Winning a Nobel is not an everyday thing, but for some it doesn't just happen once. There are only five scientists who are part of this small club, and the latest one, Barry Sharpless, came to us as Co-parent of “Snap Chemistry”.
What is snap chemistry
Snap chemistry is a way of joining molecules together as if they were Lego bricks. So, I said it bluntly, but if you're still curious I'll move on.
Imagine two people meeting, approaching and shaking hands. It is a perfect metaphor for defining a classic chemical reaction.
But what if these two people want to meet and shake hands in a crowd at a stadium during a concert? Things get harder.
Coming together, recognizing each other, finding each other, connecting: with the "snap" mechanism, two molecules will be able to do this much more easily, even in a "chaotic" environment.
In one click
As mentioned, the way in which the chemistry of clicks brings together the molecular building blocks is often compared to Lego bricks. For Carolyn Bertozzi, which he shared this year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Barry Sharpless e Morten Meldal, you need two very special bricks.
Two bricks capable of hooking together even if they are in different points of a box that contains millions of other pieces.
Nobel Prizes don't come by chance, right? Neither for this one, nor for other sciences. And sometimes they come from afar, as in the case of snap chemistry, which practically took its first steps at the beginning of the century: the year 2000.
All thanks to the copper
2000, I was saying. That year, Sharpless and Meldal discovered (separately, this is also serendipity) a specific chemical reaction produced using copper ions as a catalyst. It was the turning point, the beginning of everything.
Copper has many many qualities, one of these is the possibility of including water in chemical reactions and being able to carry them out at room temperature without having to reach high heat first.
Since then, the discoverers of this reaction have begun to explore. What? All the possible types of molecular architecture that can be built these “special bricks” with different chemicals. And they discovered that the applications are almost endless. Snap chemistry was born.
Problems and solutions
The problem with using copper as a catalyst was that this metal can be toxic to the cells of living organisms, including humans.
For this Carolyn Bertozzi has designed a way to exploit snap chemistry without using copper, and therefore without creating any problems for living organisms.
The dawn of a new era
Many experts wonder whether this Nobel (the second, in the case of Sharpless) is not a little premature, considering the fact that this young science has not yet found commercial applications.
The truth is, this looks like an award born of full enthusiasm, because the future of snap chemistry looks really, really bright.
This chemistry will change the world
Angela Wilson, President of the American Chemical Society
What Snap Chemistry is for
There are so many potential uses for snap chemistry that making a list is virtually impossible.
He will be able to strive to develop new targeted drugs, which manage to "make their way" into the patients' bodies to reach their destination in the right place.
Will you give us a more precise way to cancer diagnosis and treatment, with fewer side effects and lighter.
It can make bacteria fluorescent that cause legionella, to be able to identify them in water supplies. In fact, it has already happened. It can produce very, very durable polymers that protect from heat, or glues for nanochemistry.
Snap chemistry will revolutionize everything from medicine to materials. Welcome to the world, and congratulations to your Nobel “parents”.
