Monday, March 12, 2012

Sherry Rowland died last night.

Sherry Rowland, the theoretical chemist who predicted that CFCs were going to destroy the Earth's ozone, died last night from complications related to Parkinson's Disease.

I recall having lunch with a group of UCI chemists soon after Rowland and Molina's Nobel Prize was awarded. He mentioned that the weirdest thing was writing a check to the IRS (the Prize is taxable income) larger then than the price of his house.

The Rowland lab was just down the hall from my 4 feet of grad student lab space in the early '70s. When he and Molina's work was first being published, the chemical industry approached and promised any amount of "research" money if they would agree to stay silent. They refused to be bought. Next, there were Republican led "hearings" in Congress accusing Roland of being a communist trying to destroy America's industry. The same pigs are leading the anti-climate change gang today.

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