Dr. Fritz Zernike, 65, of Groningen, The Netherlands, won the Nobel Prize in physics for his invention of the phase contrast microscope.

This year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry went to Hermann Staudinger, 72, of Freiburg, West Germany, who is considered the father of the study of macro-molecules. When he started his work, many organic compounds were known to contain large groups of atoms, but these were considered mere mechanical clumpings of smaller…