A nano-sized gas sensor 6
Sensotran are the industrial partner in the nano2hybrids project. A small family firm based just outside Barcelona in Spain, they are experts in commercial production of gas sensors for a range of industries, notably for detecting dangerous gases pro....
More details | Watch nowBucky Balls
The Buckyball, or C-60 molecule was discovered by accident (in the lab) while trying to understand the chemistry between the stars in the Interstellar Medium ISM. The discovery led to the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1996. Here we look at the structur....
More details | Watch nowNesta Inspire Workshop
Harry Kroto and Jonathan Hare give a workshop at the University of Sussex to local school children and simultaneously video conference with children at Leicester, Imperial, Cardiff, and Edinburgh universities.
More details | Watch nowWomen in Nanotechnology
The Women in Nanotechnology project (WomenInNano) was a 3 year EU Research Project with the aim of finding out ways to support and encourage women working in Nanotechnology. In 2008 the Vega Science Trust was asked to make a short film documenting th....
More details | Watch nowGiant Fullerenes
C-60, the football caged molecule is the head of a family of carbon based structures called the Fullerenes. In this presentation we ook at the larger structures, the giant fullerenes and among other things we will explore the 60n2Ā rule us....
More details | Watch nowNanotubes: The Materials of the 21st Century
Carbon nanotubes, some 1000 times smaller than conventional carbon fibers, have tensile strengths 100x that of steel and conduct electricity like metals. They promise a revolution in structural and electrical engineering.
More details | Watch nowArchitects of the Microcosmos
In thistalk Harry Kroto explains that molecules have structures that are every bit as real in the mind of the chemists who create them, as are the edifices of brick, steel and concrete designed by architects and built by engineers.
More details | Watch nowHow to be Right and Wrong
Nobel Laureate Professor Sir John Cornforth, overcomes his deafness to present an elegant account of how he, and his wife Rita, disentangled a historically important puzzle in steroid synthesis.
More details | Watch nowStates of Matter
John Murrell discusses the basic physical principles relating to the gaseous, liquid and solid states with the aid of models and demonstrations. Attention is drawn to phase changes and subtle features involving intermediate phases such as liquid crys....
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Kurt Wurthrich was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 'for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution' He now shares his life between his....
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In this interview Sherwood Rowland talks about Ozone depletion and the effect of CFCs on Ozone and Global Warming (Greenhouse Warming where infrared radiation is trapped). He explains the chemistry of Ozone depletion and the history of what led to th....
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This presentation gives Rowland's current (2006) opinion/impression of Global Warming. He says that the first legislated discussion that he remembers in the US senate on the Global Warming was in 1986 and the looming problem and whether governments s....
More details | Watch nowCrystallographic electron microscopy
Born in Lithuania, Aaron Klug, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1982, tells us about his early life and education growing up in Durban, South Africa. He developed an early interest in physiology and anatomy but did not find his teacher very inspiring and ga....
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This interview starts with Eigen (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1967) talking about his early work for his PhD thesis on fast reactions and measuring the specific heat of heavy water. He says that light water had already been measured in classical chemis....
More details | Watch nowDiscovery and development of conductive polymers.
Alan MacDiarmid was the first New Zealand born and educated Nobel Prize (Chemistry, 2000) winner since Maurice Wilkins in 1962. In this interview MacDiarmid talks about the science that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for, the discovery of the first c....
More details | Watch nowConductive Polymers
Heeger says that he started as a physicist and thinks like a physicist but got interested in the late 70's in the study of materials. For him it was a natural evolution to move to polymers and in 1975 he began working with Alan MacDiarmid and became ....
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John Cornforth, (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1975), is a member of the Royal Society and is still very active in chemistry research at Sussex University. This section from longer archive recordings shows his warmth and personality, and gives an insight....
More details | Watch nowNanotechnology
What is nanotechnology? Will it change the world, as some have promised? What is all this about molecular machines in our blood? Let the Next Big Thing video on Nanotechnology explain all!
More details | Watch nowRichard Ernst
Nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr), a powerful technique for determining molecular structure, has totally revolutionised chemistry. From its inception half a century ago, its potential as an analytical tool for identifying compounds was clear, albeit l....
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Prof. C.N.R. Rao was born and brought up in Bangalore, India where he developed his interest in science. He studied for his Ph.D at Purdue University in the US but returned to India to continue his career. He has had numerous visiting positions abroa....
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George Gray has contributed fundamentally to the research and development of liquid crystal materials which comprise the Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) that are so essential to today's information based society. He created and systematized the liquid ....
More details | Watch nowRudolph A. Marcus
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1992 'for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems'. We ask Marcus to explain how he works and he replies that he draws pictures in order to visualize problems. On relig....
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Dr. Keith Hughes left school at 16 with no science qualifications to become a Paratrooper in the British Army. After qualifying and spending four years serving his country, he decided to leave the army to pursue a chemistry degree and now is now an a....
More details | Watch nowThe Molecular Gastronomer to the best restaurant in the World
Twenty three year old Rachel is a Cambridge trained biochemist who has been taken on by Heston Blumenthal, owner of the Fat Duck at Bray, to carry out research for her PhD into the molecular make up of flavours and how they can be applied to food in ....
More details | Watch nowThe Chemistry of Interstellar Space
Radioastronomical observations of our galaxy have revealed hordes of molecules in the interstellar medium. Extremely fast reactions result in the high abundance of complex organic compounds in the space between the stars. Amazingly, the key to all th....
More details | Watch nowC-60, the Celestial Sphere that Fell to Earth
In 1985 an experiment, designed to unravel the carbon chemistry in Red Giant Stars, revealed the existence of C-60 Buckminsterfullerene (the third allotropic form of carbon). The story of the discovery and the way its symmetry relates to the natural ....
More details | Watch nowConstructing Chemical Formulas
An introduction to constructing and recognising chemical formulas. Using 20 well-known elements, the valency-rules which govern the atomic ratios are explained and used with several examples.
More details | Watch nowChemical Equations – and how we construct them
An introduction into the writing down of fully balanced chemical equations. The process is explained starting with word equations, finding all the relevant formulas and then working with some useful rules for finding the correct coefficients in the b....
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The concept of oxidation and reduction is explained and generalised using oxidation numbers with ionic and covalent examples. Several equations are balanced, using the oxidation number method to fix various atomic ratios.
More details | Watch nowEnergy Challenges: Power from Hydrogen
We are faced with energy challenges and the promise of power with hydrogen. The fuel cell and solid state hydrogen storage methodologies are currently limited by materials and represent the cutting edge of energy technology. Implementation to a real ....
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Many products you use everyday are the direct result of synthetic innovation in organic chemistry. The McQuade group is interested designing catalysts to aid in more efficient synthetic transformations. n We are especially interested in the effect of....
More details | Watch nowSudden Cardiac Death Studied in a Petri Dish
Some heart arrhythmias are produced by the presence of additional pacemakers in the heart. Those pacemakers are death tissues or scars that trap electrical waves. As an analogy, we pinned scroll waves to obstacles using the Belousov-Zhabotinsky react....
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We have synthesized different alkali metal peroxychromates and K3NbO8 doped with K3CrO8crystals based on rare oxidation state of Chromium (V).We have studied their spectroscopic properties using EPR and pulsed EPR. Coherent spin manipulation on Cr+5 ....
More details | Watch nowComplex Mixture Analysis by FT-Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry
The ultrahigh mass resolving power and sub-ppm mass accuracy of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) allow the assignment of a unique molecular formula to each peak in the mass spectrum. Ionization methods for petro....
More details | Watch nowAdvancements and improvements to etherification and olefination reactions
Etherification and olefination reactions play an important role in synthetic organic chemistry on a daily basis. As organic chemists we apply these methods to tackle synthetic targets of ever increasing complexity. As a graduate student in the Dudley....
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The development of reliable molecular scale building blocks for the construction of nanoscale devices is one of the greatest challenges for the development of numerous applications of these exciting materials. This research describes our efforts in t....
More details | Watch nowIn conversation with Michael Kasha
Nobel laureate, Harry Kroto, interviews Michael Kasha, who has had a distinguished career in science. He was at Berkeley during the Manhattan Project, worked as a graduate student with G N Lewis, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and ha....
More details | Watch nowChemistry and Astronomy: Unification of Sciences
Takeshi Oka, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Chicago and discoverer of H3(+), positively ionised molecule of three protons, talks about the ways in which the various aspects of science are are all interlocked. In particular he shows the ....
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Dan Nocera of MIT gives a review of the world's current power demand and projects it forward to 2030. By using readily available data he shows that providing the increase needed is remarkably difficult given the need to restrict the production of ca....
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Dan gives a brief introduction into his group's discovery of a new and efficient catalyst which could be of vital importance in our search for better ways of capturing solar energy.
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A presentation about the importance of nanoscience (chemistry) and its links with technology in the 21st century.
More details | Watch nowNanoscale Polyelectrolyte O(organic)LED
The advantages and problems of organic light emitting diodes. Synthetic polyelectroltye methods are described.
More details | Watch nowPolyelectrolyte Multilayers Controlling Protein Adsorption etc.
A7r5 smooth muscle cells cultured on different polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEMU) thin films behaved differently. Cells Adhered and spread well on nafion terminated PEMUs, they attached less and migrated more on poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) te....
More details | Watch nowResistivity – A New Look
The importance of electron orbital angular momentum in the processes that contribute to resistivity.
More details | Watch nowSecret Science – Invisible Ink
An introduction to acids and bases using simple kitchen equipment and some 'invisible ink'.
More details | Watch nowSynthesis of Stable, Water Soluble Gold Colloids
Ligand exchange reactions were utilized in the production of aggregation-resistant gold nanoparticles, having an average diameter of 5 nm, comprising a gold core capped with a mixed shell of citrate and zwitterionic ligands. The prepared nanoparticl....
More details | Watch nowACS Richard Smalley Eulogy
A moving address by Harry to the ACS meeting in San Francisco about his colleague and fellow Nobel Prize winner, Richard Smalley.
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This talk is aimed primarily at young children and expresses my enthusiasm and my love for science. Its an attempt at expressing that Science is fun. I talk about some of the experiments done as part of my graduate work. Strategies for achieving guid....
More details | Watch nowArchitecture in Nanospace
A brief history of carbon-60 and its developments into useful materials. How can chemistry help move us towards a more sustainable existence.
More details | Watch nowWhat are we made of?
Development of the ideas which persuaded us to accept the theory of atoms and molecules as constituents of matter.
More details | Watch nowOrganic Synthesis and Methodology – Inspired by Natural Products
Prof Gregory Dudley presents on a research program developing under his direction at Florida State University. The research program is centered in synthetic organic chemistry, with a specific emphasis on electrophilic coupling and C-C bond cleavage ....
More details | Watch nowSystems Chemistry: How can reactions shape the macroscopic world?
Abstract: 21st century chemistry is slowly expanding its concepts into the realm of supermolecular phenomena. However, few tools exist for explaining, creating and controlling complex macroscopic structures and dynamics. In this talk, I discuss our....
More details | Watch nowThe Discovery of Element 101
A first-hand interview of the moment of this discovery from Greg Choppin who worked with Glen Seaborg.
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