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Quiz: The life of a Nobel laureate in chemistry

Richard Ernst’s autobiography was published at the start of May. The 87-year-old ETH professor emeritus was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Our quiz will familiarise you with the life of this extraordinary researcher.

by Peter Rüegg, Simone Gohl

In our quiz series, we take you on journeys of discovery through research and teaching at ETH Zurich. This edition is dedicated to an outstanding researcher: Richard Ernst, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry almost 30 years ago. Recently the 86-year-old brought out his autobiography, which was written in collaboration with science journalist Matthias Meili.

The life of a Nobel laureate in chemistry

  1. Question 1 of 7
    Richard Ernst at the nobel prize ceremony

    1. For what did Richard Ernst receive the 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry?

    • ✓ Correct In 1991, the Nobel Committee honoured Richard Ernst for his groundbreaking contributions to the development of the methodology of high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. NMR spectroscopy is a technique for investigating the electronic environment of individual atoms and their interactions with neighbouring atoms. It enables scientists to obtain information about the structure and dynamics of molecules and to analyse the internal structure of various materials. Richard Ernst’s research laid the foundations for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a medical technique for imaging tissue and organs inside the body. (Image Copyright: Felix Aeberli ©StAAG)

    • ✘ False In 1991, the Nobel Committee honoured Richard Ernst for his groundbreaking contributions to the development of the methodology of high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. NMR spectroscopy is a technique for investigating the electronic environment of individual atoms and their interactions with neighbouring atoms. It enables scientists to obtain information about the structure and dynamics of molecules and to analyse the internal structure of various materials. Richard Ernst’s research laid the foundations for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a medical technique for imaging tissue and organs inside the body. (Image Copyright: Felix Aeberli ©StAAG)

  2. Question 2 of 7
    Richard Ernst receives the good news

    2. Winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on his own never sat quite right with Richard Ernst. Scarcely had the Nobel Committee conveyed the happy news to him (which he received on board of an airplane on his way to the United States, cf. picture) than he began to have qualms. 'What about ...?' he was subsequently quoted in the newspaper as asking. Whom did Richard Ernst mention?

      • ✓ Correct He meant the biophysicist and ETH Professor, Kurt Wüthrich. In the foreword to his autobiography, Ernst writes: “Had the committee in Stockholm simply failed to notice Kurt Wüthrich, who had researched and understood large and important biological molecules? When I realised a short time later [editor’s note: after the phone call from the Nobel Committee] that I was the sole winner, my overriding feeling was one of embarrassment.” However, Wüthrich did not go away empty-handed: in 2002, he too received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry – the most recent one to be awarded to an ETH researcher to date (see page 8 in the autobiography of Richard Ernst for more information). (Image: courtesy of Verlag Hier und Jetzt)

      • ✘ False He meant the biophysicist and ETH Professor, Kurt Wüthrich. In the foreword to his autobiography, Ernst writes: “Had the committee in Stockholm simply failed to notice Kurt Wüthrich, who had researched and understood large and important biological molecules? When I realised a short time later [editor’s note: after the phone call from the Nobel Committee] that I was the sole winner, my overriding feeling was one of embarrassment.” However, Wüthrich did not go away empty-handed: in 2002, he too received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry – the most recent one to be awarded to an ETH researcher to date (see page 8 in the autobiography of Richard Ernst for more information). (Image: courtesy of Verlag Hier und Jetzt)

    • Question 3 of 7
      Festive banquet

      3. The seating arrangements at a Nobel prize ceremony follow an age-old tradition. Whom was Richard Ernst seated beside?

        • ✓ Correct Although he would have preferred to have been seated beside Queen Silvia, Richard Ernst sat next to the elderly wife of a diplomat and the wife of a field marshal (names unknown) during the banquet. By contrast, Ernst’s wife Magdalena sat between King Carl Gustav and biophysicist Erwin Neher, who won the 1991 Nobel Prize in Medicine. After the celebration, she told her husband that she had a marvellous conversation with the king, primarily about travel in far-flung places. (p. 170) (Image Copyright: Felix Aeberli ©StAAG)

        • ✘ False Although he would have preferred to have been seated beside Queen Silvia, Richard Ernst sat next to the elderly wife of a diplomat and the wife of a field marshal (names unknown) during the banquet. By contrast, Ernst’s wife Magdalena sat between King Carl Gustav and biophysicist Erwin Neher, who won the 1991 Nobel Prize in Medicine. After the celebration, she told her husband that she had a marvellous conversation with the king, primarily about travel in far-flung places. (p. 170) (Image Copyright: Felix Aeberli ©StAAG)

      • Question 4 of 7

        4. For Richard Ernst, the road to a scientific career was not always clearly mapped out. Indeed he had other ideas about what he wanted to become. What was the first career he set his sights on?

          • ✓ Correct In his autobiography, Richard Ernst reveals that the first career he envisioned for himself was as a musician or conductor. Music played an important role in his life and in that of the Ernst family. When he was eight or nine, he had to learn the recorder, followed by the cello at age eleven. If he had been allowed, he would have played the piano so that he could try out his own compositions. So he went about teaching himself the instrument in secret. But he soon gave up on this ambition – due to a lack of talent, as he himself writes. We made up the other careers. In the military, Ernst made lieutenant despite being a pacifist at heart. (p. 31ff)

          • ✘ False In his autobiography, Richard Ernst reveals that the first career he envisioned for himself was as a musician or conductor. Music played an important role in his life and in that of the Ernst family. When he was eight or nine, he had to learn the recorder, followed by the cello at age eleven. If he had been allowed, he would have played the piano so that he could try out his own compositions. So he went about teaching himself the instrument in secret. But he soon gave up on this ambition – due to a lack of talent, as he himself writes. We made up the other careers. In the military, Ernst made lieutenant despite being a pacifist at heart. (p. 31ff)

        • Question 5 of 7

          5. What experience awakened Richard Ernst’s interest in science?

            • ✓ Correct Parental home of Richard Ernst(Photograph: courtesy of Verlag Hier und Jetzt)
              Richard Ernst discovered an interest in science on one of his rambles around his large family home in Winterthur. In the attic, the 13-year-old Richard discovered a crate full of glass bottles containing chemicals. He lugged his discovery down to the cellar, where he built a small laboratory and worked his way through all the fundamental experiments of chemistry. In the cellar there were also unlabeled apple juice bottles, some containing dangerous chemicals such as hydrochloric acid – a legacy from his Uncle Karl, an engineer who was also interested in chemistry. (p. 29–30)

            • ✘ False Parental home of Richard Ernst(Photograph: courtesy of Verlag Hier und Jetzt)
              Richard Ernst discovered an interest in science on one of his rambles around his large family home in Winterthur. In the attic, the 13-year-old Richard discovered a crate full of glass bottles containing chemicals. He lugged his discovery down to the cellar, where he built a small laboratory and worked his way through all the fundamental experiments of chemistry. In the cellar there were also unlabeled apple juice bottles, some containing dangerous chemicals such as hydrochloric acid – a legacy from his Uncle Karl, an engineer who was also interested in chemistry. (p. 29–30)

          • Question 6 of 7
            Richard Ernst in the lab

            6. In 1968, Richard Ernst returned to ETH Zurich following a spell working in the US as an assistant, in order to advance NMR research at the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry. However, he could get proper measurements done on the NMR spectrometers only between half past twelve and four in the morning. Why?

              • ✓ Correct The tram going to Irchel ran right beside Richard Ernst’s laboratory. Every time the electric tram went by, considerable levels of scattered radiation interfered with the magnetic field. However, a stable magnetic field is vitally important for precise measurement. An analysis showed that the tram’s electromagnetic interference ranged over several hundred metres. Within ETH, there was no acceptable place where Richard Ernst and his team could operate the spectrometer undisturbed – they had no choice but to work during the time in which no trams ran. (p. 122) (Photograph: courtesy of Verlag Hier und Jetzt)

              • ✘ False The tram going to Irchel ran right beside Richard Ernst’s laboratory. Every time the electric tram went by, considerable levels of scattered radiation interfered with the magnetic field. However, a stable magnetic field is vitally important for precise measurement. An analysis showed that the tram’s electromagnetic interference ranged over several hundred metres. Within ETH, there was no acceptable place where Richard Ernst and his team could operate the spectrometer undisturbed – they had no choice but to work during the time in which no trams ran. (p. 122) (Photograph: courtesy of Verlag Hier und Jetzt)

            • Question 7 of 7

              7. Of what was Richard Ernst a passionate collector?

                • ✓ CorrectThangka(Photograph: Courtesy of Sotheby's, Inc. ©2018)
                  Richard Ernst and his wife Magdalena were passionate collectors of thangkas. At last count their collection comprised almost 1,000 objects and was considered one of the most important collections of Tibetan and East Asian art in Europe. In 2018, the couple sold some of the most beautiful thangkas by auction at Sotheby’s in New York, because they were no longer able to guarantee the proper conditions for housing them. (p. 184ff)

                • ✘ FalseThangka(Photograph: Courtesy of Sotheby's, Inc. ©2018)
                  Richard Ernst and his wife Magdalena were passionate collectors of thangkas. At last count their collection comprised almost 1,000 objects and was considered one of the most important collections of Tibetan and East Asian art in Europe. In 2018, the couple sold some of the most beautiful thangkas by auction at Sotheby’s in New York, because they were no longer able to guarantee the proper conditions for housing them. (p. 184ff)

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                Book raffle

                Autobiografie

                ETH News is giving away five copies of the book. To enter the prize draw, send an email to the editors at news(at)hk.ethz.ch with “Autobiografie Richard Ernst” (available only in German) in the subject line and your address in the body of the email. Entry closes on 16 May 2020 at 11:59 p.m. Our editors will draw the winners at random and notify them in writing. The books will be sent out by post. We will not enter into any correspondence about the contest.

                Related articles

                Two generations on the podcast (with Richard Ernst) 15.03.2019

                Further information

                external page Trailer about the book (in German)

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