Re: Nobel Prizes

[U6124673 "at@at" ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au]

  Dear CompList readers,
    I have just read Tom Slee's interesting comment about theory Nobel
 prizes in chemistry - it does seem amazing that only three recent recipients
 were theoreticians.
    Perhaps this reflects the current trends in computational chemistry,
 ie., tackling problems with the aim of obtaining results as good as
 experiment, rather than using computational methods to gain an understanding
 of a problem which can be applied by many other chemists.
    An example is Marcus' theory for describing electron-transfer rates by
 mainly thermodynamic considerations. The result is a non-numerical framework
 which has been applied by numerous other workers to explain results or
 make predictions.
    Perhaps there is still a place for simplistic quantum-chemical calculations
 which give insight into a problem rather than the exact result? Of course
 there are many situations in which this is not appropriate, but does anyone
 have comments on this philosophy?
            Greg Scholes
            School of Chemistry
            The University of Melbourne
            AUSTRALIA