Monday's Molecule #57

 
This is one particular form of a very common molecule. You have to name the specific molecule. The common name is sufficient. There will be bonus points to anyone who finds the correct systematic IUPAC name.

There's a direct connection between this type of molecule and Wednesday's Nobel Laureate(s). Your task is to figure out the significance of today's molecule and identify the Nobel Laureate(s) who worked out the preliminary structure of the molecule over half a century ago.

The reward goes to the person who correctly identifies the molecule and the Nobel Laureate(s). Previous winners are ineligible for one month from the time they first collected the prize. There are no ineligible candidates for this week's reward because Sandwalk readers were not very successful in December. The prize is a free lunch at the Faculty Club.

Send your guess to Sandwalk (sandwalk(at)bioinfo.med.utoronto.ca) and I'll pick the first email message that correctly identifies the molecule and the Nobel Laureate(s). Correct responses will be posted tomorrow along with the time that the message was received on my server. I may select multiple winners if several people get it right.

Comments will be blocked for 24 hours. Comments are now open.

UPDATE: There were quite a few responses to this one but most people didn't guess the right molecule. The anticipated correct response was bacteriochlorphyll b. Alex Ling got it, and he also guessed the correct Noble Laureate—the one "who worked out the preliminary structure of the molecule over half a century ago."

THEME:

Nobel Laureates
Note that I'm not going to repeat Nobel Laureates and I already did Hans Fisher. In future editions of Monday's Molecule I'll post a link to all the Nobel Laureates that have been featured on Sandwalk.

More importantly, Bill Chaney noticed that my structure was incorrect. I've made the change above. The structure is wrong in my book so I can't penalize Alex Ling for not knowing that. He is invited to a free lunch on Thursday, January 17th. Bill Chaney will be treated to a free lunch and dinner when he visits Toronto.

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