Inbal Jerusalem Magazine - Inbal Hotel Jerusalem

Excellencechemists in history, Linus Carl Pauling - a two-timeNobel laureate.From the day Shechtman published his findings onquasicrystals in 1984 to the day Pauling died in 1994,Shechtman experienced professional hostility to hisfindings. "For a long time it was me against the world,"he said. "I was a subject of ridicule and lectures about thebasics of crystallography. The leader of the oppositionto my findings was Pauling, the idol of the AmericanChemical Society and one of the most famous scientistsin the world. For years, 'til his last day, he fought againstquasi-periodicity in crystals. He was wrong, and after awhile, I enjoyed every moment of this scientific battle,knowing that he was wrong."Rewarding the ‘going it alone’ determination ofShecthman, the Nobel Committee at the Royal SwedishAcademy of Sciences said that while his work was“extremely controversial," it "eventually forced scientiststo reconsider their conception of the very nature ofmatter."Noting the intensity of the intimidation, Nancy B.Jackson, president of the American Chemical Society saidthat when Shecthman “first discovered these materials,nobody thought they could exist. It was one of thesegreat scientific stories that his fellow scientists thoughtwere impossible, but through time, people came torealize he was right.”Shecthman’s finding led to new definition of a crystal.Previously, defined as having “a regularly ordered,repeating three-dimensional pattern” - according tothe International Union of Crystallography - the newdefinition adopted in 1992, stated that a crystal issimply a solid with a “discrete diffraction diagram”that is, something that produces patterns like the onesShechtman found.In his acceptance address, Shecthman said, “scienceis the ultimate tool to reveal the laws of nature andthe one word written on its banner is TRUTH. Thelaws of nature are neither good nor bad. It is the wayin which we apply them to our world that makes thedifference.”Dream OnAll Israel’s Nobel laureates have “made a difference” to aworld they have enriched by their extraordinary insightand talent.“From my earliest youth,” expressed Israel’s StatePresident Shimon Peres at his Nobel acceptancespeech in 1994, “I have known that while one isobliged to plan with care the stages of one's journey,one is entitled to dream, and keep dreaming, of itsdestination. A man may feel as old as his years, yet asyoung as his dreams.”National Photo CollectionThe Write Stuff. A central figure of modernHebrew fiction, Shmuel Yosef Agnon won theNobel Prize for literature in 1966.Ten Israeli Nobel Prizelaureates!This is a remarkable achievement for a nation so young,so small, and so challenged by existential issues. Priorto the new millennium’s monumental recipients, therewere four earlier Israeli laureates, one for literature andthree for their pursuit of peace.Shmuel Yosef Agnon(literature) 1966Following twice been awarded the Bialik Prize (1934 and1950) and twice Israel’s most prestigious civilian award,the Israel Prize (1954 and 1958), it was in 1966 that hereceived the world’s most coveted recognition - theNobel Prize “for his profoundly characteristic narrativeart with motifs from the life of the Jewish people.”In his acceptance speech at the award ceremony inStockholm, the Ukrainian-born Agnon introducedhimself in Hebrew, saying, “As a result of the historiccatastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalemand Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one ofthe cities of the Exile. But always I regarded myself asone who was born in Jerusalem.”While known in Hebrew by his acronym Shai Agnonin English, his works were published under the ‏,(ש”י עגנון)‏name S.Y. Agnon.In later years, Agnon’s fame was such that when hecomplained to the municipality that traffic noise nearhis home was disturbing him, the city closed the streetHarnik Nati, National Photo CollectionSpring-Summer 201316