who are really determined to work assiduously for the development of the country go into politics. The reverse is true in Nigeria where the politicians are there to enrich themselves.
5. The dearth of educational philanthropists in the Country and the unconducive atmosphere for the survival of industries due to power problems which the Federal Government is incompetent to address since independence in 1960. What a shame!!
6. The monster called corruption in Nigeria and the misuse of the Billions of Naira recovered from Nigerian thieves in recent years.

A detailed discussion on how the above mentioned points influence the world Ranking of Universities and Consequently, the production of Nobel Laureates will appear in subsequent publications in this column. There is no doubt that our leaders are clearly asleep in this country and must wake up to their responsibilities for posterity.

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