science · 15 July 1919 · 105 years ago
death
Died 15 Jul 1919 at age 66 (born 9 Oct 1852).
German chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1902 in recognition of his investigations of the sugar and purine groups of substances. He determined the structures of uric acid, xanthine, caffeine, theobromine, and other related compounds, and showed they are all derivatives of a single compound, a nitrogenous base that he named purine. His study of sugars led him to investigate the reactions and substances involved in fermentation, leading to his investigations of how enzymes break down sugars. Thus, Fischer laid the foundations for enzyme chemistry. During WW I Fischer was responsible for organizing the production of chemicals in Germany. He committed suicide in 1919, after two of his sons had been killed in the war.
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