乌尔夫·拉格克维斯特（Ulf Lagerkvist）教授在一篇相对简短但精辟的叙述中追溯了化学领域的起源和开创性发展，强调了改变古希腊神话的个人的发现和个性，炼金术士的沉思，燃素对现实的神秘感，以及支配元素属性和行为的规律；简而言之，化学是如何成为一门真正的科学的。这一历史旅程的核心是德米特里·门捷列夫（Dmitri Mendeleev）的胜利，他构想了元素的周期律，即元素的性质与其原子量之间的关系，但更准确地说是其原子序数。除了为当时已知的元素提供秩序外，该定律还预测了当时未知但很快被发现的元素的存在和原子秩序。拉格克维斯特调查的一个潜在但明确的目的是解决他认为在1905年和1906年拒绝门捷列夫获得诺贝尔化学奖是严重不公正的问题。通过深入研究瑞典皇家科学院关于提名的详细记录，拉格克维斯特揭示了评判标准，以及那些年来支持和贬低竞争对手贡献的经常激烈且带有偏见的争论。拉格克维斯特曾是瑞典科学院院士，并参与了化学奖提名的评审，他总结道，“诺贝尔奖的本质是，总会有一些候选人显然应该获得奖励，但从未获得过荣誉”门捷列夫就是其中之一。
The Periodic Table And A Missed Nobel Prize
In a relatively brief but masterful recounting, Professor Ulf Lagerkvist traces the origins and seminal developments in the field of chemistry, highlighting the discoveries and personalities of the individuals who transformed the ancient myths of the Greeks, the musings of the alchemists, the mystique of phlogiston into the realities and the laws governing the properties and behavior of the elements; in short, how chemistry became a true science. A centerpiece of this historical journey was the triumph by Dmitri Mendeleev who conceived the Periodic Law of the Elements, the relation between the properties of the elements and their atomic weights but more precisely their atomic number. Aside from providing order to the elements known at the time, the law predicted the existence and atomic order of elements not then known but were discovered soon after.An underlying but explicit intent of Lagerkvist’s survey is to address what he believes was a gross injustice in denying Mendeleev the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1905 and again in 1906. Delving into the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ detailed records concerning the nominations, Lagerkvist reveals the judging criteria and the often heated and prejudicial arguments favoring and demeaning the contributions of the competing contenders of those years. Lagerkvist, who was a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences and has participated in judging nominations for the chemistry prize, concludes “It is in the nature of the Nobel Prize that there will always be a number candidates who obviously deserve to be rewarded but never get the accolade” – Mendeleev was one of those.
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