How 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 nowLab Synthesis and Radio Detection of Long Carbon Chains HC5N, HC7N, HC9N in Interstellar Space
A brief explanation of the methods to creating a carbon chain, and detection of the frequency of a photon emitted by a rotating molecule, and how these methods led to the discovery of new organic compounds in the constellation Taurus
More details | Watch nowPart 3: Selective Microwave Heating of a Polar Reaction Substrate
In part three of this three part series, FSU chemist Dr. Gregory Dudley, summarizes the conclusions of ongoing FSU microwave chemistry research. He discusses the implications and future prospects of microwave research, addressing how other labs could....
More details | Watch nowPart 1: Selective Microwave Heating Design and Theory
In part one of this three part series, FSU chemist Dr. Gregory Dudley, puts forth the controversy that surrounds microwave chemistry research, he outlines physical theory of microwave chemistry, and discusses the research teams central design hypothe....
More details | Watch nowMicrowave Chemistry Introduction: Your dial goes up to 11
This is the introduction to a three part research presentation on microwave chemistry given by FSU chemist Dr. Gregory Dudley. Dudley reports on joint FSU research surrounding microwave chemistry and its previously unknown potential in lab applicatio....
More details | Watch nowDiscovery of Nitric Oxide and Cyclic GMP in Cell Signalling and their 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 nowDiscovery of Nitric Oxide and Cyclic GMP in Cell Signaling and Their 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 nowStructural Biology and its Translation into Practice and Business: My Experience
As a student in the early 1960s, I had the privilege to attend winter seminars organized by my mentor, W. Hoppe, and by M. Perutz, which took place in a small guesthouse in the Bavarian-Austrian Alps. The entire community of a handful of protein cry....
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 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 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 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 nowTurning Mountains into Mole Hills: Moderating Strain without Sacrificing Reactivity
Florida State graduate student Brian Gold discusses his research into click chemistry, that is building complex molecules using simple reactions that always work. Brian's project focuses on increasing ring strain of organic molecules without reducing....
More details | Watch nowOrganometallic uranium chemistry: small molecule activation
Jess gives a lively account of her work which involves the study of how uranium organ-metallics can catalyse unusual and useful reactions. She is a PhD student at the University of Sussex, UK.
More details | Watch nowMaking the tiniest machines
Over the past few years some of the first examples of synthetic molecular level machines and motors Ñ all be they primitive by biological standards Ñhave been developed. These molecules respond to light, chemical and electrical stimuli, inducing mo....
More details | Watch nowScience Advice and Policy Making
Professor Sir John Cadogan was awarded the RSC Lord Lewis Prize 2010 in recognition of his distinguished research in organic chemistry and his wide-ranging, distinctive and significant contributions in industry and public service.
More details | Watch nowSuzuki Coupling Reactions
The discoverer of these really useful reactions talks about their discovery and development.
More details | Watch nowDiscovery of a dynamic atmosphere at one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus
In recent years, Enceladus, Saturn's sixth largest moon, has become a major attraction for scientists, with many believing it offers the best hope we have of discovering other life in our solar system. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Satu....
More details | Watch nowCoprolite Chemistry – what fossilised faeces can tell us about extinct animals
Faeces contains a complex mixture of chemical compounds, including substances from the diet and digestive processes. By better understanding the biology of extinct animals we can gain insights into how they interacted with their environment and poten....
More details | Watch now‘How should a chemist understand brewing?’ Beer and theory around 1800
Eighteenth-century chemists could gain useful income and patronage as advisors to industry – and some of the wealthiest and most influential industrialists were brewers. Making chemical knowledge credible to this audience, however, was not always e....
More details | Watch nowCatalytic Clothing
When science meets fashion exciting things happen. Unlikely collaborators designer Helen Storey MBE and scientist Tony Ryan OBE have teamed up for Catalytic Clothing - a radical project that endeavours to clean the air we breathe through the clothes ....
More details | Watch nowMetal Flux Synthesis Media for Magnetic Compounds
Early rare earth metals (La, Ce, Pr, Nd) combined with late first row transition metals (Fe, Co, Ni) can produce low melting eutectic mixtures. For instance, a 75:25 mole percent mixture of La and Ni forms a eutectic that melts at 532 õC. We are inv....
More details | Watch nowThe History of Nitrous Oxide
The Chemistry of Gasoline
Explaining the chemistry behind gasoline. Also given is an explanation of ethanol, an alternative fuel.
More details | Watch nowGreen Chemistry – an overview
Finding the right balance: from rare gases to ribosomes
In this lecture Carol discusses the developments in accurately weighing atoms and molecules, from the earliest experiments used to examine gases through to the analysis of organic chemicals. She describes how she and other researchers developed innov....
More details | Watch nowCatalysts and collaborations
Catalysts facilitate almost every reaction in the human body. They also enable us to make all kinds of molecules in the lab, and few people have contributed more to this field than Richard Schrock. Can he help Norweigan student Christer pstad to cata....
More details | Watch nowThe Periodic Table as you’ve never seen it before
A wonderful set of videos about all the elements, available interactively from the opening page.
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 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 60n2 rule us....
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 nowNuclear magnetic resonance and macromolecules
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....
More details | Watch nowAtmospheric Chemistry
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....
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 ....
More details | Watch nowEnzyme-Catalysed Reactions
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....
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