Professor Karl Barry Sharpless was the recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize
in chemistry for his work on stereoselective oxidations. Sharpless
worked on the enantioselective oxidation of allylic alcohols using a
titanium isopropoxide catalyst, chiral tartrate ligands, and tert-butyl
hydroperoxide. He also developed an asymmetric dihydroxylation of
alkenes using osmium tetroxide (OsO4) and dihydroquinine based chiral
ligands. In an MIT newsletter, Sharpless recounted the circumstances of
his laboratory injury in 1970, not long after starting his independent career as an assistant professor at MIT,
which caused him to lose sight in one eye. Late one night, Sharpless
stopped to check on a graduate student before leaving the lab. The
first-year was flame sealing an NMR tube in a liquid nitrogen bath.
Sharpless held the tube up to the light and saw a large volume of liquid
in the tube. The liquid, later realized to be liquid oxygen, quickly
disappeared and the tube instantly exploded sending shards of glass into
his cornea, collapsing his eye. He spent the next two weeks in the
hospital with both eyes covered. “The pain was terrific, but my fear was even greater”
he said. His dread came from the potential for sympathetic ophthalmia, a
rare but well documented inflammation of both eyes following trauma to
one eye. The autoimmune inflammatory response of the uninjured eye
toward foreign ocular antigens from the injured eye can cause total
blindness as your body attacks these antigens harming your “good” eye.
Fortunately, Sharpless recovered and regained full sight in his
uninjured eye with no other injuries. Following the experience, he said “there's simply never an adequate excuse for not wearing safety glasses in the laboratory at all times.”
In case of a severe eye injury such as a cut or an object in the eye,
secure a paper cup over the eye socket making sure there is no pressure
on the eye itself and seek immediate medical attention.
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