Talk:Harry Kroto

"Unusual" surname
If the article wants to call Krotoschiner an "unusual" surname it must say something to the effect of "his surname, uncommon in England, is of Silesian origin." Obviously such a name is only "unusual" in a location other than its origin. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.232.143.202 (talk) 16:59, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Origin of surname
In his autobiography on the nobel prize site, Kroto says "My name seems to have its origins in Silesia". I think it's generally preferable to keep this specific information, rather than just generalising to "Polish", hence am reverting. Rho 04:35, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Mrs Kroto, not Lady Kroto
I've heard that the Krotos tend to ask to be billed as Sir Harry and Mrs Kroto, at Mrs Kroto's request (e.g. ). While she's technically entitled to call herself Lady Kroto, if she prefers Mrs Kroto then that is her name. DrMikeF 09:51, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Recent criticism of Michael Reiss
See Blinded by a divine light, an opinion piece on The Guardian website dated Sunday September 28, 2008, following the resignation of Michael Reiss as Director of Education of the Royal Society over comments made by Reiss suggesting that creationism should be taught as a "cultural worldview" in science lessons. --212.85.12.219 (talk) 13:32, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

Re: "Unusual" surname
Two pennies from the Pole: (1) the surname is less related to location (Poland / Silesia) or language (Polish / Silesian) and rather more of cultural (i.e. Jewish) origin. When the surnames were assigned (for Polish Jews quite lately, typically 18th-19th century) quite common were surnames derived from the name of the place the people came from and for the most notable families (like rabbis) even where the people lived at the moment. Krotoschiner in Yidish (and German) means "of Krotoschin". We may speculate that one of Sir Kroto's grandfathers was the Rabbi of Krotoschin or an inhabitant of some other town or village who recently relocated from Krotoschin.

And (2) Krotoschin (in Polish: Krotoszyn) is the town in Poland, Wielkopolska region (English translation could be Greater Poland), not far away from Wielkopolska-Silesia border, but definitely not in Silesia.

147.114.226.180 (talk) 13:21, 23 June 2009 (UTC) Grzegorz

Fixing the External Links
The Links section at the bottom has been flagged as problematic for a while, so I'm going to clean it up as follows: Harry Kroto autobiography from Nobel foundation - removed. It's already used in References, and I don't see any need to list it here. Art, Buckyballs and Chemistry: The ABCs of Discovery The Science Network interview with Sir Harold Kroto - removed. I'll try incorporating some of its content into the Wikipedia article and cite it in the References Sir Harry Kroto FRS – Chemical architecture from the Royal Society - removed. Link doesn't pertain specifically to Kroto. Harry Kroto homepage at the University of Sussex - removed. This is a dead link, and I'm not seeing a homepage for him on the University's site, but I'll put a valid link to his Sussex homepage if I find one. Professor Harry Kroto - removed. This is a dead link. Vega Science Trust - I'm leaving this link since it's an educational charity he co-founded. Harry Kroto personal website - Leaving this link Florida State University page - Leaving this link University of Sheffield - Changed link from the university homepage to now be http://www.shef.ac.uk/kroto/about-harry-kroto Kroto Incubator - removed. This is a dead link. Kroto Research Campus - Leaving this link. Kroto, Harold W. at ISIHighlyCited.com - removed. This link no longer pertains to anything specifically about him.Dustinlull (talk) 02:02, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

Maybe I'm just being silly
I don't understand why H-C≡C-C≡N is called cyanoacetylene and not cyanoacetylyne. Prop-2-ynenitrile would be the systematic name, would it not? So I also don't understand why it's acetyl, as this would indicate there to be only two carbon atoms, to me. However I'm just a student so I don't know. Any help? Is this correct? - Nessa Ancalimë ♥ (talk) 09:45, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

H-C≡C-H is commonly called acetylene although its systematic name - rarely used - is ethyne. Hence cyanoacetylene. It's not a prop-nitrile because that would be counting one of the carbons twice - in the nitrile -C≡N group and again in the prop- group. I think ethynenitrile works; but I'd go with cyanoacetylene as I think it would be more readily understood. Cross Reference (talk) 13:30, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

British
He's British, subset English. Like Bush is American, subset Texan etc..92.24.181.151 (talk) 05:52, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

KCB?
He was made a knight bachelor in the 1996 New Year's Honours but there's no mention of a KCB anywhere - it's not mentioned on his own biography page. Is there a reference for it or should it be removed?--Mgp28 (talk) 09:31, 12 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Removed--Mgp28 (talk) 08:20, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Surname
According to what mr. Kroto said his name is of "Silesian" origin. The town of Krotoszyn is in fact not in silesia, though it should be regarded as simply polish (there is no point of exaggerating the Greater Poland voivodeship).

Quotes
They are great, but they need to be summarised. --John (talk) 21:33, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Is he dead?
The only source for this was a WordPress blog, so per WP:BLP, I have removed it for now. --Bongwarrior (talk) 06:50, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The newest edit also cited another blog. I'm so confused.  70.172.228.135 (talk) 11:22, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I've replaced the citation with a proper obituary from The Guardian. --Krelnik (talk) 10:16, 3 May 2016 (UTC)

WTF??
"Kroto held many positions in academia throughout his life, most notably the Francis Eppes Professor of Chemistry at the Florida State University, which he joined in 2004. Prior to this, he spent a large part of his career at the University of Sussex,[5] where he held an emeritus professorship." In what world is his FSU professorship his most notable position? He was at Sussex for close to 40 years and was with them when he did his Nobel work. I am a Sussex chemistry grad and knew him well 50 years ago so I suppose I am biased, hence I won't edit this sentence. But it's alarmingly Americo-centric. Cross Reference (talk)     —Preceding undated comment added 13:11, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20120414212052/http://csiconference.org:80/speakers to http://csiconference.org/speakers#harold_kroto
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External links modified
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External links modified
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