A light bulb and a few chemicals: Scientists find a way to help
make new reactions Posted September 4, 2008; 02:00 p.m.
Princeton scientists have discovered a way of stimulating
organic molecules that they expect will prompt researchers to
create materials from new kinds of chemical reactions. The
method of catalysis, when used, could lead to groundbreaking
kinds of drugs and agricultural chemicals and will provide a
shortcut to standard multi-step methods of chemical production.
The work, conducted by David MacMillan, the A. Barton Hepburn
Professor of Organic Chemistry at Princeton, and David Nicewicz,
a postdoctoral fellow, will appear in a special online edition
of Science on Sept. 4. The method is disarmingly easy to perform
but deeply complex in terms of the science behind it. At its
simplest, the process involves using a weak source of light --
like a household light bulb -- to catalyze or propel a reaction
in a flask of fluid containing two different classes of
chemicals. Like magic or even a child's