Derek Barton

Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton FRS FRSE (8 September 1918 – 16 March 1998) was an English organic chemist and Nobel Prize laureate for 1969.

Quotes

 * 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.
 * Derek Barton, 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), 90.

Quotes about Derek Barton

 * Molecules that differ from each other by rotation about single bonds are called conformational isomers or conformers. Derek H. R. Barton (…) showed that the chemical and physical properties of complicated molecules can be interpreted in terms of their specific or preferred rotational arrangements and that a knowledge of the conformations of molecules is crucial to understanding the stereochemical basis of many reaction.
 * George S. Zweifel and Michael H. Nantz, Modern Organic Synthesis (2006), Ch. 2. Stereochemical Considerations in Planning Syntheses