"Every chemical reaction has a transition state."
"The first serious applications were in triterpenoid chemistry."
13 likes
Source: Some Reflections on the Present Status of Organic Chemistry, in Science and Human Progress. Addresses at the Celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of the Mellon Institute, 1963.
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Derek Barton
"God is Truth. There is no incompatibility between science and religion. Both are seeking the same truth. Science shows that God exists."
"The observations and experiments of science are so wonderful that the truth that they establish can surely be accepted as another manifestation of God. God shows himself by allowing man to establish truth."
"Many transition states have a well-defined preferred geometrical requirement."
"I do not believe that the present flowering of science is due in the least to a real appreciation of the beauty and intellectual discipline of the subject. It is due simply to the fact that power, wealth and prestige can only be obtained by the correct application of science."
"It does not seem, however, that organic chemists were much worried about barriers to rotation in organic molecules in general at that time because there was no technique available to demonstrate the phenomenon experimentally."