Derewenda Zygmunt S
Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908-0736, USA.
Acta Crystallogr A. 2008 Jan;64(Pt 1):246-58. doi: 10.1107/S0108767307054293. Epub 2007 Dec 21.
As the first centennial of X-ray diffraction is inevitably drawing closer, it is tempting to reflect on the impact that this fascinating discipline has had on natural sciences and how it has changed the world we live in. Also, next year is the 160th anniversary of the fateful April afternoon when Louis Pasteur separated D- from L-tartrate crystals, an event that many science historians recognize as the birth of stereochemistry, and the first step that the barely nascent field of crystallography took on the road to elucidate a fundamental phenomenon of chemistry and biology - chirality. Many great minds - Pasteur, Van 't Hoff, Fischer, Lord Kelvin, the Braggs, Astbury and Bijvoet, to mention just a few - contributed along the way. But one central inanimate character was there at all times - an inconspicuous somewhat obscure organic compound found in wine: tartaric acid. This is the story of its contribution to science.
随着X射线衍射发现一百周年的脚步日益临近，人们不禁会反思这一迷人学科对自然科学的影响，以及它如何改变了我们生活的世界。此外，明年是那个决定性的四月下午的160周年纪念日，当时路易斯·巴斯德将D-酒石酸盐晶体与L-酒石酸盐晶体分离，许多科学史学家认为这一事件是立体化学的诞生，也是刚刚起步的晶体学领域在阐明化学和生物学的一个基本现象——手性的道路上迈出的第一步。一路上，许多伟大的人物都做出了贡献——仅举几例，如巴斯德、范托夫、费歇尔、开尔文勋爵、布拉格父子、阿斯特伯里和比耶沃特。但始终有一个核心的无生命角色——一种在葡萄酒中发现的不太起眼、有些晦涩的有机化合物：酒石酸。这就是它对科学贡献的故事。
