In 1927, German physicist/chemist Manfred Eigen was born.
In 1954, Eigen began using a technique to study extremely fast chemical reactions. These reactions lasted only one-thousandth to one-billionth of a second. This technique was called the relaxation technique in reference to the time it takes to bring the system back to equilibrium. Before Eigen’s work, scientists had no way to calculate the rates of these reactions. He received the Nobel Prize for his work in 1967.
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