Nanoscopy – allowing molecules to be examined inside living cells
Eric Betzig shared the 2014 Chemistry Nobel prize with fellow American William E. Moerner and Romanian-German Stefan W. Hell for revolutionising science through the development of super-resolved fluorescence to exceed the accepted limits of tradition....
More details | Watch nowThe Hunt May Be Up for the Carrier of the Diffuse Interstellar Bands and other stories
The development of radio telescopes has revolutionized our understanding of the molecular constitution of the interstellar medium ISM. A recent surprise that the element carbon had up its sleeve was the existence of C60, Buckminsterfullerene, the thi....
More details | Watch nowFun with Light and Single Molecules
More than 25 years ago, single molecules were first detected optically, but how do we really detect a single molecule today, and what good is it? It is an amazing fact that you can even detect single molecules with your own eyes. When a new regime of....
More details | Watch nowElectron Transfer Theory in Single Molecule Studies of Intermittent Fluorescence of Quantum Dots and in Initial Steps in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
Intermittently fluorescing single molecule systems are found in many materials, including semiconductor quantum dots (QD), dyes on crystalline or nanoparticle film surfaces, and biological systems. The QD's show a ~ -3/2 power law for the distributio....
More details | Watch nowMolecules Against Cancer or for Long-Term Memory Storage
For cancer diagnosis and therapy, we are developing activatable cell penetrating peptides (ACPPs), synthetic molecules with a novel amplifying mechanism for homing to diseased tissues. ACPPs are polycationic cell penetrating peptides whose cellular u....
More details | Watch nowNMR in Biology, Chemistry and Medicine
For the discovery of the physics phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1952. NMR has then been used in a wide range of fundamental studies in physics, and in the 1960....
More details | Watch nowHow to Synthesize a Wide Variety of Optically Active Compounds with >99% Optical Purity
The discovery and synthetic applications of a widely applicable and highly enantioselective (>99% ee) protocol consisting of the 'ZACA reaction' (Zr-catalyzed asymmetric carboalumination of alkenes), purification of the ZACA-products by lipase-cat....
More details | Watch nowCatalysis at Surfaces: From Atoms to Complexity
This lecture addresses the question if spatio-temporal self-organisation of matter which is so characteristic for living systems can also be verified with a simple inorganic reaction in which the observed phenomena of complexity can be traced back to....
More details | Watch nowRoles of the Ubiquitin System in Health and Disease
The selective degradation of many short-lived proteins in eukaryotic cells is carried out by the ubiquitin-mediated proteolytic system. In this pathway, proteins are targeted for degradation by covalent ligation to ubiquitin, a highly conserved small....
More details | Watch nowStructural Aspects of Protease Control in Health and Disease
This lecture starts out with a very brief review of the history of protein crystallography and continue with our studies since 1970 on proteolytic enzymes and their control. Proteolytic enzymes catalyse a very simple chemical reaction, the hydrolytic....
More details | Watch nowTowards Adaptive Chemistry
Molecular chemistry implementing reversible chemical bonds between atoms in molecules, as well as supramolecular chemistry, whose molecular components are held together by intermolecular interactions, are able to undergo a continuous change in consti....
More details | Watch nowAquaporin Water Channels – From Atomic Structure to Malaria
Aquaporin channels allow water to rapidly cross cell membranes in all living organisms. AQP1 confers red cells and proximal renal tubules with high water permeability. Present in renal collecting duct, AQP2 is regulated by vasopressin, and human muta....
More details | Watch nowSeeing is Believing – A Hundred Years of Visualizing Molecules
It has been a hundred years since molecules were first visualized directly by using x-ray crystallography. That gave us our first look at molecules as simple as common salt to one as complex as the ribosome that has almost a million atoms. In the las....
More details | Watch nowThe Dawn of the Fullerenes: A Research Adventure
When he received the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Richard E. Smalley (who also worked at Rice) and Sir Harold Kroto (at the time at the University of Sussex, UK), this was a true example of national and international scientific collabo....
More details | Watch nowC60-Buckminsterfullerene: Not just a Pretty Molecule
Amongst the Nobel Laureates lecturing in Lindau, Sir Harold Kroto would probably earn the award for the most unusual and characteristic way of presenting. This lecture, which is the first he ever gave in Lindau, is no exception. Kroto`s way of presen....
More details | Watch nowDynamics of Chemical Reactions
Every macroscopic chemical transformation, whether it is atmospheric ozone depletion or the burning of a candle, consists of millions of microscopic chemical events, which involve collisions between molecules. It has been the dream of scientists fo....
More details | Watch nowFrom Disorder to Order
Our experience suggests that a system will usually show the tendency to undergo spontaneously a transition from the state of order into disorder. Quite in contrast, our world developed from an initial state of great disorder into another one where ....
More details | Watch nowMolecular Catalysis for Green Chemistry
Science is inevitably intertwined with society. The state of the art of science, coupled with industrial endeavors, has determined our quality of life. Chemists are proud of their ability to generate high value from almost nothing by using accumu....
More details | Watch nowDesigning Molecules and Nanoparticles to Help See and Treat Disease
Molecules to observe and manipulate biological systems can be devised by a variety of strategies, ranging from pure chemical design and total synthesis to genome mining and high-throughput directed evolution. Examples of both successes and failures a....
More details | Watch nowWhy I love Microbes
We live in a fascinating world surrounded by life. Much of that life is clearly visible like the plants and animals that we see every day. However, far more is invisible to the naked eye and it is to this realm, the microscopic world, that I will t....
More details | Watch nowWhy do we not have a vaccine against TB or HIV (yet)?
Survival of vertebrate hosts against infections depends on important natural or innate resistance mechanisms combined with adaptive immune responses of T and B cells. Infectious agents probe the limit of immune responses and help to characterize thr....
More details | Watch nowDarwinian evolution as understood by scientists of the 21st century
After a short reminder of the historical development of evolutionary biology, elements to a molecular theory of Darwinian evolution will be presented. Biological evolution is driven by the availability of genetic variants in populations. The occasi....
More details | Watch nowProtein Crosstalk in Cell Signaling
This talk concentrates on cellular regulation by tyrosine phosphorylation which has been directly implicated in cell growth, differentiation and transformation. Growth factor receptors transduce their signal by recruiting a multiplicity of adaptor p....
More details | Watch nowThe cell cycle and cancer
It was in 1882 that Walther Flemming published drawings of chromosomes lining up in mitosis and parting equally to the daughters of cell division, and 20 years later that Theodor Boveri explained the significance of the chromosome dance in terms of t....
More details | Watch nowRNAi and development in C. elegans
Argonaute proteins interact with small RNAs to mediate gene silencing. C. elegans contains 27 Argonaute homologs, raising the question of what roles these genes play in RNAi and related gene-silencing pathways. Through our collaborator, Dr. Shohei....
More details | Watch nowNitric oxide as a messenger molecule and its role in drug development
The role of nitric oxide in cellular signaling in the past three decades has become one of the most rapidly growing areas in biology. Nitric oxide is a gas and a free radical with an unshared electron that can regulate an ever-growing list of biolog....
More details | Watch nowRecent Advances in Olefin Metathesis Catalyzed by Molybdenum and Tungsten Alkylidene Complexes
In the process of preparing M(NR)(CHCMe2R')(OR")2 (R' = Me or Ph) species (or analogs that contain enantiomerically pure biphenolate or binaphtholate ligands) in situ by treating M(NR)(CHCMe2R')(pyrrolide)2 species with alcohols, we have discovered M....
More details | Watch nowFrom ‘On Water’ and Enzyme Catalysis to Single Molecules and Quantum Dots, Theory and Experiment
Much of theoretical chemistry has involved equations and their application to experiments, Debye, Debye-Hueckel, Transition State Theory, Kramers, LCAO, RRKM, among others. In fortunate circumstances one can, as in a theory of electron transfer reac....
More details | Watch nowChemistry: the Key to Our Future
Chemistry is not merely a science of making observations in order to better understand Nature. Our science is creative and productive, generating substances of very high value from almost nothing. Chemists already have made enormous contribution to....
More details | Watch nowGreenhouse Gases and Climate Change
The 'greenhouse gases (GHG)' intercept a fraction of outgoing terrestrial infrared radiation, creating the natural greenhouse effect which warmed the atmosphere by approximately 32 Celsius at the beginning of the 20th Century. The activities of manki....
More details | Watch nowFrom Atoms to Complexity: Reactions at Surfaces
The interaction of molecules with the surfaces of solids forms the basis of heterogeneous catalysis and can now be investigated in atomic detail. Systems of this kind may, on the other hand, serve as models for studying self-organisation of matter le....
More details | Watch nowAtmospheric Chemistry and Climate in the Anthropocene
Despite their relatively small mass, 10% of the earth biosphere as a whole, generations of ambitious ‘homo sapiens’ have already played a major and increasing role in changing basic properties of the atmosphere and the earth’s surface. Human ....
More details | Watch nowPhotosynthesis, Biomass, Biofuels: Conversion Efficiencies and Consequences
It is generally accepted that the global warming, which we undoubtedly observe, is the result of an increased concentration of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. Within this scenario it is evident that we have to re....
More details | Watch nowMagical Power of d-Block Transition Metals: Past, Present and Future
Until recently, most of the 24 d-block transition metals had been used primarily as useful materials for (i) construction and also as tools and containers, etc., (Ti, Zr, Fe and their alloys with V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, etc.), (ii) precious and ornamental....
More details | Watch nowGlimpses of Chemical Wizardry
In an evangelical spirit, three vignettes will be presented that have the character of molecular parables: stories with lessons that transcend the specific details.(1) How knowledge of the orientation of a methyl group with respect to a neighboring d....
More details | Watch nowCatalysis at Surfaces: From Atoms to Complexity
Catalysis by solid surfaces is, among others, of importance for the chemical industry (e.g. the Haber-Bosch process) as well as for environmental chemistry (car exhaust catalyst). Surface physical techniques enable investigation of the underlying e....
More details | Watch nowCross-Coupling Reactions of Organoboranes: An Easy Way for Carbon-Carbon Bonding
The palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction between different types of organoboron compounds and various organic halides in the presence of base provides a powerful and general methodology for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. The (sp3)C-B ....
More details | Watch nowG Protein Coupled Receptors: Challenges for Drug Discovery
G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) conduct the majority of cellular responses to hormones and neurotransmitters, and are therefore the largest group of pharmaceutical targets for a broad spectrum of diseases. Identification of genes for GPCRs, ini....
More details | Watch nowAdvances in Olefin Metathesis Employing Molybdenum and Tungsten Catalysts
Olefin metathesis is an irresistible way to make C=C bonds catalytically in organic molecules and polymers, both as a consequence of its very nature, i.e. the synthesis of C=C bonds from C=C bonds, and because of the control that can be exercised thr....
More details | Watch nowGreen Chemistry and Catalysis
Much of the chemical industry is based on processes that were developed decades ago. The change in the cost of petroleum carbon and energy sources and the need to control emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will change the rules of the....
More details | Watch nowPerspectives in Chemistry – Towards Adaptive Chemistry
Supramolecular chemistry lies beyond molecular chemistry. It aims at implementing highly complex chemical systems from molecular components held together by non-covalent intermolecular forces and effecting molecular recognition, catalysis and trans....
More details | Watch nowSingle Molecule Studies of Initial Steps in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells and of Quantum Dots – Examples of Electron Transfers and Relation to Ensemble Studies
We consider two fields of single molecule studies of intermittently fluorescing systems. In both fields the intermittency is assumed to involve diffusion controlled electron transfer. One of these studies involves the initial steps in dye-sensiti....
More details | Watch nowWiden Your Scope by Extracurricular Activities: My Example
Some observers might think that fierce scientific competition borders on a rat race. According to Wikipedia: "A rat race is an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit. It conjures up the image of the futile efforts of a lab rat trying to es....
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