Developing the Culture of Adventure at Queen's University Belfast, School of Chemistry

贝尔法斯特女王大学化学学院发展冒险文化

• 批准号: EP/C00776X/1
• 负责人: S James
• 金额: $ 7.65万
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FC00776X%2F1
• 关键词: Developing; Culture; Adventure; Queen; University

By working together in teams, scientists can pool their different knowledge and skills and make breakthroughs more quickly than working on their own. A famous example of this is the discovery of the chemical structure of DNA, and its role in heredity, which was made by a zoologist (James Watson) working with a physicist (Francis Crick). The project we propose here will encourage scientists with different expertise and skills, to work together in teams to achieve exciting new breakthroughs.The first three projects they will work on are:1. Molecular computingDNA is an extremely compact way to store information - a microscopic piece contains all the information needed to make a human being. This lead to the idea that DNA could be used in computing, although progress has been slow to achieve this. Recently, German scientists made a breakthrough which suggests that RNA, which is closely related to DNA, could be the answer. In Queen's University Belfast, the world expert in molecular computing, Professor de Silva, together with Dr Vyle, who is an expert in RNA, will put the pieces together. Their assistant will travel to Germany to learn the necessary techniques, and then return to Belfast to apply them to RNA computing guided by Professor de Silva and Dr Vyle.2. Liquids with holes inMolecules are the microscopic Lego bricks that make up everything around us. Solids with holes between the molecules ('porous' solids) act like molecular sieves, and are useful for removing pollutants from the environment, and to release medication into the body. Imagine a liquid molecular sieve, that could, for example, improve dialysis treatments to filter out toxins from blood. The expertise of Dr James (in porous solids) and Dr Lagunas (in ionic liquids) will be brought together to make the first porous liquids.3. Can left-handed light be used to store information?Your left hand is different to your right hand, as you discover if you get your gloves the wrong way round. In the same way, molecules have 'handedness', i.e. left and right forms. More amazingly, even light can have handedness. Shining this so-called 'chiral' light onto molecules can make them change their handedness, and this behaviour could potentially be used in high-density data storage and in optical technology. However, the problem is that the molecules either revert to their previous form when the light is switched off, or they decompose. The expertise of Dr Fletcher in left- and right-handed molecules, and of Dr Lane in chiral light will be brought together to make the first stable molecules which keep their handedness when the light is switched off.These projects will run simultaneously and last six months. When they are over, the researchers should have enough initial results to seek funding for longer-term projects from EPSRC. Proposals for other team-based projects will then be invited from all the staff in the School of Chemistry. These proposals will be judged by the Departmental Research Committee on the basis of how important the results would be, and how well-planned they are, and the best ones will be funded.At the end of two years, several new teams will have been established, and important new breakthroughs made leading to new research areas and eventually to useful applications in the real world.

通过团队合作，科学家可以汇集不同的知识和技能，比单独工作更快地取得突破。一个著名的例子是由动物学家（詹姆斯·沃森）与物理学家（弗朗西斯·克里克）合作发现的 DNA 化学结构及其在遗传中的作用。我们在此提出的项目将鼓励具有不同专业知识和技能的科学家以团队合作的方式实现令人兴奋的新突破。他们将从事的前三个项目是：1。分子计算DNA 是一种极其紧凑的信息存储方式——一个微小的片段包含了制造人类所需的所有信息。这引发了 DNA 可以用于计算的想法，尽管实现这一目标的进展缓慢。最近，德国科学家取得了突破性进展，表明与DNA密切相关的RNA可能是答案。在贝尔法斯特女王大学，世界分子计算专家 de Silva 教授和 RNA 专家 Vyle 博士将把这些碎片拼凑起来。他们的助手将前往德国学习必要的技术，然后返回贝尔法斯特，在 de Silva 教授和 Vyle 博士的指导下将其应用到 RNA 计算中。2。分子中有孔的液体就像微型乐高积木，构成了我们周围的一切。分子之间有孔的固体（“多孔”固体）的作用类似于分子筛，可用于去除环境中的污染物，并将药物释放到体内。想象一下液体分子筛，它可以改善透析治疗以滤除血液中的毒素。詹姆斯博士（在多孔固体方面）和拉古纳斯博士（在离子液体方面）的专业知识将汇集在一起​​，制造出第一种多孔液体。3。左手的光可以用来存储信息吗？你的左手和右手是不同的，如果你戴错了手套，你就会发现这一点。同样，分子也有“旋手性”，即左旋和右旋形式。更令人惊奇的是，即使是光也可以具有旋手性。将这种所谓的“手性”光照射到分子上可以使它们改变旋向性，这种行为有可能用于高密度数据存储和光学技术。然而，问题在于，当光线关闭时，分子要么恢复到之前的形式，要么分解。弗莱彻博士在左手和右手分子方面的专业知识以及莱恩博士在手性光方面的专业知识将被汇集在一起​​，以制造出第一个稳定的分子，当光关闭时，这些分子仍能保持其手性。这些项目将同时运行，持续六个月。当他们结束时，研究人员应该有足够的初步结果来寻求 EPSRC 的长期项目资助。然后将邀请化学学院的所有工作人员提出其他团队项目的提案。这些提案将由院系研究委员会根据成果的重要性、计划的周密程度进行评判，最好的提案将获得资助。两年后，几个新的团队将成立，并取得重要的新突破，从而进入新的研究领域，并最终在现实世界中得到有用的应用。