For some time I have been meaning to write about this as few seem to know the facts behind the use of tris(pentafluorophenyl)boron (aka barf) as an activator for metallocenes.  As I’ve mentioned earlier, 2013 is going to be monumentous year, but it will only be the beginning of a boulder rolling down the mountain.  So here it is, the inventor of alkide abstraction from metallocenes using barf is no other than (trumpet sound) Xinmin Yang.  That is right, a Chinese graduate student was the actual inventor; however, my source says Dr. Ewen claims to have invented this independently at about the same time (but the claim was highly questionable).  We should not be too overly surprised by this as many great inventions are made by the students of the professors whom dispense crappy laser pointers and profess the benefits of slave labor.