Chemistry

A UC Irvine researcher and two Israeli scientists Wednesday were awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their discovery of the cellular system that, like a miniature Mafia don, gives the "kiss of death" to proteins marked for destruction.

LSD, the mind-blowing chemical banned during the 1960s as a dangerous drug, may enjoy a revival of scientific interest from researchers searching for a tool to probe the mysteries of brain chemistry. Recent advances made in understanding chemicals that relay nerve impulses in the brain, known as neurotransmitters, and the action of drugs on these chemicals have set the stage for a new look at LSD as a study tool. "There is a place for LSD in (such studies).

Among the most interested spectators at the Clippers' matinee loss to the Utah Jazz on Sunday was a man in a dark pin-striped suit and red tie sitting a row behind the home team's bench. If he hadn't twisted an ankle three weeks ago, center Chris Kaman would have been in the game rather than in the stands. And although the team is 2-8 in his absence, Kaman says it's clear guard Eric Gordon and rookie forward Blake Griffin have forged a unique relationship. And it's a chemistry the All-Star doesn't want to interrupt by coming back too early.

Two scientists at UC Santa Barbara were among six worldwide awarded Nobel prizes in chemistry and physics Tuesday for work that ushered in today's Information Age. Physics professor Alan Heeger won for devising the electrically conducting plastics that could revolutionize computing. And engineering professor Herbert Kroemer received his award for developing the laser technology used in CD players and other consumer goods.

A molecule in the shape of . . . a soccer ball? "This is the biggest news in chemistry that I could have imagined," says Robert Whetten of UCLA. Richard Smalley of Rice University, discoverer of the molecule, adds that "there's hardly any area of chemistry this doesn't touch. To a chemist it's like Christmas." The cause for the excitement is a new form of carbon. Carbon is among the most versatile elements, the basis of life, the basis for plastics, pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals.

F. Sherwood Rowland, the UC Irvine chemistry professor who warned the world that man-made chemicals could erode the ozone layer, has died. He was 84. Rowland, known as Sherry, died Saturday at his home in Corona del Mar of complications from Parkinson's disease, the university announced. In 1995, Rowland was one of three people awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work explaining how chlorofluorocarbons, ubiquitous substances once used in an array of products from spray deodorant to industrial solvents, could destroy the ozone layer, the protective atmospheric blanket that screens out many of the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

Jim Sturgess first met Anne Hathaway at what is known in Hollywood as a chemistry read, an audition to test two actors' shared magnetism. Hathaway had already been cast as Emma Morley, the bookish protagonist of the English love story "One Day," and Sturgess had made it through two rounds of auditions for the part of Dexter Mayhew, Emma's roguish best friend and the object of nearly two decades of her longing. "It's kind of weird to meet for the first time," said Sturgess, who turned up for an early August interview in Beverly Hills with two days' worth of stubble and a garment bag slung over his shoulder.

Eager to make amends for the one game that separated them from first place last fall, the confident Dodgers began the season anticipating their first midsummer showdown series. It is finally here. But the series, beginning today, is against the Houston Astros. And the showdown is for last place. The one game has become 11 1/2, their infield has become toxic, their clubhouse has grown tense, their season has turned desperate. "It's like a bad dream," Fred Claire said.

Sidney W. Benson Former USC chemistry professor Sidney W. Benson, 93, a chemistry professor who was scientific co-director of USC's Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, died Dec. 30 at his home in Brentwood of complications from a stroke, the university announced. From 1977 to 1989, Benson oversaw the Hydrocarbon Research Institute with fellow chemistry professor George A. Olah, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1994. The privately funded institute was established to conduct research in organic chemistry and physical chemistry labs for use by chemical, petroleum, gas and power industries as well as governmental agencies.

A Swiss chemist and a French physicist were awarded the 1991 Nobel Prizes in their fields Wednesday, the first time since 1971 that Americans have been shut out from the two prestigious awards. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes of the College de France in Paris received the physics award for his studies of the behavior of a wide range of materials, particularly the "liquid crystals" that are commonly used in the displays of calculators and watches. Richard R.