DANCING IN THE NANO WORLD TurnIng SpecTroScopy InTo

12 Pages·2014·1.74 MB·English

Issue 1 // Spring 2014
bristol.ac.uk/chemistry
DANCING IN THE NANO WORLD
TurnIng SpecTroScopy
InTo performance arT
BIOFUEL BREAKTHROUGH: IS Sugar beeT Tomorrow’S peTrol?
THE GLASSBLOWER’S TALE: The crafT of flaSkS & funnelS
update
update
Welcome
The latest news from the School of Chemistry
As Head of School, it’s a great
honour to lead such a vibrant
department that is home to so
many fantastic colleagues and
students. This issue gives you
a taste of the innovative
research and teaching that
characterises chemistry at
the University of Bristol.
from a research perspective,
we feature a story about protolife,
an exciting new initiative which
Tim Harrison
seeks to understand the molecular shows school
students the
origins of the first cells. elsewhere, dramatic effects of
liquid nitrogen on
Dr David glowacki, one of our the local flora
youngest members of staff, takes
us on a tour of his acclaimed art- Bringing chemistry to
meets-science project, danceroom
Spectroscopy. continuing the
life in the classroom
creative streak, we feature an entry
from the pictureIt… Chemistry blog,
which uses imagery as the universal
language of science.
Bristol Chemlabs outreach has an aspects of up-skilling for practising
you’ll also read about what our
international reputation for promoting teachers, in a variety of areas of
undergraduate and postgraduate chemistry to students of all ages and contemporary chemistry.
students get up to, and our their teachers (writes Tim Harrison). since on Wednesdays throughout the
award-winning outreach work, the project’s inception, we have worked year, and most days in June and July, the
not to mention a profile of our directly with more than 300,000 students undergraduate teaching labs are in use by
extremely talented glassblower, in 27 countries on five continents. school groups on day visits or residential
Duncan Tarling. Much of the work in primary and stays. these are assisted in their practical
secondary schools is carried out by work by yet more chemistry students.
I hope you enjoy reading this first
trained students under my supervision. Feedback is always useful. i gave two
issue of Chemistry Explored, and
in recent years we’ve had the opportunity lecture demonstrations to 340 Year 10
look forward to sharing more about
to help promote chemistry in singapore, and 11 students at lliswerry High school,
life in chemistry in future editions.
France, Malta, Jersey, ireland, Namibia Newport, Gwent. Headteacher Alyson
and south Africa. the quality of this Mills commented: “Many thanks for
work has been recognised with several bringing the ‘wow’ factor to my school
national awards. today. the Key stage 4 pupils have
the engagement activities can be been talking about it all day and that is
Professor Nick Norman as varied as leading groups in hands- a fabulous testament to your delivery.
Head of the School on practical work in primary schools, the science was accessible and exciting
of Chemistry writing articles and giving talks and mini and will be memorable.”
lectures to secondary school students.
More senior postgraduate and Tim Harrison is Director of Outreach and
postdoctoral chemists, along with Bristol ChemLabS School Teacher Fellow.
academic staff, are also engaged in www.chemlabs.bris.ac.uk
02 chemistry explored // Issue 1
also in this issue…
Selena on the
roof of Africa,
Tanzania, 2013
on Top of The worlD
iN sePteMBer lAst YeAr, Undergraduate student Administrator selena Power
decided to take on the challenge of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the charity News
Hammer out, which supports families and patients affected by brain tumours.
“it was a huge personal challenge that my sister and i undertook, to raise awareness brisSynbio launch 03
about the fantastic work Hammer out does supporting families like mine,” says
biofuel breakthroughs 04
selena. “i managed to hit my target of £4,000 – and climb 19,330ft – but decided to
meet the glassblower 05
continue with the appeal and eventually raised £7,654.”
so would she do it again? “i’d never attempt another mountain, but i have entered
the race for life, the Pretty Muddy run on Bristol Downs, and the Kamikaze Features
Adventure run.”
danceroom Spectroscopy:
where art meets science 06
Boom boom! new Protolife: new research into
professor paul wyatt, Director of the origins of cells 08
aDvenTureS
undergraduate Studies, took to the Vanilla: the chemistry of
bristol stage recently for a stand- an everyday flavouring 10
In SynTheTIc
up routine about the perils of the
chemistry lab. professor wyatt
bIology
joined the December lineup for
bright club bristol, which hosts gigs University of Bristol
mixing academics with professional school of Chemistry
BUilDiNG Cells from scratch and
Cantock’s Close
comics, and delivered an eight- using bacteria to produce new vaccines –
Bristol Bs8 1tH, UK
minute set focusing on a surreal these are just some of the exciting ideas to Tel [phone] Web www.bris.ac.uk/chemistry
finger buffet held in the radioactive be explored in a new research centre at the Email [email protected]
lab in his student days. “This is a University of Bristol.
Editor: Aliya Mughal
room where you normally wear a Funded by a £13.6 million grant To find out more about our courses and programmes,
space-suit to handle things, and from the Biotechnology and Biological visit www.bris.ac.uk/study
yet everyone seemed happy sciences research Council (BBsrC) Chemistry Explored is produced in association with
and the engineering and Physical Immediate Media Branded Content,
to drink champagne and
sciences research Council (ePsrC), tower House, Fairfax street, Bristol Bs1 3BN
eat vol-au-vents there,” he Tel [phone]
BrissynBio will bring together scientists
said. buoyed by a positive Web www.immediatecontent.co.uk
from all fields, in order to develop
Group Editor Dan linstead
reception, professor wyatt
new techniques and technologies in Group Art Editor Will slater
– who admits to doing a synthetic biology. Director, Branded Content Julie Williams
With thanks to Dr Craig Butts, Ms selena Power, Dr Jenny
‘tiny bit of footlights’ as a Centre Director Professor Dek slaughter, Dr David Glowacki, Mr Duncan tarling, Mr tim
cambridge undergraduate – Woolfson said: “We are over the moon. Harrison, Prof steve Mann, Dr Mei li.
Photography David Pratt
is already planning his next this is the culmination of hard work from
Unless otherwise indicated, copyright in this publication belongs to the University of Bristol. Views
gig. www.brightclubbristol. a number of us over the past five years. expressed in Chemistry Explored do not necessarily reflect those of the University. The Editor reserves the
right to edit contributions received. While care is taken to ensure accuracy of information, this cannot be
wordpress.com it will allow us to begin some exciting guaranteed. Printed in the UK by William Gibbons.
multi-disciplinary research programmes.”
chemistry explored // Issue1 03
update
Students at work in
the school’s nuclear
magnetic resonance labs
The beet generation
Prize-winning work on biofuels by young chemists means sugar beet
is shaping up as a viable source of sustainable energy
WHeN Alex seArle-BArNes and Papadouli in the University of Bristol’s “this is a perfect example of how students
fellow student John luckett made a novel Chemical synthesis Centre for Doctoral can apply science to real-world problems,”
discovery about the potential uses of an training, they successfully ran test says Craig Butts, reader in Mechanistic
emerging biofuel, they turned to the reactions with hexanoic acid and ethanol. and structural Chemistry. “By coming to
University of Bristol to investigate further. But they found a sticking point in Bristol and using our labs and equipment,
the collaboration between the removing sufficient water from the Alex and John were able to move a step
Malmesbury school pupils and the school fermentation broth to make the closer to a really useful biofuel product.
of Chemistry came about in 2010, when butanoic acid reaction efficient, “Will they be selling their ideas to
Alex and John had the idea to see how posing new questions for Alex and shell next year for millions? Probably not.
much ethanol they could extract from the school of Chemistry and paving But have they learnt a great deal to take
sugar beet. the University’s researchers the way for further explorations. into their scientific careers? Absolutely.”
suggested they analyse their produce
using the school of Chemistry’s mass
spectrometer and nuclear magnetic Energy from greens
resonance spectrometer. this enabled them
to prove the composition of their raw sugar evidence for the potential of sugar
beet fermentation extract by successfully beet as an alternative source of
distilling ethanol, while also identifying fuel has been increasing in the last
that the main fermentation by-product decade. Its conversion to bioethanol
was butanoic acid. and, more recently, biobutanol –
the discovery went on to earn Alex and
a more energy-dense fuel – is already
John a prestigious National science and
proving useful on large commercial
engineering Competition (NseC) prize, wissington
scales. The british Sugar biofuel plant at wissington
presented at the Big Bang Fair in 2011 by factory produces
in norfolk is just one factory that makes use of
Professor Brian Cox. up to 55,000
the plentiful supply of sugar beet feedstock that is
tonnes of
The future looks sweet produced in the region. The use of ethyl butyrate
bioethanol fuel
in 2013, Alex made a further discovery – is an even more recent development, as both an
that butanoic acid derivatives, such as ethyl additive and a raw fuel, with companies modifying Source: www.britishsugar.co.uk
butyrate, were actually even more useful microorganism strains to increase fermentation.
bio-fuels than ethanol. Working with sofia
04 chemistry explored // Issue 1
update
Duncan Tarling
creates dozens of
pieces of bespoke
glassware every week
Mr Maker
Meet the craftsman who feeds the school’s
insatiable demand for laboratory glassware
over tHe lAst 30 YeArs, shape you need. there’s only about half
Duncan tarling has played a part in a dozen processes in glassblowing really,
more experiments at the school of you just join them all together.”
Chemistry than any other staff member More complex projects include
– and yet he happily admits he’s no glassware incorporating quartz –
chemist. rather, he’s the school’s used for experiments involving
glassblower, responsible for creating ultraviolet light – which has a higher
hundreds of complex pieces of glassware melting point than borosilicate and is
every month – perhaps 100,000 pieces therefore harder to work.
over the course of his career. And while it might seem an
“i saw it advertised and thought anachronism to employ an in-house
it was something different,” he glassblower in a modern chemistry
recalls of his arrival at the University faculty, Duncan saves the school both
as an apprentice in the mid-1980s. money and time. 2,000 yrs
Previously part of a three-man team, “A lot of the equipment they use
Duncan now operates solo from his in here, you simply can’t buy off the
back-room studio at the school’s shelf – you’d have to have it specifically Glassblowing dates back to
Cantock’s Close site. Working to made. i can make a quartz cell for £20 the Middle Eastern cities of the
a verbal brief or a quick sketch, or so, whereas it might be £500 from 1st century BC Roman Empire.
he can produce a simple piece of a supplier. And you can have it in days Similar techniques have been used
glassware in just a few minutes. rather than weeks.” continuously for 2,000 years.
“Most things are made from hollow Duncan’s creative skills don’t end
borosilicate glass tubes,” he explains. in the lab either. in his spare time, he 2,282°F
“i buy them in widths from 4mm up builds kit cars, and from time to time
to 100mm, plus separate joints and may be spotted driving his home-made
taps. the glass is melted with a torch or sylva riot round the racetrack at Castle Temperature at which borosilicate
bench burner, and then formed into the Combe in Gloucestershire. glass starts to melt (1250°C)
chemistry explored // Issue1 05
innovation
Dancing with
molecules
What links Feynman-Hibbs molecular dynamics with the acclaimed
violinist Nicola Benedetti? Dr David Glowacki – chemist, author and
inventor of danceroom Spectroscopy – explains
Can you explain your danceroom meeting was trying to
Spectroscopy project? figure out how enzymes
5,000
i lead a project where we’ve made an interactive work. our bodies are
chemistry video game called danceroom spectroscopy. human-sized chemical
Using a set of 3D sensor cameras connected to a factories, and enzymes are
the number of
computer with 5,000 processors, our video game lets little molecular machines
processors in the
you see your energy field and use it to control the that manufacture the
computer that runs
motion of atoms and molecules. chemicals we need to live.
the dS programme
in the autumn we hooked violinist Nicola Benedetti Without them,
and her violin up to our system. she was able to we’re dead.
21m
control the graphics on a massive screen using both i wrote a paper last year
her motion and the notes she was playing on her outlining some new ideas
violin. she’d never done anything like it before, and dS uses a 21-metre, for how they work, but
she loved it! We got massive applause at the end. 360 degree immersive lots of famous scientists
the following morning i participated in a panel projection dome disagreed with my ideas,
discussion of the previous night’s performance. and most of them were
there were musicians, music professors, experts in in telluride. We basically
english literature and artistic producers. For a solid had the equivalent of a playground fight, with some
hour, they gave marks on the performance: what people on my side and some on the other side.
they liked, what they thought could be better, Also last summer, i attended a unique conference,
what they did and didn’t understand. held at the Kloster seeon monastery in the foothills
of the Bavarian Alps. the aim of the meeting was to
You’re a busy man. Can you describe bring together some exciting early-career chemists
a typical day? from the UK, UsA and Germany in order to
About the only thing that i can guarantee in my job facilitate international networking across diverse
is that no two days are ever the same. Here’s how my chemistry disciplines. i presented in a session entitled
job works: i do pretty much whatever i like and i get ‘Applied theory’, and had the opportunity to hear
a paycheck every month. in order to keep getting a loads of amazingly talented scientists discuss their
paycheck, i try to make sure that, firstly, whatever i research across biochemistry, materials science,
do increases the human knowledge that’s already out soft matter, theory and computation, organic
there; secondly, i do a good job; and, thirdly, it gets chemistry, and so on.
other people excited.
it’s pretty easy to satisfy these criteria, so long as i And the future?
carry on with fun stuff, and so long as i find talented in 2013 i was awarded a royal society University
and energetic people to do it with. And whatever i do research Fellowship, hosted by the University of
or whatever i find out, i never stop asking myself one Bristol. My research fellowship is to carry out a
question: ‘Why?’ programme entitled ‘Beyond equilibrium: Ultrafast
solution-phase dynamics and enzyme catalysis’. these
You frequently travel to discuss your fellowships are an amazing opportunity: they provide
research, what have you done recently? five to ten years of funding and a tremendous amount
in August i was in the UsA for a meeting in of intellectual freedom, so just my cup of tea! e
telluride, Colorado, which is so high up in the rocky
Mountains that the thin air can make people ill. the For more details and video, visit danceroom-spec.com
06 chemistry explored // Issue 1
danceroom Spectroscopy
How does it work?
“This multi-award winning
project is at the frontier of Sci-
Art collaborations,” says David.
“It explores new languages and
crossovers on the interface of
physics research, interactive
art, education, performance and
technology. It interprets people
as energy fields, allowing them to
influence both graphics and sound,
using their movement.”
What’s on the screen is a computer
simulation of molecule movements,
determined by Feynman-Hibbs
molecular dynamics. Dancers
are captured by 3D cameras and
manipulated into energy fields during
the performance.
Dr Glowacki told the Huffington
Post: “On a fundamental level,
the microscopic atomic and
molecular interactions we have
with our environment are energetic.
Using physics-based molecular
models, real-time supercomputing,
and digital artistry, dS gives you
a glimpse of your energy field,
embedded in a sea of atoms
and molecules.
“As you move, your energy field
interacts with these atoms and
molecules, affecting their vibrational
dance, and generating sound and
images. It’s actually not so different
from what’s happening to you as you
sit reading this article: trillions of
invisible atmospheric molecules are
microscopically battering you and
momentarily interacting with your
energy field at the point of impact.”
Dr Glowacki Electronic musician’s laptop
discusses the dS running MAX/MSP & Ableton Live
project with dancers
Audio
output
OSC data Projector
structures
Graphics
output
GPU Depth
workstation matrix
Depth
sensor
chemistry explored // Issue1 07
protolife
Unravelling the
origins of life
How did the first biological cells, the basic building blocks of life,
form in a world devoid of biopolymers? That’s the question that drives
research in Professor Steve Mann’s Protolife laboratory
As jobs go, searching for the origins protocell structures? Could such self- nearly everyone in the group wants to
of life takes some beating. But that assembly have resulted in the formation of work on the chemistry of protocells
is the goal of the school’s Protolife structures capable of trapping the diverse because we are all incredibly excited to
laboratory and its leader, Professor steve range of reactive components necessary for do new things, try out new ideas, and
Mann. Conventional research in this area primitive replication and metabolism? continue to push forward the frontiers
focuses on trying to produce ever simpler Professor Mann’s lab is designing between chemistry and other disciplines,”
cells in which unnecessary functions experiments which demonstrate that says Professor Mann.
are stripped away to leave minimal cells simple protocells can form through self
that could have formed with the smallest assembly, undergo self-reproduction to What is self-assembly?
number of genes necessary for life. produce new protocells, and grow into self-assembly occurs when molecules
Professor Mann, however, is taking a larger structures as reactions proceed spontaneously aggregate together to form
different approach. Could the first cells between the molecules trapped within the complicated ordered structures. the
have formed through the spontaneous chemical micro-compartments. molecules are held together by relatively
ordering of smaller molecules such as fatty “Five years ago my group was focused weak interactions such as hydrogen bonding
acids or phospholipids into semi-permeable solely on nanomaterials chemistry; now, or van der Waals forces. these interactions
08 chemistry explored // Issue 1
Meet the chemists
Prof Steve Mann
& Dr Mei Li
professor Steve Mann is
Director of the Centre for
Organised Matter Chemistry,
and Principal of the Bristol Centre
for Functional Nanomaterials
at the University of Bristol.
His research is broadly focused
on the chemical synthesis,
characterisation and emergence
of complex forms of organised
matter, including models of
protocell assembly. Professor
Mann joined the University in
1998, following tenures at the
universities of Oxford and Bath.
He has published over 420
scientific papers, and was elected
as a Fellow of the Royal Society
in 2003. Outside academia, he
enjoys running half marathons and
playing the electric guitar.
dr Mei li recently took up the
role of Laboratory Facilitator in
the newly founded Centre for
Protolife Research at Bristol, to
Students at work in
the Centre for Protolife manage the research centre and
Research, which is
projects on protolife research.
investigating the origins
of cell formation Her research activities involve a
wide range of interdisciplinary
fields across nanotechnology,
are often directional, so that the resulting the formation of a micelle maximises materials chemistry, biology and
structures take on characteristic shapes. the exothermic interactions between the physics. She has published nearly
Good examples of self-assembly include hydrophilic carboxylic acid head group 80 well-cited research papers
the formation of liquid crystals, in which and the surrounding aqueous solvent, and review articles in major
large macromolecules align to form ordered protecting the hydrophobic hydrocarbon international journals. Her current
phases with properties that are intermediate chains within. the resulting structure research focuses on the design
between those of a solid and a liquid, or the may trap otherwise insoluble hydrophobic and construction of artificial
interaction of two polynucleotide chains in molecules, such as fats or oils, allowing chemical cells and protocell
a double helix to form a strand of DNA. them to be transported, or in the case models based on spontaneous
the action of household detergents of detergents, washed away. At low processes of inorganic self-
is also the result of self-assembly. Most concentrations, micelles are often spherical. organisation, construction of
aqueous detergents contain long-chain However, at higher concentrations, functional membrane of inorganic
carboxylic acid molecules. At certain surfactant molecules tend to form extended protocells and self-reproduction
concentrations, these surfactant molecules double layers of molecules in parallel sheets of inorganic protocells.
aggregate together to form micelles. that resemble cell membranes. n
chemistry explored // Issue1 09
outreach
A flavour of
science Picturing vanilla:
a sponge cake, lab
flasks and orchid
flowers, relatives
of the vanilla
planifolia orchid
The school’s new PictureIt… Chemistry blog delves deep into the chemistry of
everyday substances – including a certain flavouring for ice creams and cakes,
derived from the vanilla pod. Here’s an extract…
With The Great British Bake Off it is from the seed pods that the distinctive, Synthesis and uses
sparking people’s interest in identifiable flavour derives. the vanilla the smell of vanilla comes from over 200
baking, the victoria sponge plant naturally grows only in tropical odorant molecules, but the molecule that
is all the rage. But your bog-standard and subtropical regions and as such is the main contributor to the fragrance
eggs, sugar, butter and flour would is the second most expensive spice and flavour is vanillin. Because of the
be nothing without the sweet, fruity that is commercially available, falling high cost of growing the plant, artificially
fragrance of vanilla. this versatile, and behind only saffron. this is because synthesised vanillin now accounts for over
notoriously expensive, flowering plant commercial cultivation of the plant is 95% of all vanilla flavouring sold. the
is used as flavouring in perfume and in very labour intensive; for example, first industrial production of vanillin came
aromatherapy, but is also useful for the the flower needs to be hand-pollinated from a synthesis starting from coniferin
chemist in the laboratory. to mimic the natural pollination by (found in the bark of pine trees) by two
hummingbirds and bees that are native German chemists, Ferdinand tiemann and
Origins to Mexico and Central America. Wilhelm Haarmann, in 1874.
vanilla was first cultivated by the totonac interestingly, the distinctive smell of the uses of vanillin are wide and varied.
people of eastern Mexico in the 15th vanilla is not present in freshly-picked We are familiar with its prominence in
century. in the early 16th century, the vanilla pods. this is because in the pods baking and in chocolate manufacture,
spanish arrived in eastern Mexico, and the vanillin is stored as β-D-glucoside and even its involvement in the perfume
it is from the spanish ‘vaina’ that the and is not released until the pod is cured. industry, but a huge amount of the world’s
word ‘vanilla’ originates, translating During curing, some of the vanillin β-D- synthetic vanillin is used in the synthesis
as ‘little pod’. glucosidase is converted into vanillin, of other chemicals, such as pharmaceutical
vanilla is obtained from a member of the with the rest being converted, upon drugs. Not only this, but vanillin is used
orchidaceae family plant, Vanilla planifolia. consumption, by enzymes in saliva. in food products, as an additive to mask
10 chemistry explored // Issue 1