1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. K. Barry Sharpless

K. Barry Sharpless Quotes

Karl Barry Sharpless is an American chemist known for his work on stereoselective reactions. He is a recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

✵ 28. April 1941
K. Barry Sharpless photo
K. Barry Sharpless: 4 quotes0 likes

Famous K. Barry Sharpless Quotes

“We have a word game in English called "Twenty questions." To play Twenty Questions, one player imagines some object, and the other players must guess what it is by asking questions that can be answered with a "yes" or a "no." I imagine every language has a similar game, and, for those of us who speak the language of science, the game is called The Scientific Method.”

K. Barry Sharpless

Nobel Banquet speech, 2001

“Chemists usually write about their chemical careers in terms of the different areas and the discrete projects in those areas on which they have worked. Essentially all my chemical investigations, however, are in only one area, and I tend to view my research not with respect to projects, but with respect to where I’ve been driven by two passions which I acquired in graduate school: I am passionate about the Periodic Table (and selenium, titanium and osmium are absolutely thrilling), and I am passionate about catalysis. What the ocean was to the child, the Periodic Table is to the chemist; new catalytic reactivity is, of course, my personal coelacanth.”

K. Barry Sharpless

Nobel lecture, 2001

“…when I started doing chemistry, I did it the way I fished – for the excitement, the discovery, the adventure, for going after the most elusive catch imaginable in uncharted seas.”

K. Barry Sharpless

Nobel lecture, 2001

“The discipline, nonetheless, is exacting: everything that can be observed should be observed, even if it is only recalled as the bland background from which the intriguing bits pop out like Venus in the evening sky. The goal is always finding something new, hopefully unimagined and, better still, hitherto unimaginable.”

K. Barry Sharpless

Nobel lecture, 2001

Similar authors

Marie Curie photo
Marie Curie21
French-Polish physicist and chemist None
Ernst Jünger photo
Ernst Jünger16
German writer None
Margaret Thatcher photo
Margaret Thatcher348
British stateswoman and politician None
Toni Morrison photo
Toni Morrison184
American writer None
Albert A. Michelson photo
Albert A. Michelson5
American physicist None
Tennessee Williams photo
Tennessee Williams139
American playwright None
Robert Fulghum photo
Robert Fulghum82
American writer None
Robert Frost photo
Robert Frost265
American poet None
Neale Donald Walsch photo
Neale Donald Walsch69
American writer None
M. Scott Peck photo
M. Scott Peck26
American psychiatrist None