........ published in NEWSLETTER # 59
[ NATO-PCO Home Page ] [ Table of Contents of NEWSLETTER # 59 ]
........ published in NEWSLETTER # 59
CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS: GNOSIS TO PROGNOSIS
by Dr. C. Chatgilialoglu and V. Snieckus, CNR, Bologna (Italy)
This volume (NATO ASI SERIES E320) comprises 40 lectures and 3 Panel Discussions presented by a group of scientists, including two Nobel Laureates, working at the forefront of organic, biorganic, molecular biology, polymer, and material science fields with a binding, common theme: the impact of chemical synthesis, present and future, on these interdisciplinary endeavors. For the modern scientist, it demonstrates the rapidly blurring of barriers in chemistry, biology, and materials science and provides unique material for contemplation.
From cover to cover, this volume demonstrates that chemical synthesis is fully undeserving of the label "mature science". Although increasingly able to provide some solutions in the construction of natural and biologically active products, synthesis is undergoing formidable challenges in the emerging bioorganic, molecular biological, materials science, and polymer areas. This unique book presents the lectures and discussions of an outstanding group of scientists involved in these interdisciplinary studies. Not perturbed by excessive structure and time constraints, this group talked about the current states of their areas (gnosis) and mused on their future directions (prognosis). Individual lectures and panels with titles such as Making Unnatural Products by Natural Means, Synthesis of Giant Modular Structures, Organic Synthesis and the Life Sciences, Supramolecular Assistance to Chemical Synthesis, Synthetic Approaches to Functional Polymers, As we Head into the 21st Century, is there still Value in Total Synthesis of natural Products as a Research Endeavor? led naturally to questions and discussion, expression of alternate points of view and reflective suggestions. To the chemist, increasingly aware of the breakdown of barriers in chemistry, biology, and materials science, this book is a source of provocative thought and an arrow of the central role of synthesis in diverse chemical activities.
Reference books: C178, E320