Eigen (Eigen), Manfred

genus. May 9, 1927
German chemist Manfred Eigen was born in g. Bochum (Germany), the son of Ernst Eigen, musician, and Edvigi (nee Feld) Eigen. After graduating from high school he served in Bochum battery defense during the last months of World War II. By the end of it, he studied physics and chemistry at the University of GцІttingen, where he received a doctorate in natural sciences in 1951. His thesis was devoted to determining the specific heat of heavy water and aqueous solutions of electrolytes. After two years in GцІttingen as an assistant lecturer at the rate of physical chemistry E. was adopted by the staff of the Institute of Physical Chemistry. Max Planck in GцІttingen. In 1964, Mr.. He became director of the Institute.
Physicists conducting research on sonar, found that sound waves are strongly absorbed by sea water than pure or aqueous solution of sodium chloride (salt). E. discovered that this phenomenon is due to the presence in sea water of small quantities of magnesium sulfate. Sound waves of high frequency destroy the associated concentrations of ions (charged particles) and magnesium sulfate in water, causing the loss of small amounts of energy sound waves.
Thus, E. considered high-frequency sound waves as a factor in producing small fracture in the chemical system. With the state of the chemical system with its small deviation from equilibrium, he was able to determine the rate of chemical processes, while unmeasured. Later, he used a very fast pulsed temperature and electrical potential, causing small changes in electrical conductivity or the absorption of light in chemical systems. Using these methods, called relaxation, which recorded the passage of chemical systems to the new equilibrium, E. investigated fast chemical reactions occurring during the time of one-thousandth to one billionth of a second.
Among the physico-chemical studies of E. been working on the dissociation and recombination of ions in pure water, . diffusely controlled proton transfer in liquids, . absorption of sound in electrolytic solutions and the kinetics of keto-tautomerism enolnoy (compounds with different arrangement of atoms, . existing in equilibrium),
. Apply to issues of molecular biology, relaxation techniques were used to study catalytic reactions under the action of enzymes, formation of the helical structure of polypeptides and coding of biological information.
. 'For the study of extremely fast chemical reactions, stimulated by the disequilibrium with very short pulses of energy', E., George Porter and Ronald Norrish in 1967
. jointly received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 'Although chemists have long talked about instantaneous reaction occurs, they did not have the opportunity to determine the true rates of these reactions, - said a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences X. A. Olander in a speech at the presentation of the winners. - There are many important reactions of this type, such as neutralization of acids by alkalis. Thanks to you now chemists have a range of techniques that can be used to keep track of these rapid processes, thanks to you this big gap in our knowledge in chemistry at the moment liquidated '.
. In the 70 years of scientific interests of E
. moved into the problems of the origin of life. His current research relates hypercycles: self-organization of individual nucleic acids in more complex structures, their interaction with proteins and the appearance of primitive genes
E. married Elfriede Muller in 1952, they have a son and daughter. A gifted pianist, E. also enjoys hiking, mountain climbing, collecting mushrooms. He is known to colleagues as a man with good manners, insatiable thirst for work and willing to assist others in solving scientific problems.
E. - Author of more than 100 scientific and technical works. In addition to the Nobel Prize, . He won a prize for chemistry and physics Otto Hahn Germanskogo Chemical Society (1962), . medals Kirkwood (1963), . Linus Pauling (1967) American Chemical Society, . Karusskoy medal Germanskoy Academy of Natural Scientists 'Leopoldina' (1967), . Faraday Medal of the British Society of Chemistry (1977),
. He - a member of the Royal Society of London, the French Academy of Sciences, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Gottingen Academy of Sciences. He was awarded an honorary degree from the most famous universities.