Spring 2010

Changing the rules of synthesis

Colloid science in the 1960s

Measuring gases from the sea

Chemistry in zero gravity

How did you become a scientist?It was an interesting journey! I grew up in Bostonand my parents were immigrants – one from Italyand one from Ireland – and never graduated fromhigh school. But it was very important to themthat their kids went to college. My brother is 10years older than me, and he became an electricalengineer. That got me excited about science – wewould wire up all kinds of crazy things in thehouse. I got into chemistry at high school, andloved it. I had always thought I wanted to be anuclear physicist, but after starting the course at Idecided it wasn’t for me as the maths was toointense, so I switched to chemical engineering as Iliked chemistry and my brother was an engineer! Having graduated from Northeastern I then

went to MIT for grad school, and my PhD was onregenerating life support systems for the projected1989 mission to Mars – this was back in the 1970s.We were studying the conversion of metabolic car-bon dioxide back into oxygen and carbon. The ideawas to use the carbon as a radiation shield, andrecycle the oxygen. I was going to NASA sites on aregular basis, and it was fascinating.

You then got a faculty position atNortheastern in Boston. How did thattake you into space as an astronaut?I started out working on carbon nanotubes –though we called them carbon filaments at thetime! This led on to getting involved in zeolitematerials, and I came across a paper that said youcould grow very large crystals over geologicaltime. I wondered if it would be possible to sus-pend them in low gravity, and alter the defect con-centration which would be interesting for cataly-sis. I then discovered NASA was planning to flysome scientist astronauts, and they wanted anexpert in crystal growth as one of them. I wasnominated, and went through all the testing, andwas lucky enough to be chosen – just four werepicked out of 80,000 applicants!

What experiments did you do there?In my own experiments, I was trying to controlconvective flows. Our theory at the time was that,just like ice crystals will form a shape that largelydepends on its transport properties rather than ther-modynamic or kinetic properties, we thought zeo-lites might be the same. It turned out they were –we could form crystals that were very uniform andhad very few defects, and we were trying to growquantum wire arrays using titanium silicate mate-rials. The idea was that if there were no defects inthe titanium, we would have a titanium–oxygenwire surrounded by silicious material – SiO – giv-ing the perfect quantum wire, 6.7Å across. Sincethen, we’ve been trying to prove that they reallywere quantum wires – it’s not that easy to prove!I wasn’t only doing my own experiments – 120

other groups had experiments up there. I grew gal-lium nitride crystals, and even grew the world’sfirst HIV protein crystals that were used for struc-ture determination. I really loved it – I was like akid in a candy store. It allowed me to optimise con-ditions; there were no convection flows, just diffu-sion limited growth. That’s basically what I did for

16 days – I grew all the crystals I could grow!About 180 papers came out of it, and I was anauthor on maybe 20. It was pretty productive froma basic science point of view, and we learnt a lot.

What was it like being in space?If you can imagine what it’s like to be a leaf on thebreeze – that’s what it’s like to float in space. Thebody adapts to it very quickly, and I felt reallycomfortable there! Flying in space is awesomebecause it’s mind opening – not just in terms ofthe science you can do, but just the environmentitself. Your body changes shape, even in a couple ofweeks – men lose their musculature and becomemore sinewy. And because of the way your bloodredistributes, you lose all the lines in your face andlook younger. It only took a few days to get backto normal after I got back – it’s pretty short lived!In the first three or four days after getting back,the muscles in my legs were pretty weak as I’d notused them for 16 days. We worked 12 hour shifts and we were time-

tagged to five minute intervals with tasks we had toget through, but when I did have chance to lookout of the window, the earth was just beautiful. It’sa robin’s egg blue sitting in the highest intensityblack, and there are billions of stars. Multiply thenumber of stars you see in the middle of the oceanor at the top of a mountain by a billion, and youget a sense of the number you can see from orbit.Not only do you see them twinkle, but occasionallyyou can see the colours of ageing stars. It’s a veryhumbling experience – it comes like a cold slap inthe face that the earth is pretty insignificant in theuniverse. And that means that we’re really insignif-icant and you realise, in a way, that you’re nothing.

With the shuttle soon to be grounded,what’s the future for science in space?Science is still happening on the InternationalSpace Station, and I’m hopeful it will pay for itselflong term. I look it as another international lab,although it’s very expensive – the same order ofmagnitude of cost as one of the beamlines. Ibelieve you should be able to write a proposal,which is peer reviewed, and then you get to go upand do the science. The thing I didn’t like aboutNASA science – and it’s true of the European spaceagency too – is we beat the science to death somuch that by the time we flew it, it was old sci-ence. It takes five years to plan a space mission, but

the science and equipment are evolving. And nowthey’re not even flying scientists any more – every-thing now has to be automated, and as you have toanticipate exactly what you’re going to see, it takesall the discovery science out of it. I would claimwhat we fly in space now is actually verifying sci-ence. You can’t discover things that way.

What sort of science is going on at thespace station?There’s not a lot of physical science or material sci-ence any more – most of it is medical science andphysiology, looking at the effects of weightlessnessand radiation on the human body, and a lot ofbehavioural science studying people with heavyworkloads living in a constrained environment forlong periods of time. The original intention was togo to Mars, so the Bush administration got rid ofmuch of the basic science, and poured all the moneyinto the medical side to support a Mars mission. Butthe Obama administration has stopped that, andnow they’re trying to figure out what’s next. Even to design an experiment for space takes a

lot of experience; things behave differently in zerogravity. They cut out a lot of young scientists 10years ago, and lost some of the best and the bright-est. It’s going to take decades to be able to do phys-ical science in space. We were starting to get a han-dle on the sort of thing I was involved in, likedeveloping quantum wire arrays. Most of that isnow gone. You can’t get into orbit – or even writea proposal to get into orbit.

Is space science a good training groundfor young scientists?Absolutely – it really gets you to think. In chem-istry and materials science, there’s no design booktelling you how to mix fluids that have signifi-cantly different surface tensions and don’t want tomix. On the ground, it’s easy. In orbit, they rotatearound each other. When making protein crystalson the ground, you can use syringes; try to do thatin orbit and unless the contact angle on the edgeof the syringe is complementary to the liquid, itrolls around the outside and crawls up it. You takethe basics and have to apply them in a differentway – you really have to think outside the box.Concepts like inertia become clear – when some-one throws you a heavy camera just by tapping it,and it moves very slowly towards you but youcan’t stop it, that’s inertia in action. The velocity isinsignificant, but the mass is huge! I say to myclass all the time that I thought I understoodphysics until I really lived it.But they really have to find a way to get experi-

ments from conception to flight in three months,not years. And they have to fly them with the peo-ple who developed them – the best and the bright-est. I’m a great believer that as long as you’re rea-sonably healthy, you can fly in space, as long as youare OK in a constrained area. Professional astronautsare extraordinarily bright people, but they’re notscientists. You know your science better than anyoneelse in the world, and if you’re used to looking forthe unexpected and evaluating in real time, you’remuch more likely to be able to determine what’sgoing to make a difference for us here on earth.

As I see it...

Ever fancied doing chemistry in space? Al Sacco is one of the very few lucky people to have been inorbit, and he tells Sarah Houlton what it was like – and his take on the future of science in space

Chem@Cam Spring 20102

Happy memories

Dear Editor,I really enjoyed the references to Lab287 by Messrs Baker and Quarrie andthe reference to Peter Cann. I followedimmediately after their ‘era’ in 1970 andthere was abundant evidence of theirhaving been there; the story of the sol-vent cupboard had passed down into thefolklore of 287.I have fond recollections of my three

years there; Hyder Khalil hurtling upand down the lab with his armswhirling furiously and uttering foulimprecations against ‘the great nitroon’(he was allegedly studying nitrones);the Dudley Williams group’s preoccupa-tion with football; the occasionalappearance of the otherwise nocturnalJeremy Sanders; Jim Wills’ occasionalhabit of leaving droll written messageson his overnight chemical reactions incase the reagents forgot what was neces-sary of them in his absence; ChrisSamuels habit of eating his lunch next toenough strychnine to kill most ofCambridge etc etc.I was also pleased to see the picture of

Stuart Warren, Tony Kirby and IanFleming still working and quite clearlystill friends. Although they seemed likeproper grown-ups at the time, from myown advancing years I now see that they,together with the likes of DudleyWilliams, must have been a lively youngteam at that time and the nucleus of thedepartment for many years to come.It would be nice to have a reunion

with Lab 287 Alumni of that era – it wasa really entertaining working atmos-phere in which new techniques andskills were acquired from fellow‘287ers’, but the major recollection ofmy time there was having a good laugh.As Steve Quarrie said, happy memories.Dave Howellsdavid.howells@edfman.com

Baffling equations

Dear Editor, I very much enjoy Chem@Cam. Thereference to E.A. Moelwyn Hughesreminds me of the time when he wasmy supervisor during the 1950s. He hadwritten a book in which he hadincluded a large number of equationsrelating to thermodynamics. I recallworking through all of these until Icame to one which I did not understandat all. I showed him what I had done andthen asked if he would explain the onewhich had puzzled me. I think he was flattered that I had

spent so much time going through hisbook. Consequently he was keen todemonstrate how he had arrived at theequation in question. It soon becameclear that he was also puzzled and, aftermumbling something about misprints,he said ‘Well done – nobody else hasever noticed that!’Derek Palgrave (1954-1957)DerekPalgrave@btinternet.com

Hairy procedures

Dear EditorDuring the early part of my PhD years inthe department (1966-69) when severalavenues of research ended without bear-ing fruit, I delved a little into rhodiumchemistry – rhodium trifluorophos-phine complexes to be precise – andexamined their NMR spectra on theVarian 40MHz machine described in therecent issue of Chem@Cam. The preparation of these complexes

involved some fairly hairy procedures,all of which left me unscathed I’mpleased to say. Firstly, there was the flu-orination of PCl3 with a mixture of anti-mony trifluoride and antimony pen-tachloride to give PF3. This was followedby treating rhodium trichloride in anautoclave at 170°C with 40 atmospheres

of hydrogen and 110 atmospheres ofthe PF3 to produce HRh(PF3)4. Wecalled the autoclaves ‘bombs’ – I wonderif this is still acceptable? I know MartinMays (my supervisor) always had agleam in his eyes when there was a hintof danger in the laboratory. HRh(PF3)4 was a fascinating com-

pound for the NMR machine as all thenuclei have a spin of one-half. I ran boththe 1H and 19F spectra and watching thepen move on the paper was great – see-ing all those peaks and then interpretingthem in terms of coupling constants. Istill have the original spectra and Iremember it being a big deal requiringsome persuasion to have the machineswitched from 1H to 19F. I then reacted the HRh(PF3)4 with

tetrafluoroethene (again, good fun toproduce by the pyrolysis of Teflon); Ibelieve this synthesised Rh(PF3)4CF2CF2H.Both the 1H and 19F nmr spectra wereconsistent with this.None of this was ever written up and

it’s probably too late to think of doingso. I also fear it wouldn’t get throughcurrent peer review requirements, butit’s still of interest.Barry Praterbarry@prater.myzen.co.uk

Bicycles and beer

Dear EditorIt has been very interesting reading allthe 50th anniversary reminiscencesabout the new Lensfield Laboratorieswhich I frequented in the 1960s.My own memories seem to less about

the chemistry learnt there and moreabout how the Lensfield road traffic wasforced to a halt as we students made amass exit on our bicycles and of the pubdown the road that we often went to fora ‘pie and pint’ lunch.Norman Sansom (1964)Lewes, East Sussex

3

ContentsNews 4

Research 6

Alumni 11

Chat lines 13

Puzzle corner 15

Liuhong Chen from Chris Abell’sgroup setting up an isothermaltitration calorimetry experiment tolook for binding on RNA

Photograph:Nathan Pitt and Caroline Hancox

This newsletter is published three timesa year by the University of CambridgeChemistry Department. Opinions are not necessarily those of the editor, the department, or the university.

Editor-in-Chief: Steve LeyEditor: Sarah HoultonPhotographers: Nathan Pitt, Caroline HancoxEditorial Board: Brian Crysell, Bill Jones,Jonathan Goodman,Rosemary Ley, Jeremy Sanders

Address: Chem@Cam, Department of Chemistry,University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road Cambridge CB2 1EWPhone: 01223 763865email: news@ch.cam.ac.ukwebsite: www.ch.cam.ac.uk

Cover

LettersReluctant reactions

Chem@Cam Spring 2010

News

4 Chem@Cam Spring 2010

The work on modernising the depart-ment’s south wing basement to createlab space for Clare Grey is well underway, with the most complex part of theproject now complete – decontamina-tion. Not only has a large amount ofasbestos been removed, but so has theradioactive contamination.The basement originally housed Alfie

Maddock’s lab, where much of thechemistry involved the radioactive iso-tope protactinium-231. 31Pa is an alpha-emitter with a half life of more than32,000 years, and Maddock isolatedmore than 100g of the newly discoveredelement in order to study its properties.

Although this work ended in 1965,the main lab was not fully decommis-sioned until 1993 – and even then theexhaust ducting from the fume cup-boards that extended through the base-ment and up a service riser was leftintact, along with the associated ductingwithin the plant room to the filter bank,exhaust fan and stack. This left a signifi-cant radioactive contamination problemthat needed to be dealt with before thespace could be refurbished.The most complex part of the project

involved lifting the ductwork out of theriser. First,the metal landing platformshad to be cut away within the riser sothe duct sections could be manipulated.The duct sections were then dismantled,and hoisted out of the riser onto theroof.‘This project has removed a legacy

from the 1960s that the department haslong fought to remedy,’ says safety offi-cer Mags Glendenning. ‘It was a long,complicated and noisy process, but weare now able to develop the long-dis-used southern basement.’Watch out for more about the decon-

tamination project from Mags in thenext issue of Chem@Cam, when she’shad chance to recover!

Radiological decontamination…

Shankar Balasubramanian has won twoinnovation awards from BBSRC – com-mercial innovator of the year, and over-all innovator of the year. They recognise his work on high-

speed genome sequencing technology.This was commercialised through thespin-out company Solexa, now part ofUS biotech specialist Illumina.‘I’m delighted to have won these

awards,’ he says. ‘It would not have beenpossible without the important contri-butions made by many others, particu-larly Solexa co-inventor and co-founderDave Klen erman. I hope it will helpsupport the case for continued fundingof blue-sky research as a means tounderpin longer-term wealth creation.’Shankar was recently appointed as the

first Herchel Smith professor of medic-inal chemistry, a joint appointmentwith the medical school. He’s picturedbelow giving his inaugural lecture onsequencing genomes and sequences inthe genome back in February.

Photo: T

im Gander

A BBSRC prizefor Shankar

How the lab usedto look – it’s nowdecontaminatedand ready forrefurbisment

David Spring has won the first discoverychemistry and new technologies awardfrom the Royal Society of Chemistry. Aswell as a medal and a cash prize, he willbe giving a UK prize lecture tour.Administered by the RSC’s high

throughput chemistry and new tech-nologies subject group, the awardrecognises research in synthesis andtechnology suitable for high-through-put applications, particularly in thepharmaceutical, agrochemical andcatalysis sectors.He’s delighted to have received the

prize. ‘It is really nice to be recognisedfrom all the other very obvious candi-dates,’ he says.

Prize technologyA rewarding symposiumIn February, the department played hostto a Royal Society of Chemistry awardssymposium, where several prizes formaterials chemistry were presented.Entitled ‘Designing new materials:

processes and applications’, among theawardees giving a talk was OrenScherman, who spoke about his workon dynamic functional materials andnew routes to copolymers.He’s pictured below receiving the

Harrison-Meldola medal from Man ch -ester University’s Stephen Yeates, presi-dent of the RSC’s materials division.

Photo: N

athan Pitt

Photo: N

athan Pitt

Photo: N

athan Pitt

www.ch.cam.ac.uk

5Chem@Cam Spring 2010

A new free plug-in for Microsoft Wordthat makes it easy to embed chemicalinformation into documents has beendeveloped by Joe Townsend, PeterMurray-Rust and Jim Downing in theUnilever Centre, with support fromMicrosoft. Officially called ChemistryAdd-in for Word (but more snappilyreferred to as Chem4Word), it is basedon CML, or chemical markup language,and was inspired by the plug-in that’salready available for mathematical equa-tions in Word. Chemical names and formulae can be

automatically converted into chemicalstructures – and vice versa – and it alsoaids the archiving of chemical informa-tion. It was launched at the AmericanChemical Society meeting in SanFrancisco in March, and was down-loaded 62,000 times in the first 22 days,’Joe says. ‘The next step will be to releasean open-source version of the software.’ If you’d like to download

Chem4Word and try it out for yourself,it can be downloaded at bit.ly/c4w. Atthe moment, it’s only compatible withthe PC versions of Word 2007 and2010, but watch out for a Mac versionin the future. Meanwhile, Peter and his colleagues

are working on an artificially intelligentfume cupboard. The idea is to use tech-nology such as speech optical recogni-tion to capture information about howa reaction is set up and proceeds, andallowing much of the tedium of keep-ing a lab notebook up-to-date to be car-ried out automatically. We’ll have more about this project in

the next issue, but in the meantimePeter is looking for pilot scheme ideas.If you’ve got any brainwaves – whetheryou’re in the department or even teach-ing in a school – he would love to hearfrom you. There may even be a prize forthe best project suggestion. Contact himpm286@cam.ac.uk

Chemistry addedto Microsoft Word Head of department Bill Jones visited

India in March as one of two inauguralCambridge–Hamied Visiting Lecturers,along with mathematician Frank Kelly,master of Christ's.The first stop on his week-long whis-

tle-stop tour was Bangalore, where hemet C.N.R. Rao at the Jawaharlal NehruCentre for Advanced Research, and thenvisited Professor Gautam Desiraju at theIndian Institute of Sciences, where healso gave a lecture on his work in phar-maceutical materials science.From there, he went on to the

University of Hyderabad, where he gavea University Distinguished Lecture on theapplication of materials chemistry in thedevelopment of new pharmaceuticals.Bill finished the week in Mumbai,

where he spent time with Yusuf Hamied

and his colleagues at Cipla, and gave apresentation to research staff. Yusuf is aCambridge chemistry alumnus, havingworked with Lord Todd in the 1950s,and he’s also an honorary fellow atChrists. His name will be familiar tothose in the department, having fundedthe transformation of G14 into theTodd-Hamied seminar room.‘I was very impressed by the facilities,

and the range of drugs they manufac-ture there,’ Bill says. ‘It was good to seethe strong overlap between my ownresearch interest and what is going onwithin the company. I will be returningin December to visit Cipla’s productionfacilities in Goa, and we hope to be ableto arrange for Indian scholars to make areturn visit to Cambridge chemistry.’

Bill’s whistle-stop Indian lecture tour

Above: Bill andYusuf with a groupof Cipla scientists;left: Bill poses withphotos of LordTodd’s visit thereback in 1963

The third Alex Hopkins lecture tookplace during Science Week, and wasgiven by polymer nanotechnologistTony Ryan of the University of Sheffield. He enthralled the audiencewith a talk about what nano bots mightlook like. The lecture is held in memory of Alex

Hopkins, who was a much-loved teach-ing fellow at Churchill and Fitzwilliam,and also played an important part in theinorganic teaching of the department.His father John supports the lecture inhis memory. The idea is that the lecture

should relate chemistry to everyday life,and contain an element of humour.Tony was an ideal choice to give

the lecture – he is very active in promot-ing the public understanding of science,and gave the Royal Institution Christmaslectures back in 2002 when his themewas the science and technology ofeveryday things.. � This year’s Science Week was onceagain a roaring success, with anotherlarge attendance at the department’sopen day. Look out for a full report inthe next issue of Chem@Cam!

Understanding nanobotsChris Dobson’stalk in our seriesof lectures for anon- academicaudiencecelebrating theuniversity’s 800thanniversaryexplained some of his pioneeringwork in the fieldof protein folding

Photo: N

athan Pitt

News

6 Chem@Cam Spring 2010

For decades, chemists have applied thesame set of rules have applied whendeciding how to make molecules.Matthew Gaunt is trying to break thoserules, and develop a new blueprint forsynthesis that could change the waychemists think about how to put mole-cules together. ‘We’re trying to do this intwo ways,’ he explains. ‘The first is to useflat aromatic molecules, such as ben-zene, and create chiral centres – carbonatoms that are attached to four differentgroups – using asymmetric catalysis.Our second focus is on trying to makemolecules using metal-catalysed car-bon–hydrogen bond functionalisation –turning an unreactive bond into some-thing more useful for synthesis.’When a chemist looks at how a mol-

ecule might be made, they always lookto make bonds based on conventionalreactivity, he says. ‘While the three fun-damental reactivity concepts of positive,negative and radical remain – though itwould be interesting to try and define afourth realm of reactivity! – we’re tryingto get away from the perception that acarbonyl group will mean you wouldimmediately think of using an enolatereaction, or creating a new carbon–car-bon bond by reacting a nucleophilewith carbon–iodine bonds, for example.We want to get away from the need forthis sort of functionality to be present inthe starting material, and instead findways of making molecules directly from

the hydrocarbon – functionalising a car-bon–hydrogen bond in simple alkanes.This would be the holy grail!’Over the past couple of years, his

group has been developing reactionsaround these concepts, and he saysthey’re starting to bear fruit. On theasymmetric catalysis side, the strategy isto take an aromatic molecule that iscompletely flat, and transform it into a

complex chiral molecule, with featuresthat resemble natural products or phar-maceutical molecules – in a single step.‘It’s based on the idea of dearomatisa-tion – breaking the aromatic nature ofthe ring – using a catalyst,’ Matt says. ‘Wecan build molecules with four or fivestereocentres in this way, and when thereactions work, they tend to work verywell. They create complex structuresvery quickly, cutting out numerous dif-ferent reaction steps. We’ve worked outhow to get this key reaction to work ina variety of different aromatic rings, andthen transform them into natural prod-ucts. We’d love to be able to do this forthe four key classes of natural products –terpenes, alkaloids, polyketides andsteroids – all using the same concept oftransforming the carbons in an aromaticring into all these chiral centres.’The reaction itself is pretty straight-

forward. First, the aromatic ring is oxi-dised, giving a reactive intermediate.This is then intercepted using an asym-metric catalytic reaction – a simpleMichael addition reaction that is catal-ysed by a chiral secondary amine. Thisinstils all of the chirality into the mole-cule, going from a simple, flat moleculeto something much more complex.This catalytic enantioselective dearo-

matisation chemistry takes up maybe aquarter to a third of his group’s efforts,and the rest of their work is in the areaof C–H bond activation. ‘This really doesrevolve around trying to find new waysto put molecules together by changingthe perception of chemical reactivity,’Matt says. ‘So instead of starting withbonds that are easy to break, such as car-bon–iodine and carbon–boron, we wantto take carbon–hydrogen bonds, whichare usually unreactive, and use metal cat-alysts to get between the carbon andhydrogen atoms. This will then give youan active intermediate, which can bereacted with another molecule to givesomething more complicated. We caneven couple two unfunctionalised frag-ments together in this way – we’re mak-ing things you’d think are unreactivereact with each other.’The ultimate example, he says, is the

conversion of methane into methanol –one of the fundamental processes thatunderpins the entire chemical industry.‘The reactions used to carry out thistransformation by the petrochemicalindustry are a long way from being per-fect,’ he says. ‘They are catalytic reac-tions, but they require very high tem-peratures and large amounts of expen-sive catalyst. If you could find a way ofdoing the reaction at room temperaturewith only tiny amounts of catalyst, it

Organic chemists have been designing their molecules in thesame ways for decades. Matt Gaunt is thinking differently

CV

Matt Gau

nt Born: Stafford, but grew up in Darlington

Status: His wife, Nadine Bremeyer, is a fellow Cambridge PhD chemist, andis currently working as a postdoc in Matt’s group.

Education: First degree at Birmingham, followed by a PhD with JoeSpencer at Cambridge

Career: After a year’s postdoc with Amos B Smith III at the University ofPennsylvania in Philadelphia, he returned to Cambridge in April 2001 as acollege research fellow at Magdalene, in Steve Ley’s group. He’s been alecturer since 2006 (but I have been a URF since 2004), with a NextGeneration Fellowship from Philip & Patricia Brown

Interests: Matt’s a glory-hunting Liverpool supporter thanks to a childhoodlove of Kenny Dalglish, and still plays regularly, albeit recreationally withfriends and students these days. He’s also been skiing for the first time in awhile this year. ‘I also love spending quality time with my wife, though thattends to be in the lab now!’ he claims.

Did you know? Despite getting married last year, they’ve still not been onhoneymoon. ‘We’ve got four weddings to go to this year, and we’re hopingto combine one with a wedding out there in September – in time for ourfirst anniversary!’ he says. ‘I want to go to Yellowstone, Nadine wants to goto central America, so we might do a bit of both – though we’ll try to avoidthe hurricanes in Belize…’

Breaking the rules of org

Photos: Nathan Pitt & Caroline Hancox

7

Research

Chem@Cam Spring 2010

would be a very important step. Byapplying the underpinning mechanismof a transformation like ours – breakingan inert molecule, and making a reactiveintermediate– it couldchange theway chemi-cals aremade. In thecase ofmethanol, the reactive intermediate isoxidised, but if it were coupled, say, toanother hydrocarbon, it might be possi-ble to turn methane into octane – givingan alternative source of petrol.’This dream is a long way off being

reality, and Matt’s currently focusing onworking out the best way of functional-ising a whole range of different hydro-carbons, both aromatic and aliphatic.Part of the work is identifying the bestcatalysts for the reaction. ‘We’ve mainlybeen working with palladium and cop-per catalysts. Palladium is a very popularcatalyst as it has remarkably versatilereactivity, but many of its reactionsrequire forcing conditions. Ultimately,we’ll need to find ways of doing themunder mild conditions. The delicatefunctionalities and architectures of com-plex systems aren’t going to survivebeing hit with a hammer at 150°Cunder a stream of oxygen gas! We’vealready had some success in developingmild reactions with both palladium andcopper catalysts.’However, he says, their biggest break-

through thus far is finding a way to,essentially, reverse some of the under-pinning rules of aromatic chemistry.Electrophilic aromatic substitution isone of the most important reactions ofaromatic rings, and for decades it’s been

drummed into chemistry students thatelectron rich aromatic rings react at theortho and para positions, and electrondeficient ones at the meta position, if

they react at all.‘We’ve found away to persuadeelectron richrings, such asanilides, to reactat the unexpected

meta position. We use copper catalyststo activate hypervalent iodine reagentsso that they react in a novel way with theanilide, giving the valuable meta-isomer.The reaction is working in a range ofsystems, although we’re still trying topin down the mechanism!’ he says.‘We’re now finding ways of expandingthis chemistry to other simple hydrocar-bons, so we can functionalise them indifferent ways. This has been really excit-ing – we can now transform half adozen different molecules using thisreaction. We’re hoping now to develop astrategy that willallow us to function-alise an aromatic ringat every single posi-tion. That would bereally exciting.’Ultimately, he says,

they’d like to be able to take a simplemolecule such as benzene, and turn itinto a natural product or a pharmaceuti-cal molecule, where all the positions onthe aromatic ring have been function-alised in sequence. ‘We call this iterativeC–H activation, and we’re working on acouple of projects along these lines.We’re now close to making a naturalproduct in this way. This could have a lotof impact in terms of synthesis – and itshould also be possible to make ana-

logues of natural products or pharma-ceutical molecules in this way. Matt is always looking for the next

challenge, and he speculates that itmight be possible to use the techniqueto functionalise proteins. ‘Synthetic biol-ogy would be a fascinating area to getinto – the “synthetic” part of syntheticbiology doesn’t usually involve chemicalsynthesis, and it would be nice to makeit live up to its name!’ he says. ‘But thiswould throw up enormous challenges.Can we do our chemistry in water, at amaximum of 37°C? And transition met-als can cause havoc in biological sys-tems, so we’d have to use a metal thatwas compatible with biology. This is definitely a long term goal,

but in the nearer term, he believes if itwere possible to achieve these C–H acti-vations, the result would be a paradigmshift in synthesis. ‘It could definitelychange the way people make mole-cules,’ he says. ‘It would be impossibleto solve all the problems ourselves –C–H activation is going to be a commu-nity endeavour, and alkanes are so unre-active that very little has been donewith them yet. There’s no way there willbe a single solution, and numerous

other groupsaround theworld areworking onaspects of thep r o b l e m .Chemistry is

changing – we have to think what elsewe can do with synthesis. There are verymany great reactions, but we’re still notvery efficient at making molecules. Theperfect reaction would be between twohydrocarbons reacting with oxygen inthe presence of a metal, in water and atroom temperature, and only take 10minutes. We are a long way away frombeing able to do that, and I’m excitedby the prospect of bringing that dreama little bit closer to reality.’

anic synthesis

The Gaunt group:Jamie Jordan Hore,Pavel Tuzina,Robert Phipps,Alice Williamson,Nadine GauntBremeyer, BeatriceCollins, FionnO’Hara, Rafael Leon,Hung Duong, Mark Archibald,Annabelle Nicolas,Matt Gaunt, BenHaffemayer, QioaYan Toh, MichaelCooke, TifelleNgouansavanh,Ruth Gilligan,Stafanie Ritter,Jochen Brandt,Lindsay McMurray,Louis Chan

Two key reactions:catalyticenantioselectivedearomatisation(above) andcopper(II) catalysedmeta-selective C-Hbond arylation ofanilides (below)

8

Science

Chem@Cam Spring 2010

The effects of chlorofluorocarbons onthe ozone layer are well documented,but these manmade chemicals are notthe only halogenated substances emittedinto the atmosphere – nature makesthem, too. Neil Harris is looking at thelevels of these chemicals in the atmos-phere, where they come from, and howthey get there.‘CFC levels are coming down, so we

are now less worried about them,’ heexplains. ‘Natural ones like dibro-momethane, bromochloromethane andsome iodine compounds are now muchmore of an issue. They are emitted bythe sea – there is a lot of chlorine,bromine and iodine in seawater, andorganisms have evolved to use them. ‘When seaweeds are stressed, for

example, they give off iodine. Whilehalogenated compounds are only presentin low concentrations – like CFCs – dur-ing storms they can be sucked up intothe stratosphere, and we think that about10% of the ozone-depleting brominereaches the stratosphere in that way. Bigstorms can lift air from the surface tohigh altitude very quickly – it can rise upto 15km in an hour. This provides a wayfor very reactive species with short half-lives to get up to parts of the atmospherewhich they wouldn’t otherwise reach.’

The ocean’s role in the atmosphere

It’s uncertain whether human activityis having an effect on the levels of thesechemicals, although factors such asincreases in sea acidity and surface tem-perature have an impact. ‘The monsoonin south-east Asia is another effectiveway of pumping pollutants up into theupper troposphere and lower strato-sphere,’ he says. ‘The industrial growthin that region is changing the mix ofreactive chemicals, both from nitrogenoxide pollutants and the chemicals thatare used in agriculture running off andreaching the oceans, which in turnaffects the chemicals that the oceansemit. How the natural compounds andthe pollution affect the chemistry in thelower atmosphere and hence climatechange is a fascinating problem.’

Part of the problem is that it’sunknown how the concentrations arealtering – and we don’t even know thebackground concentrations of thesegases, either. ‘Measurements have beenbeset by two problems,’ he says. ‘One ishow to calibrate the data – these gasesare present at parts per trillion levels andit’s hard to keep the instruments stable.There can be orders of magnitude of dif-ference in calibration between differentpeople’s readings over the years, whichis a big problem.’There is a lot of natural variability in

the measurements. In the past, peopletypically made just a few measurementsin canisters, which they then took backto the lab for analysis. If, say, measure-ments are made at weekly intervals, thevariability over a day or a week willnever be seen, so the true picture ofhow much is around is impossible tofigure out. There is no way of knowingwhich measurement is closer to theaverage amount.

OCEANIC EMISSIONSAlong with colleagues Bryan Gostlow,Andrew Robinson and John Pyle, Neilhas been developing a new set of instru-ments to study the oceanic emissions ofthese natural compounds, which arenow being deployed in the westernPacific. ‘This is where the convectiongiving upward transportation is at itsstrongest, and various gases are fairlypoorly measured there. ‘We’ve had a couple of older instru-

ments making measurements inMalaysia for nearly two years, and twonewer ones are now being operated byour collaborators at the University ofMalaya, one at a site near theThailand/Malaysia border, and a secondfor case studies focusing on their expert-ise in seaweeds. The idea here is to findout which seaweeds emit most, andwhether any conditions lead them toemit more.’Neil’s main role – and interest – is in

interpreting the data. ‘The aim is to lookat the climate variables that alter emis-sions,’ he says. ‘To start with, I’ll be look-ing at temperature and solar radiation,and then wind effects. If the predomi-

It’s not only human activity that affects the chemistryof the atmosphere – nature emits halogenatedmolecules, too. Neil Harris is measuring them

Kunak in Malaysia,one of the sites theteam is makingmeasurements at

Photo: N

athan Pitt

Photo: A

ndrew Robinson

9

www.ch.cam.ac.uk

Chem@Cam Spring 2010

CV

Neil Harris Born: Birmingham, and grew up in

Stourbridge

Education: He went to Shrewsbury Schoolbefore studying chemistry at Oxford. After twoyears selling farm buildings while he decidedwhat he wanted to do with his life, hereturned to academia for a PhD at theUniversity of California at Irvine on thestatistical analysis of ozone trends.

Career: After six years in California, hereturned to the UK in 1990, working with JohnPyle in the European Ozone Research Coordin -ation Unit. His five-year NERC AdvancedFellowship studying oceanic emissions ofnatural compounds began in January.

Status: His wife Diane is a Californian lawyer,and they have three sons – 17-year-old Adrian,Duncan, who’s 14, and Theo, 11.

Interests: Cricket – he plays occasionally forthe department team (2009 average ofinfinity!), and watches keen cricketers Duncanand Theo playing, Duncan for the county andTheo the district.

Did you know? Neil is chair of the governorsat Adrian’s school –the Royal National Institutefor the Blind’s Rushton special school andchildren’s home in Coventry. ‘The childrenthere all have visual impairment and a lot ofother special needs, and as learning is 70%through visual means it’s a real challenge,’ hesays. ‘The school also provides physiotherapyand other specialist care, and there is a majordevelopment to expand the school from 20 to60 or 70 pupils, and reach out to otherschools. It takes a fair amount of my sparetime, but I believe it’s very important.’

nant wind changes, how do the emis-sions alter? And how do major wind sys-tems like El Niño change things?’The instruments are gas chro-

matographs, which were designed andbuilt by Bryan. They were originallydesigned for a project on a Montgolfierinfrared balloon as it went around theworld rising and falling naturally in theatmosphere, so it had to be extremelylightweight – and thus extremely lowpower – and completely autonomous asthe balloon was unmanned.

MINIMAL INTERVENTION‘Unfortunately, all communication waslost with the balloon soon after it waslaunched in the Seychelles, and it’s nowat the bottom of the Indian Ocean,’ Neilsays. ‘But it left us with this instrumentdesign, which we then made smaller,and we now have high precision, highsensitivity instruments that need mini-mal human intervention, and so areideal for measuring gases in remotelocations.’Malaysia isn’t the only place they’re

doing measurements. ‘Bryan is about togo out to New Zealand to work withcollaborators looking at seaweed emis-sions there,’ he says. ‘Compared to thenorthern hemisphere, there are very fewmeasurements of these gases in thesouthern hemisphere. We’ll be usingone in Darwin, Australia, which is in thetropics. Another is going to Taiwan, andwe also plan to install one on a containership belonging to Taiwanese shippingline Evergreen.’The idea with the ship is to measure

the gases as it sails around the world,with its location tracked by GPS. Theyalso need to know the altitude of theinstrument above the sea, as this willchange depending on how heavily theship is laden, and some of the emissionsare very short-lived so the concentrationgradient above the sea drops off quitequickly. ‘Our Taiwanese partners will check the

instrument while the ship is in port, butother than that it’s largely controlled overthe internet through a satellite phone,’ hesays. ‘The software can be rebootedremotely, and Bryan has designed aninterface that allows us to diagnose andoperate over the internet. It will also bemodular, so spare circuit boards and soon will be easy to install if anything goeswrong with the hardware.’

Thus far, Neil’s had one trip toMalaysia, but his five-year NERCadvanced fellowship includes a two-month stay out there, and he expectsthere will be other, shorter trips too, aswell as spending time with collaboratorsin New Zealand and California.‘However, the aim has to be to use auto-mated systems as much as possible, sowe can simply leave them running ontheir own,’ he says. ‘While most of thebig atmospheric observatories producevery good data, the staff and runningcosts are high. But if we are going to geta good picture of what is really goingon, then multi-year records of frequentdata from different locations will beessential, so being able to make accuratemeasurements with minimal physicalintervention is vital.’

Thanks to the generosity of the depart-ment’s Corporate Associates, we havebeen able to benefit the education andenvironment for students and staff. Forexample, the Associates make significantcontributions to the library for journalsubscriptions. Moreover, they provideexam prizes, faculty teaching awardsand summer studentships, and haverecently funded the refurbishment of astate-of-the-art meeting room with tele-conferencing and display facilities.Corporate Associate membership not

only provides essential support for thedepartment, but also provides numer-ous benefits to help members work withus and achieve their business objectives.Members enjoy many benefits throughtheir enhanced partnership with thedepartment, such as:� Visibility within the department;� A dedicated meeting room andoffice for members to use while visitingthe department;� Invitations to recognition days andnetworking events at the department;

� Access to emerging Cambridgeresearch via conferences, special brief-ings and various publications;� Access to the department libraryand photocopying/printing facilities;� Regular communications aboutupcoming events and colloquia;� Subscriptions to department publi-cations, including Chem@Cam;� Priority notification of and freeaccess to departmental research lectures;� Ability to hold ‘Welcome Stalls’ inthe department entrance hall;� Preferential conference rates;� Free access to the teaching lecturesheld within the department;� The full services of the CorporateRelations team to facilitate interactionwith students, staff, and other parts ofthe University of Cambridge to helpachieve your corporate objectives.If your organisation would be inter-

ested in joining the Corporate AssociatesScheme, then please email Jane Snaith atcas-admin@ch.cam.ac.uk, or call01223 336537.

Arecor Astex TherapeuticsAstraZenecaAstraZeneca Cambridge –Medimmune

Asynt Biotica Technology Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma BPBP InstituteBristol-Myers SquibbCambridge Biotechnology Cambridge Display Technology Cambridge Medical Innovations CambridgeSoftChemical Computing GroupCornelius Specialties Dr Reddy’s CustomPharmaceutical Services

F. Hoffmann-La Roche GlaxoSmithKlineHeptares Therapeutics IDBSIllumina Johnson Matthey CatalystsMaruzen International Merck, Sharp & DohmeResearch Laboratories

NovartisPfizer Procter & GambleRoyal Society of ChemistrySigma-AldrichSociety for Chemical IndustryTakeda Cambridge Unilever Uniqsis

The Corporate Associates Scheme

News

10 Chem@Cam Spring 2010

Cambridge hosts med chem event…The third Royal Society of Chemistrybiological and medicinal chemistrypostgrad symposium was held in thedepartment just before Christmas. NinePhD students from around the countrygave talks on their science, and 19 morepresented posters at lunchtime.The students weren’t the only speak-

ers – talks were also given by Pfizer’sworldwide head of medicinal chemistryTony Wood, Malcolm Stevens of theUniversity of Nottingham, and our ownHerchel Smith professor of medicinalchemistry, Shankar Balasubramanian.The prize for best talk was won by

Tam Dang of Imperial College. She’spictured front left in the photo.

Tony Wood inaction (left), andthe studentspeakers pose withTony, Shankar andMalcolm (right)

…and RSC macrocycle conference

December was a busy time for confer-ences in the department – we alsohosted the scientific programme for theRSC’s 2009 Supramolecular andMacrocycles meeting.Organised by Oren Scherman and

Jonathan Nitschke, delegates at the two-day conference stayed at Jesus College.

One of the highlights of the event wasthe Bob Hay lecture, given by StephenFaulkner from Oxford. His chemistrycentres on designing and making sys-tems with interesting photophysicalproperties, which can be used for assayin drug discovery and diagnosis in vitroand in vivo.

The speakers posewith organisersOren and Jonathanin the Wolfsonlecture theatre

Ian Paterson has been elected as aFellow of the Royal Society ofEdinburgh, the national academy of sci-ence and letters in his native Scotland. He joins a diverse, distinguished list

of fellows from the arts and sciences,with past luminaries including WalterScott, Charles Darwin, John Logie Baird,William Wordsworth, Francis Crick andNiels Bohr. Cambridge’s Brian Johnsonis also on the list, having spent time atEdinburgh University

Ian’s Scottish award

Departmentmembers weregiven a specialChristmas treat –as part of the800th anniversarycelebrations, hegave one of hisfamous chemistrydemonstrationlectures. It wasopen to all staffand their families –and went off incharacteristicallynoisy fashion!

Photos: Nathan Pitt

Photo: N

athan Pitt

Photos: Nathan Pitt

Alumni

11Chem@Cam Spring 2010

Dear Editor,Paul Stickland’s letter in your last issueconcerning Frederick Mann’s lectureson Heterocyclic Chemistry interestedme greatly, since I believe I was in thelast of Dr Mann’s classes before hisretirement. As I recollect, his lectureswere entirely innocent of any mentionof mechanism; instead, he was a greatadvocate of what my tutor, MalcolmClark (not a man with an excess of char-ity for those of us less intellectuallyaccomplished than himself) derisivelycalled ‘Balloon Chemistry’. One drew the components of a ring

synthesis in a tortured contortion, ratherreminiscent of J.J. Audubon’s picture of aflamingo, and by dint of using the cor-rect tautomeric form so positionedthem that an oval balloon could bedrawn around, say, H and OH or H andCl, and, Bingo!, a heterocyclic nucleusappeared. Very satisfying, and no unnec-essary complications with electrons!Mann had one habit that sent me

beserk; he would use trivial non-sys-tematic names for heterocycles. Since heset some of the Part II papers, one hadno chance of answering the questionsunless one could remember what forexample, carbostyryl was; I guess thisguaranteed attendance at his lectures! It seemed to me then, and still does,

that the function of an examination is toreveal the depth of the candidate’sknowledge and understanding of thesubject rather than to do some sort ofTrivial Pursuit quiz game. In 40 years asa research heterocyclic chemist in theCanadian chemical industry I have neverhad occasion to use the word car-bostyryl, though I’ve made a lot ofquinolones.I may also have been one of the last

years to be lectured by Dr E.A.Moelwyn-

Hughes. His lectures were reputed neverto change from year to year, andrumour had it that one Newnham girlof my year was following his lecturesusing her father’s notes. I was most grateful to Dr Moelwyn-

Hughes; he always set one Part II ques-tion about the derivation of one of thepartition functions. I was very vaguethen about what a partition functionwas, and now have no idea whatso ever,but by memorising the relevant sectionof his textbook and parroting it out atthe appropriate time I staggered throughthe Physical Chemistry paper in Part II. Immediately after graduation I went

on a prolonged bird-watching trip toNorth Africa; by the time I got back Ihad forgotten all of what little physicalchemistry I ever knew, and have beenvastly healthier for it ever since.Incidentally, I still have my copy of

‘Mann & Saunders’, smelling distinctlyof benzaldehyde.David Bronnert’s letter about labora-

tory safety (and the lack of it) certainlyrang a bell, particularly since I spent alot of my research career in industrydoubling as laboratory safety officer.Goggles? Never heard of them! I well remember inorganic labs

which required the identification of ahalide by heating with concentrated sul-phuric acid over a bunsen; on one occa-sion my mixture superheated and thenshot out of the test tube, describing agraceful parabola across the lab until it came to rest on a nearby bench, whereit happily charred a small pit in thewoodwork. Organic labs weren’t much better;

one of my neighbours was heating around-bottomed flask – full of some-thing organic – with a bunsen when heturned around to speak to the person

opposite. At this point the bottom fellout of the flask. The contents slooshedacross the bench, striking him in thesame place that Hamlet stabbedPolonius, while catching fire. He turned around to see his books

and notes in a pool of flames, while ini-tially unbeknownst to him a small per-sonal tongue of fire was decorating hisanatomy. Fortunately he was wearingblue jeans at the time and didn’t sufferpermanent damage.And of course the infamous Lassaigne

test was the signal for a series of explo-sions and itinerant balls of yellow flameall around the laboratory... but we allsurvived!Yours sincerely,

David Brewer (Caius 1960)mbrewer@albedo.net

A lavatorial dangerDear EditorMy Cambridge chemistry was in1950–53, so I enjoyed the old chemlabs and the lecture hall, with Emeléus,Mann and Saunders, ‘Flash’ Porter andNorrish et al. Todd himself gave lectureson vitamins.Thinking back, the carelessness with

toxic chemicals was incredible; solventswere often just poured down the sink,and we were warned not to smoke inthe men’s room because the sinkdrainage went into the same outlet andether vapours might be ignited under-neath oneself...Yours sincerely

Neil McKelvieEmeritus Professor, organic chemistryCity University of New Yorkmckelvie@sci.ccny.cuny.edu

Dear Editor,I qualified for my PhD in chemistry in1971. I thought that this old photographmight be of interest to my old colleagues.It was taken during the year 1969 in lab287, where we all used to work. A contract had been given for the

colour/whitewashing of the laboratory,and we thought to take advantage of that scaffolding stage to take a group pho-tograph of us all. From left to right, front row: Gul

Niaz (C.B. Reese group), Hasibullah(Peter Sykes), D.P.L. Green (D.M.Brown), Anthony Clark (Peter Sykes).Back row: Roger Titman (D.W.Cameron, now in Australia), M. Younus(A.R. Kirby), Rodney C. Owen (IanFleming), Roger Bishop (Neil Hamer),Ivan Mensah (Ian Baxter).With regards and all good wishes,

Gul R. Niaz.

Balloons, trivial names and scant regard for safety

12

Alumni

Chem@Cam Spring 2010

cancelled during a visit to his homeland.His senior colleague Lord Rutherfordgenerously allowed Kapitza’s researchequipment to be sent on to him. Vincent Gray’s picture also shows that

the support staff (technician LenSaggers, glassblower Cyril Smith andsecretary Miss Morgan), who were allregarded as integral parts of theDepartment. I believe the work of suchpeople has been grossly under-acknowledged, as in those days thetechnicians were producing instru-ments and glassware which were sim-ply not obtainable commercially andfew academics could type with morethan one finger. The group photo above was taken 17

years later (and closer to my own time,1966), and shows the same two menoccupying identical positions, but withProf F.J.W. Roughton now in the chairof honour, in place of Eric Rideal. Athird technician, Arthur Dunn (rearrow, third from left) had joined in

Vincent Gray (Chem@Cam, Summer2009) might have described the loca-tion of his photo of the members of thedepartment of colloid science, 1944.This was just within the main entranceof the old Cavendish, when one turnsright after the archway. The department’s rear entrance was

at the corner, directly behind E.Hutchinson in the photo. It occupiedthree floors, plus basement of the frontfacade of the Cavendish building onFree School Lane and was neighbour toDavid Tabor’s department of surfacephysics. The department was thus quiteclose to chemistry, before the latter leftPembroke St for Lensfield; afterwards, itoften seemed quite isolated! The building to the left of the group in

the photo was the Mond Laboratory, thehome before the war of research intolow temperature physics, led by Russian-born Nobel laureate Peter Kapitza.Kapitza ‘returned’ abruptly to Stalin’sdomains in 1934 when his passport was

Colloid science – 1960s style

Dear EditorThe ‘History of Lensfield Road’ articlesthat you have been publishing havebrought back many memories – most ofthem good. You may be interested in this photo,

taken on my new camera and developedin the basement of the labs, of three ofmy colleagues from the early 1960s.From left to right, they are the late MikeDavis (whose best man I was in 1959),Mick Galla(g?)her from Australia, andDoug Carson from Canada.

We all worked in F.G. Mann’s lab, andwere responsible for many of theappalling stenches which wafted aroundthe corridor between us and the ana-lysts’ lab, and also pervaded other floorsbecause of the extractor system that wasin operation at that time. But then, phosphines and arsines

never did have pleasant odours!Yours sincerelyBill CollierSilverdale, 28 Seaton Down Road,Seaton, Devon, EX12 2SB

1948, and provided another link withRutherford’s Cavendish, having startedwith the great man’s group in 1936 as a16 year old. The job offer fromRutherford – reproduced below – withits haughty mode of address, makesinteresting reading today. Arthur Dunn remained with the

department to the end, working withDenis Haydon’s group (which I joinedin 1966). After being known for a fewyears as the department of colloid sci-ence and biophysical chemistry, it brokeup around 1971, with most ofHaydon’s group moving to the physio-logical laboratory where Haydon(seated, 3rd from left) was given a spe-cially created chair. The move to physiology reflected

Haydon’s burgeoning interest in theapplication of surface physical chem-istry to biological systems. Soon afterthe department’s demise, the Cavendishitself, led by Brian Pippard, was leavingFree School Lane for its new home onMadingley Road.Thanks to Joy Dunn, widow of

Arthur, for permission to reproduce theRutherford letter, and for the 1961departmental photograph.Brendan Carroll (Trinity Hall 1963-1970)

The appalling stench of arsine

And the search for 1961 colloid science names begins… we have a few of them, but can any readers supply us with more?

13

Chat lines

Chem@Cam Spring 2010

Just the one baby to report this issue,but he’s a real cutie. Laetitia Martin is apostdoc in Steve Ley’s group, and alsoworks for Novartis in Basel,Switzerland. Milo made his appearanceon 11 December in Saint-Louis, France– just over the border from Basel inHaut-Rhin – weighing in at 3.14kg,which is a respectable 6lb15oz in UKbaby-units.Milo is the first baby for Laetitia,

who’s French, and her English biologistpartner, Alan Jackson. ‘He is a very smi-ley, talkative baby!’ she says. ‘He lovesstanding up, and is already trying towalk. The doctor is convinced he willskip the crawling stage, and try to walkstraight away.’

New staffPrzemyslaw(Tomas)

SobiesiakPhilip Ward

RetiredRoger Ward

Comings& goings

Baby Milo makes an entrance

Photos: Nathan Pitt

When he’s not wielding a cameraaround the department, photographerNathan Pitt has dreams of wielding otherequipment – fast cars. Over the years,he’s been to loads of historic car races,and more recently has got into watchingtouring cars. A trip to watch a Britishtouring cars championship race atBrands Hatch last October really sparkedhis imagination, leaving him desperateto have a go on the track himself. At theend of January, he got the chance. ‘It’s definitely my favourite circuit,

and I’ve always wanted to have a go atdriving fast round a track, so it was toogood an opportunity to miss,’ he says.The day started off with Nathan drivinga BMW M3, with an instructor to tellhim the best lines. ‘It was a cold, wetand miserable day and the track wasgreasy, so I was told it was important tomake my mistakes in the BMW with itstraction control and ABS.’The next car he drove – a Formula

Audi single-seater – didn’t have suchluxuries. ‘Sadly, it was limited to 90mph– apparently they can do 155 unlimited

as although they only have 1800engines, they’re very small and light,’Nathan says. ‘But I still managed to hitthe limiter three times on my final lap,once I’d got to grips with it. It was a bithairy the first time I got to Paddockbend as I couldn’t see a thing. I’ve beenthere lots of times for different racemeetings, but when you are on the trackyourself, it’s something else entirely.’The experience ended with two fly-

ing laps in a BMW with one of theinstructors. ‘That was great fun,’ he says.‘I somehow managed to miss the pres-entation of certificates as I was out on aflying lap – so I got an extra one after-wards as well. It was incredible.’ Andfortunately his sister Abigail was onhand to take over photographic duties toprove he was there.It was all a far cry from the diesel Golf

Nathan normally drives, and he’s defi-nitely got the bug for speed. ‘I’m nowsaving my pennies so I can have anothergo!’ he says.

Nathan speeds out of the Pitt lane

The department’s chief electrical andmechanical technician, Roger Ward,retired in March. He’d spent more than20 years in Lensfield Road, repairingelectrical equipment, testing newequipment and buying such electricalthings as fridges for the labs.Although he professed not to want a

fuss, there was no way he was going toget away unrecognised, and at his send-off party he was presented with apocket watch to help him remember hisfriends in chemistry. It was also a goodexcuse for a group photo of some of theassistant staff!

Roger bids farewell

From the left: Emma Graham, Clare Rutterford, Dan Fisher, Andrew Milner, Richard Preston, Wayne Bailey, Tina Jost, John Coston, Roger Ward, Steve Wilkinson, Anne Railton, Chris Ironmonger, Marita Walsh, Paul Skelton, Simon Dowe, David Plumb, Liz Alan, Oliver Norris, Sian Bunnage, Sheila Bateman and Chris Sporikou

That’s Nathan under the helmet… honest!

14

Chat lines

Christmas spirit!What better to do when it’s coming up forChristmas than celebrate with assistant staffold and new? Nathan Pitt took the photos

Left: BrianJohnson withJane Snaith, Liz Alan, VickySpring, AnneRailton and JulieLee; right above:Mike Todd-Jones,Phil Gallego andDerek Edwards;right: Bill Jones,Harry Percivaland John Coston

Chem@Cam Spring 2010

From the left: Tim Dickens and FrankLee; Alessio Ciulli and Howard Jones;Paul Skelton and Steve Wilkinson

Left: Don Flory, Dick Barton, David Watson and Alan Battersby; above: TimLayt plus a glass of wine (what else?) and Marita Walsh eye up the buffet

ChemDokuChemdoku once again attracted plenty of entries – more than30 this time – and several of them even answered my plea forgreen ink – or its electronic equivalent. Correct entries camefrom: J.G. Buchanan, Richard Moss, Jim Dunn, AudreyHerbert, Robin Cork, Keith Parsons, Bill Collier, R.N. Lewis,John Turnbull, Robin Foster, A.J. Wilkinson, Ian Fletcher, HelenStokes, Tim Dickens, Paul Littlewood, Tom Banfield, NormanSansom, Mark Alderton, Richard Brown, Godfrey Chinchen,Mike Barlow, Nat Alcock, Richard Chambers, Chris Shorrock,Ian Threlfall, John Billingsley, Alison Griffin, Pat LamontSmith, Don Stedman, Neil McKelvie, Karl Railton-Woodcockand Annette Quartly. The prize goes to Audrey Herbert, whosubmitted an entry filled in using a rather fine green felt-tip.

Elementary recognitionGraham Quartly’s elementary recognition puzzle receivednumerous admiring comments from solvers. A couple ofreaders reported having been sidetracked by Perkin for awhile, but the solution was ‘Nicolaus Copernicus,Revolutionary Thinker’, and plenty of you managed to deci-pher the puzzle. These were: Richard Chambers, Mike Barlow,Godfrey Chinchen, Richard Brown, Robert Walter, Pat LamontSmith, Huw Vater, Simon Morgan, John Billingsley, ChrisShorrock, Annette Quartly, Julian Langston , Karl Railton-Woodcock, Ian Threlfall, Simon Black, Mark Alderton, JohnNixon, Paul Littlewood, Tom Banfield, Michael Goodyear, PaulStickland, Robin Foster, Keith Parsons, A.J. Wilkinson, AudreyHerbert, Richard Moss and J.G. Buchanan.We also asked why Copernicus had been in the news

recently, and the answer here was that the heaviest element sofar made by Sigurd Hofmann’s group at Darmstadt – thesoon-to-be-former ununbium – now has a proposed name,Copernicium, which has been recognised by IUPAC. TheDarmstadt team suggested the name to honour ‘an outstand-ing scientist who changed our view of the world’. Severalsolvers thought the answer here was that archaeologists dis-covered a skeleton in Frombork cathedral in Poland in 2005,which has since been identified as Copernicus by DNA analy-sis and forensic facial reconstruction, and is to be reburiedthere later this year. They’ve even decided he had blue eyes.While that’s correct, we were after the chemical news story.And the prize goes to… Simon Morgan. Congratulations!

Scrappage selectionThe ‘Scrappage selection’ puzzle from Keith Parsons also drewplenty of entries. The solution is:Alan bought a red Jagro Flierpowered by hydrogen; Brenda now has a white petrol MorskoGazelle; Colin’s car is a black hybrid Nissaud Sprint; Dorothyhas a green electric Toylex Cheetah; and Edward’s is a greyVaumaz Racer with a diesel engine. Correct solutions came from: Robin Foster, Julian Langston,

Annette Quartly, Richard Brown, Godfrey Chinchen, MikeBarlow, Nat Alcock, Richard Chambers, John Billingsley, HuwVater, Pat Lamont Smith, Don Stedman, Neil McKelvie (whopoints out the irony of the Racer having a diesel engine!),Norman Sansom, J.G. Buchanan, Mark Alderton, Ian Threlfall,Karl Railton-Woodcock, Helen Stokes, Paul Littlewood,Michael Goodyear, Tom Banfield, Richard Moss and AudreyHerbert. And… the lucky winner is Helen Stokes.

15

Puzzle corner

Chem@Cam Spring 2010

£20 prizes are on offer for each puzzle. Send entries by email to jsh49@cam.ac.uk or by snail mail toChem@Cam, Department of Chemistry, University ofCambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW

Last issue’s winnersCf Am Db Eu Yb

Bk Cf Db

Fr

Po Am

Po Eu

Db Fr

Cf

Eu Po Ds

Fr Yb Ds Db Bk

Where on earth is ChemDoku?Many of the elementsthat have beendiscovered in morerecent times arenamed after places,either where theywere discovered orcreated. This issue’sChemDoku featuresnine of these. We’veonly included one ofthe four elementsnamed for the smallSwedish town ofYtterby, which is onan island in theStockholm archi pel -ago – they were allfirst found in itsextremely productivequarry, which alsoprovided the firstsamples of gadolin iumscandium, holmiumand thulium!

This teaser was submitted by readerDavid Wilson, who says it is a problemhe set some years ago to occupy an A-level chemistry class on the last day ofterm. At first sight, it doesn’t appear tobe science-related, and he adds that hehad expected a quiet half-hour whilethey waded their way through some cal-culus. However, one of the students(whom he regrets to say ended upgoing to Oxford to read physics!) solvedit in his head in less than a minute byusing a well-known physicochemicalprinciple. We’re looking for a solutionthat eschews the delights of calculus infavour of one that relies on said physic-ochemical principle.An orienteer is running in open

ground along the straight edge of awood. The control point that he is head-

ing for is 100m inside the wood. He canrun twice as fast in open ground as inthe wood, and (fortunately for us) isblessed with perfect navigation. Whereshould he turn off the path to arrive atthe control in the fastest time – i.e. dis-tance x in the diagram below?

The orienteer

And finally, a little puzzle from KeithParsons. Draw the continuous path, instraight line segments, which passesthrough the central point of everysquare once only, in accordance withthe following rules:1. The path never crosses over itself,

nor runs along an edge of any square,although it may pass through a corner2. When leaving a numbered square,

the path takes a direction that is not astraight line continuation of its entrydirection. 3. If there is an un-numbered square

adjacent to a square having a numbergreater than one, the path must passthrough the un-numbered square in astraight line, and continue in the samestraight line through any further run-numbered squares until it enters a num-bered square, when rule 2 takes overagain. The number in a square indicates

how many further squares the pathenters/passes through before reachingthe next ‘instruction’.Clear?! Keith adds that these rules

apply only to one direction along thepath. Good luck!

Drunkard’s walk

3 2 1 3 2 2

1 3 1 1 1

1 2 2 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2

4 1 1 3

2 2 4 2

2 1 2 4

1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1

1 2 1 1 1 4 1

2 1 1 2 4 2

Chem@Cam is written,

edited and produced

by SARAH HOULTON

Printed by Callimedia, Colchester

When you said that bromoform was transported into the

stratosphere, I didn’t think it was by ship…