The cause of science

Nobel-winning discoveries have direct applications

The 2022 science Nobels afford recognition to a trio that dramatically improved chemical molecular manufacturing processes, another trio that gave us deep insights into quantum mechanics, and an individual who developed ways to sequence the genomes of extinct human species. While the basic science in all these cases may seem esoteric, these discoveries all have direct practical applications that have improved our lives in many ways. The chemistry prize, for instance, went to Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and Barry Sharpless (who also won a chemistry Nobel in 2001) for “the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”. In layman terms,