The Swedish Connection

The four nordic countries-Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden-although different in character share a common history. During some period two or three of them were joined politically. Today, they are all independent states but with close economic and cultural ties. They are modern, industrialized countries, depending to an ever-increasing degree on ties to the rest of [...]

*Major portions of this book originally appeared in Cultures of Creativity: The Centennial Exhibition of the Nobel Prize published in 2001 and copyright Science History Publications/USA & The Nobel Museum. The book was first published in Swedish, Människor, miljöer och kreativitet: Nobelpriset 100 dr, earlier the same year. A revised English edition appeared in 2002. The current edition [...]

In the second half of the twentieth century, chemistry underwent a profound transformation. Its object of examination, the chemical substance, was transmuted into abstract structure; its most important method, the chemical reaction, was supplemented by physical methods; and its practitioner, the chemist, was partially displaced by technical instruments. At the center of this transformation were [...]