"The frontier orbital approach was further developed in various directions by my own group and many other scientists, both theoretical and experimental"
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The modesty here is doing a lot of work. Fukui is naming a scientific revolution - frontier molecular orbital theory - while refusing the lone-genius myth that popular science loves to sell. “Further developed in various directions” is the key phrase: it frames discovery not as a finish line he crossed, but as an expandable map other people kept drawing. That’s not just politeness; it’s a strategic claim about what counts as real progress in chemistry. Theories earn their status by spawning useful offshoots, by surviving contact with experiments, by becoming a toolkit others can improvise with.
The subtext is also disciplinary bridge-building. Frontier orbitals were born in theoretical chemistry, a field long haunted by accusations of being too abstract. By explicitly citing “both theoretical and experimental” scientists, Fukui makes an argument for legitimacy: the idea matters because it changed what bench chemists could predict, design, and explain. It’s a quiet assertion that the theory didn’t merely interpret reactions after the fact; it reorganized how chemists think about reactivity in the first place.
Context matters: Fukui shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roald Hoffmann, and the prize narrative could have easily turned into a turf war about priority and credit. This line preempts that. It positions Fukui not as an owner defending intellectual property, but as an origin point in a larger network - a scientist claiming impact through diffusion. In a culture where prestige often rides on staking territory, Fukui’s restraint reads less like humility for its own sake and more like confidence.
The subtext is also disciplinary bridge-building. Frontier orbitals were born in theoretical chemistry, a field long haunted by accusations of being too abstract. By explicitly citing “both theoretical and experimental” scientists, Fukui makes an argument for legitimacy: the idea matters because it changed what bench chemists could predict, design, and explain. It’s a quiet assertion that the theory didn’t merely interpret reactions after the fact; it reorganized how chemists think about reactivity in the first place.
Context matters: Fukui shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roald Hoffmann, and the prize narrative could have easily turned into a turf war about priority and credit. This line preempts that. It positions Fukui not as an owner defending intellectual property, but as an origin point in a larger network - a scientist claiming impact through diffusion. In a culture where prestige often rides on staking territory, Fukui’s restraint reads less like humility for its own sake and more like confidence.
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| Topic | Science |
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