The molecule is muscone or [R]-3-methyl-cyclopenta-decanone. This is one of the main ingredients in the musk odor used in perfumes. The original chemical is the R-enantiomer shown below. It was extracted from the musk glands of musk deer (right). Modern perfumes are made from synthetic muscone, which is a mixture of the R- and S-enantionmers. The Nobel Laureate is Leopold Ruzicka, who worked out the structure of muscone.
This week's winner is Dima Klenchin of the University of Wisconsin.
Today's molecule stinks.1 You have to identify it by giving me the common name and the IUPAC name.
There's only one Nobel Laureate whose name is linked to this molecule. The Laureate was responsible for determining its structure.
The first person to identify the molecule and the Nobel Laureate, wins a free lunch. Previous winners are ineligible for six weeks from the time they first won the prize.
There are seven ineligible candidates for this week's reward: Michael Clarkson of Waltham MA (USA), Òscar Reig of Barcelona, Maria Altshuler of the University of Toronto, Mike Fraser of the University of Toronto, Jaseon Oakley of the University of Toronto, Bill Chaney of the University of Nebraska and Ian Clarke of New England Biolabs Canada in Pickering ON, Canada.
Bill Chaney has donated his free lunch to a deserving undergraduate so I'm going to continue to award an additional free lunch to the first undergraduate student who can accept it. Please indicate in your email message whether you are an undergraduate and whether you can make it for lunch.
THEME:
Nobel Laureates
Send your guess to Sandwalk (sandwalk (at) bioinfo.med.utoronto.ca) and I'll pick the first email message that correctly identifies the molecule(s) and names the Nobel Laureate(s). Note that I'm not going to repeat Nobel Prizes so you might want to check the list of previous Sandwalk postings by clicking on the link in the theme box.
Correct responses will be posted tomorrow.
1. Opinions may vary.
