Spring 2015 - Department Of ChemistryCam 51.pdf · 2 Chem@Cam Spring 2015 chemistry community, at...

Spring 2015

Synthetic polymers with DNA properties

Wood preservation on the Mary Rose

Automated synthesis: joining the dots

The impact of atmospheric chemistry

How did your education lead toyour job as a journalist?I really enjoyed chemistry at school, andafter my A-levels I spent a year in indus-try at GlaxoWellcome (as it then was) inWare. I was doing analytical chemistry,testing how new valve designs forasthma inhalers affect how the druginside is delivered. During my degree Iwas geared up to work in pharma – Iwent back to the same lab the summerafter my first year, then had a syntheticplacement at GSK in Harlow after mysecond, and another summer doingsynthesis with AstraZeneca at AlderleyPark after my third year. I stayed on in Cambridge for a total

synthesis PhD with Jon Burton – he wasfantastic to work with and was doinginteresting chemistry. I moved toOxford with him at the beginning of2007, so I actually have a DPhil fromOxford rather than a PhD fromCambridge! But I slowly realised thatwhile I enjoyed mixing chemicals in thelab, I didn’t have a particularly stronginterest in strategic planning and work-ing out what molecules to make next. Iwas much more interested in whatother chemists were doing – I’d be theone bringing wacky papers to literaturemeetings, while everyone else broughthardcore total synthesis. I entered the Daily Telegraph’s science

writing competition, and somehowmanaged to win. This led to me goingto conferences with BASF and Bayer,and I wrote a piece for Chem@Cam onsustainability after meeting you there. Ialso wrote a few more things for theTelegraph. This made me think I shouldseriously consider writing as a career. I finished my PhD in 2008 and I

returned to Cambridge as my fiancée(now wife) Jess was still there as a post-doc in materials science, having alreadyfinished her PhD in biomedical materi-als. She’s more efficient than me! Iapplied for the Royal Society ofChemistry’s graduate scheme, and wasgiven a place. I spent four months in theinternational development team look-ing at opportunities for RSC involve-ment in advancing the chemical sci-ences in India and the Middle and FarEast. It was fascinating. But my aim was a job on Chemistry

World and, luckily, one came up fourmonths after I joined. I’ve now been onthe magazine just over six years.

What roles have you had on themagazine?I started out as a science correspondent,and I think it’s the best non-lab-basedjob any chemist could want to have. Iwas reading a lot more papers than Iever would as a student, on much morevaried topics. I would be speaking tothe people doing the most cutting edgechemistry in the world on a daily basis– Nobel prize winners, chemists work-

As I see it...

Cambridge chemistry (and Chem@Cam) alumnus Phillip Broadwith is now business editor at Chemistry World. He explains to SarahHoulton how he got there, and what makes his job so exciting

Chem@Cam Spring 20152

chemistry community, at least at asuperficial level. Sometimes we spotconnections between scientific fieldsthat seem disparate, and it’s the same onthe business side – you get a view ofwhat’s going on in the tumultuouslychanging landscape, and can pick outtrends. Being in the middle gives us theopportunity to see things as they arehappening, and draw them together. Our new editor is keen that we should

become more involved in the chemicalsciences community, and use that top-level view of what’s going on across thechemical sciences, how industry inte-grates with academia, and what’s hap-pening on the political side.

How has your Cambridge chemistry experience assistedyou in your career?Natural sciences was an absolute boon.I took chemistry, materials science andbiology of cells in the first year, so thatwas quite broad. Physics was a bit toohard! I followed that with chemistryand pharmacology in Part Ib, gaining agood grounding in general chemistryand how it feeds into other subjects. Myexperiences in pharma helped, too, asI’ve seen what an industrial lab is likefrom the inside. I still supervise Part IAchemistry students at Robinson, whichhelps me keep in touch with basicchem istry knowledge. Chemistry gaveme the critical and analytical eye thatallows me stand back and ask theimportant questions.

You must always be on the look-out for stories!Absolutely! We have a staff of seven oreight journalists, but there’s no way wecan cover every journal, every company,and know everything significant that’sgoing on. We do try, but some of ourbest stories come from people who’vegot in touch with us. I would encourageanyone with an interesting story to tell,whether it’s academic or from industry,to tell us about it. It’s not always clear from the informa-

tion in an academic paper or a companypress release what the most interestingparts really are. We want to know thehuman angle. How long did it take?Where did the idea come from? Thesethings bring a story to life, and allowpeople to relate to it, but they’re system-atically removed from papers! It’s usually best to go to a named per-

son, and people can email ideas to me [email protected]. Of course noteverything we’re sent will go in, but ifwe don’t hear about it, we can’t writeabout it.

ing at the atomic scale, on interstellarchemistry, or even synthetic biology. Itwas an amazing way to broaden myhorizons. I then spent a year coveringthe features editor position, which isvery different – the articles are longer,and the role was much more editorial,dealing with other people’s writing. Italso helped me develop my own style. Then, two years ago, I became busi-

ness editor. This means I’ve movedslightly away from the science, but Ihave a strong desire to bring the sciencedone in industry into the magazine’sbusiness section. There’s a lot of reallyinteresting chemistry going on in thecommercial sector, and I want people tosee that. It can be difficult to get peopleto tell you about it, but if you get holdof someone who knows what they areallowed to talk about and exactly howfar they can go into the chemistrybefore it becomes sensitive, you canfind out some really interesting things.

The internet has made a hugedifference to the way manymagazines work, hasn’t it?Yes, it means we’re constantly puttingnews items up on the website, and oncea month many of them are packaged upand put into the print magazine. Theprinted version isn’t an afterthought,though – it does a very different job.We’re lucky to get the time and resourcesto pursue some longer term, more inves-tigational work, as well as having a poolof talented freelancers to call on.The role of the editor, in some ways,

is to be mindful of the wider trends,and see the bigger picture. I think thatbecause we talk to so many people andsee so many papers, we’re some of thebest informed people in the general

3

ContentsNews 4

Research 9

Alumni 14

People in the know 15

Chat lines 16

Puzzle corner 19

Giulia Iadevaia, a postdoc in Chris Hunter’s group, operating a microplate reader in the new Dudley Williams lab

Photograph:

Nathan Pitt

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.

Publisher: Daan FrenkelEditor: Sarah HoultonPhotographers: Nathan Pitt, Caroline Hancox

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

Cover

LettersReluctant reactions


From Eagle to Arms

Dear EditorAlthough it is more than 50 years ago andmemories fade just a bit, I think I can sub-stantiate the substance of Tom Banfield’sletter, (Chem@Cam, Summer 2014). The taxi ride back from the Spread Eagle

to the department certainly happened inaround 1961, and I think it was whenProfessor Norrish was entertaining someRussian visitors. Earlier in the day I had been in the

library when the Professor brought in thevisitors, and pointed out the Leys Schoolthrough the window explaining that it wasan English public school, which meant thatparents paid for their sons to attend theschool. This seemed to horrify the visitorsbut Norrish responded, ‘You have the samething in Russia, you know!’Of course, we all have our weaknesses

but not all of us have a Nobel Prize!Tony Kallend (1956-1962)

eChem@CamChem@Cam is now being sent out byemail to those who have asked for a pdfversion rather than a hard copy in the mail.

If you would like to swap your papermagazine for an e-version, send an emailwith the subject line ‘eChem@Cam’ [email protected], and we’ll send it toyou electronically from the next issue.Don’t forget to tell us your postal addressso we can check that the correct person isremoved from the mailing list for thepaper magazine.

You can check out e-back issues atwww.ch.cam.ac.uk

A thank you

Sarah Houlton, who has been the writer,editor, designer and producer ofChem@Cam since the Spring 2003 issue,has told us that she will be stepping downafter the current issue. For more than a decade she has brought

us a lively mixture of stories, from heavy-duty science and personal profiles of staff tonews of weddings, births, parties, prizesand deaths. She refreshed the design some years ago,

and took over all the production steps her-self except the printing and posting. Her articles have helped inform past and

present members of the department withclarity, humanity and humour. We’ll greatly miss her, and wish her well

in her future career. Meanwhile, the searchfor a worthy successor has begun.Jeremy Sanders

Regular readers may have spotted that the Autumn2014 issue did not happen. There’s a good reason forthis – as I was putting the pages together in December,I had a subarachnoid haemorrhage. Thanks to anexceptionally talented vascular neurosurgeon and histeam, I am still here, and in remarkably good shape,albeit with rather more titanium in my brain and skullthan is normal. I have been incredibly lucky. However, it’s rather difficult to craft stories and

wield Quark XPress page layout software when one’s inan ICU bed, and the magazine was somewhat delayed.But here, finally, is another issue of Chem@Cam foryour delectation.It will also be my last. I had already decided before

that recent brain surgery escapade that it was time tomove on. Eagle-eyed readers of the puzzle page willhave already worked out that I now live in the US – justoutside the ‘other’ Cambridge, in fact – having movedhere with my husband’s job at Pfizer four years ago. The modern electronic world made it possible to

put the magazine together remotely, with the odd tripto the original Cambridge to keep in touch with thedepartment and the people there. But it was gettingincreasingly challenging to keep up with all the com-ings-and-goings from 3000 miles away.I am sad to be leaving – it has been an honour and a

privilege to be part of the department for the past dozenyears. Thank you to everyone who has helped make themagazine what it is, particularly photographers NathanPitt and Caroline Hancox (not forgetting John Holmanand Paul Larham from past days), Brian Crysell for hisencyclopaedic knowledge of the department past andpresent, Dave Pratt for computer support, SheilaBateman for knowing everyone’s name (invaluablewhen captioning pictures!), Steve Ley for all his support(and for introducing me to Cambridge chemistry allthose years ago), and Jeremy Sanders for his unwaveringsupport, advice, and proof-reading skills. Plus all thosewho have contributed the stories and ideas that makethe magazine what it is. And, of course, you, the readers,letter-writers, reminiscence-senders and puzzlers, with-out whom the magazine would not exist.I remain a freelance science journalist, and shall

continue to take a keen interest in the exciting chem-istry that’s done in Cambridge in the future!Sarah Houlton ([email protected])

Letter from the editor

News

4 Chem@Cam Spring 2015

The department had a surprise visitrecently from Katie Franks, who’s thedaughter of Sir Harry Melville, afterwhom the Melville Lab is named. Shehad called Melville secretary GlendaHarden on the off-chance that she couldpop in to take a look at the lab her fatherfounded. Glenda assured her that shewould be most welcome, and SilviaVignolini had the happy task of showingher around the lab. Harry Melville died in 2000 at the age

of 92. His polymer chemistry researchplayed a vital part in the development ofindustry in the fields of plastics, syn-thetic rubber and man-made fibres. Hestudied in Cambridge in the 1930s, andin 1938 became Eric Rideal’s assistantresearch director in the Colloid Sciencelaboratory, with a focus on polymers.Following his war work as scientificadviser to the chief superintendent ofchemical defence, he moved to an aca-demic role in Aberdeen in 1945 and,later, on to Birmingham. As a physical chemist, his research

included the bonding mechanisms thatoccur in the formation large polymermolecules, and the development ofmethods for measuring the rates ofchemical reactions in the unstable envi-ronment immediately before an explo-sion. These were important in develop-

ing new polymerisation reactions.Katie found the visit both exciting

and memorable. ‘I know my fatherwould be very proud and pleased aboutall the research that is going on,’ Katiesays. ‘It was very special seeing his por-trait hanging up on the lab wall, andamazing to have photos taken beside it.’

A welcome family visit!

Katie and Silvia with Sir Harry’s portrait

Photo: C

arolin

e Han

cox

A lifetime’s achievementThe 2014 Economic Times LifetimeAchievement award has been made toYusuf Hamied. Yusuf studied here as anundergraduate in the 1950s, and thengained a PhD in organic chemistry in1960, working with Lord Todd. The award recognises people whose

corporate achievements set an examplefor the current generation of leaders, athome in India and around the world. His company, Cipla, was a pioneer in

the development of generic medicines.A particular achievement is its provisionof affordable antiretroviral medicines totreat HIV infections in developingcountries. He is now the company’schairman, after half a century as itsmanaging director.In his acceptance speech, he high-

lighted the importance of producingaffordable drugs to address the healthissues facing the world today.

The eagerly awaitedresults of the UK’sResearch ExcellenceFramework, or REF, were released inJanuary, and Cambridge chemistry per-formed extremely well. The highest rating, 4*, was given to

57% of our submissions. This rating isdefined as ‘world leading’.This proportion of 4* gradings

makes us the department with thelargest percentage of world-leadingpapers. We also topped the grade pointaverage, with a score of 3.54 out of 4.And we were second in impact per-formance, too.The results demonstrate the depart-

ment’s strength as a leader, both in theUK and internationally, says head ofdepartment Daan Frenkel. ‘Our competition is international,’ he

says. ‘In that competition, scientificexcellence is crucial.’He also thanked all members of the

department for the time spent on thesubmission. ‘This result would neverhave been possible without these effortsin carrying out top research,’ Daan says.

Cambridgechemistry’s REF excellence

Chris Abell is to be the university’s next pro-vice-chancellor for research. He will be one of five PVCs,who support the vice-chancellor in providingacademic leadership to the university, and help drivestrategy and policy development.

‘I think it is a very important role and a very excitingopportunity,’ Chris says. His three-year appointmentstarts in January next year.

A symposium was held at the end ofFebruary to honour the late Lord Lewis,who died last year. The symposium, which took place at

Robinson College, showcased Jack’scontribution to both science and thewider world.It included talks and reflections on

Jack’s life and work by several scientistswho worked with Jack at key points intheir careers, including our ownMelinda Duer and Clare Grey, plus BrianJohnson, who was the event’s host. Other speakers included Nobel laure-

ate Richard Schrock of MIT, Lutz Gadeof the University of Heidelberg, EdwinConstable of the University of Basel,Robin Clark of UCL, Sir Ronald Mason,who is a former chief scientific adviserto the Ministry of Defence, and NicolaNicholls, chair of the Woodland Trust. n For donations in memory of Jack,the department and Robinson Collegehave set up a three-year graduate stu-dentship in chemistry in his name. Thisfund will allow a talented individual tostudy at Cambridge, and will be a fittingtribute to Jack’s legacy. You can find out more about the stu-

dentship by visiting the the Robinsonwebsite, at http://bit.ly/1EqmFsW,where there is also a link for donations.

Remembering Lord Lewis

As part of last September’s universityalumni festival, we invited formermembers of the chemistry department tovisit us to find out what we’re up to. Theevent was hosted by Alan Battersby. Comeand visit next time – we’d love to see you!

Photos: Nathan

Pitt

www.ch.cam.ac.uk

5Chem@Cam Spring 2015

Maximum impact at NERC

Photos: NERC

This year, for the first time, UK fundingbody the Natural Environment ResearchCouncil, or NERC, made impact awardsto recognise and reward the contribu-tion of NERC science to the UK’s econ-omy, society, well-being and interna-tional reputation. Awards were made in four different

categories – economic impact, societalimpact, early career impact and interna-tional impact. John Pyle, Neil Harris and colleagues

in Cambridge and the National Centrefor Atmospheric Science won the inter-national impact prize – and were alsoadjudged the overall winners. Theawards were presented at a ceremony

held in London in January, which alsomarked the start of NERC’s 50thanniversary year.The award citation explained that the

team’s atmospheric research has playeda leading role in demonstrating theeffect of man-made gases on the ozonelayer, and the consequences for humanhealth. Their contributions played a keypart in the strengthening of theMontreal Protocol, widely regarded asone of the most successful internationalagreements ever enacted. The protocol,along with other pieces of related legis-lation, has ensured the rapid phase-outof ozone depleting substances. As aresult, the hole in the ozone now

John and Neilreceiving theirawards from JimAl-Khalili and LordSelborne (left), and celebratingtheir win (above)

appears to be slowly closing, preventinga number of UV-related health prob-lems worldwide, including skin cancer,sunburn and cataracts.‘I am sure that you will all join me in

congratulating Neil, John and their col-laborators present and past with theseexceptional marks of recognition,’ sayshead of department Daan Frenkel.n John also appeared on the Australiannews programme AM, discussing areport that revealed the ozone layer ison track to recovery in the light of con-certed international action againstozone-depleting substances. The 2014 report, ‘The scientific

assessment of ozone depletion’,attracted widespread media coveragefor its positive message on the successof the 1987 Montreal Protocol, whichrelies on international cooperation toreduce the production and consump-tion of ozone-depleting chemicals. Johnwas a co-chair of the assessment, andNeil a lead author. The report is pub-lished every four years by the UnitedNations Environment Programme andthe World Meteorological Organization.

The department has a new deputy headresponsible for staff-related matters –Nick Bampos. He takes over from JaneClarke, who has fulfilled this challeng-ing role since 2011.Jane was the driving force behind our

successful application for the AthenaSwan bronze award. In addition to thedeputy head role, Nick will also chairthe Athena Swan task force that ispreparing our forthcoming submissionfor a silver award.‘I am extremely grateful to Jane for

all the things she has done for thedepartment,’ says Daan Frenkel. ‘All the changes in the department

that Jane has instigated have madeeveryone of us aware of the continuingneed to make it an even better place inwhich to work.’

A new deputy headfor the department

Please come back and talk to our current graduate students and postdocs about how yourPhD, MPhil or postdoctoral work led to the careeryou now have!

We currently have several confirmed sessions, onpatent law, teaching in schools and in highereducation, going on to postdoctoral research,chemical science publishing, entrepreneurship &innovation, science policy & government, theenergy industry and analytical chemistry. But we’dalso love to have input from those who have takenother career paths that might be of interest to ourcurrent cohort of students. Sessions will bescheduled around May 2016, so there is plenty oftime to prepare...

If you think you might be able to contribute, pleasecontact Deborah Longbottom at [email protected]– she would be delighted to tell you more.

Your department needs you!

Following two years of trial lectures andworkshops, the department now has atraining programme open to all graduatestudents, whether MPhil or PhD. Postdocsare also welcome to participate, as arestudents from other departments

News


The chemistry library has entered thesocial media age, with its own Twitteraccount, at @chemlibcam. ‘The aim of the account is to pro-

mote library services, new elec-tronic resources, new depart-ment publications, and any-thing that will help withresearch and study,’ sayslibrarian Clair Castle. ‘You can also use

it to communicatewith us.’The Twitter avatar fea-

tures the library’s newlogo, designed by librarystaff and the department’sphotographers. The design wasinspired by the steel tree and usescolours reminiscent of the library’sdécor. The steel tree symbolisesYggdrasil, the huge ash tree from Norsemythology whose roots are in theunderworld, and branches reaching uptowards the light in the heavens. The library’s Twitter feed is also

embedded in its blog, which is full ofother useful information for libraryusers. It can be found by going to cambridgechemlib.wordpress.com.

The library’s all of a Twitter

In September, Cambridge played host tothe second Cambridge–Warsaw YoungScientists meeting, under the auspices ofthe EU’s 7th Framework Programme. The annual bilateral meeting aims to

bring together young investigators fromCambridge and the Institute of PhysicalChemistry at Warsaw’s Polish Academyof Science. It is part of the Noblesseproject, designed to establish the Polishinstitute within the European nano -science community.During the intensive two-day event,

lectures from leading scientists in thebroad field of materials chemistry werepresented, including Clare Grey, Erwin

Reisner, Silvia Vignolini and AndrewWheatley. There were also about 20short presentations by young Polish andUK-based chemists, plus a large numberof posters.It also provided a platform for PhD

students and postdocs to present theirresearch, take part in scientific discus-sions, and build informal networks.Lectures were held in the BMS theatrehere in chemistry – as you can see fromthe photo, it was a pretty big event, with120 delegates, half of them fromPoland. The Polish visitors were hostedin Jesus College, and social eventsorganised throughout the university.

Photo: C

arolin

e Han

cox

A bilateral Polish meeting

With 120 delegates, there were plenty of opportunities for dialogue and network-building

It’s a warm welcome to the departmentto Yolande Cordeaux, who joins us asour new knowledge transfer facilitator,or KTF. This represents a refocusing ofthe previous research facilitator role,which was held by Isabelle de Wouters. Yolande was previously with the uni-

versity’s academic division, where shewas the NERC impact coordinator, hav-ing previously been involved in support-ing the university’s REF submission.The role, facilitated by EPSRC impact

acceleration funding, has a strong focuson developing impact activities andrelationships with corporate partners.She will support the academic staff intheir applications for research funding,and help to promote wider and moreeffective engagement across the depart-ment with the ‘impact’ agenda. The aimis to enhance our efforts to translatebasic research into applications.Her activities will cover the whole of

research in the field of chemical sci-ences, including activities at the inter-faces with life, medical and environ-mental sciences. Meanwhile, Isabelle has taken up the

post of director of scientific develop-ment for the energy@cambridge strate-gic initiative. This is funded by the vicechancellor’s endowment fund, andreports to the pro-vice-chancellor forresearch. She remains a member of staffhere in chemistry, but her role willfocus on university-wide activitiesunder the initiative.

Transferringknowledge

Sir John Meurig Thomas has beenawarded the Ahmed Zewail prize inmolecular sciences. It was awarded toJohn for his outstanding contributionsto the fundamental understanding ofthe structures of solids, and the devel-opment and application of the conceptof single-site heterogeneous catalysis. As well as a gold medal and a cash

prize, John presented a lecture at thisyear’s American Chemical Society’sspring meeting, held in Denver. This is the fifth time the prize has

been awarded – and the second time it’sbeen won by a Cambridge chemist.David Buckingham was the first recipi-ent, back in 2007.

A prize for JMT

We reported in the last issue that ChrisDobson had been chosen as one of therecipients of the Netherlands Academy ofSciences’ prestigious Heineken Prize, in theprizes’ 50th anniversary year. These prizesare given every other year to fiveinternationally renowned scientists, andChris won the award for biochemistry andbiophysics. The prize was presented at aceremony in October, which was held inAmsterdam. Dutch King Willem-Alexanderwas in attendance to meet the awardees –the picture shows Chris meeting the king.

www.ch.cam.ac.uk


Climate model trainingAt the beginning of January, the depart-ment welcomed a group of scientists fora training course on the UK chemistryand aerosols (UKCA) composition-cli-mate model, developed in John Pyle’sgroup in collaboration with groups atLeeds, Oxford, and the Met Office.‘It allows chemistry and aerosol

processes in the atmosphere to be simu-lated in the Met Office Unified Model,’explains Luke Abraham, who ran thecourse. ‘This means that it can be usedfor air quality forecasts, for exampleDefra’s air quality forecasts are providedby UKCA. It’s also been used in interna-tional assessments, such as Met Officesimulations that contributed to the IPCC5th Assessment Report. UKCA resultshave also fed into the WMO ScientificAssessment of Ozone Depletion.’Luke contributes to the model’s

development and provides national sup-port for users. In the past, he has beenfunded to write online tutorials and runseveral two-day face-to-face sessions.The January course, funded by NERC,expanded on this.The week-long course featured a

series of lectures in the mornings whichfocused in detail on the differentprocesses simulated by UKCA. Thesewere given by a number of people fromOxford, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leeds,Reading, and the Met Office. In theafternoon, the attendees took part inpractical sessions that allowed them tolearn how to configure and run UKCA,add new chemical reactions, and outputnew diagnostics.‘We had 22 attendees, plus a dozen

lecturers,’ Luke says. ‘As well asCambridge, they came from UEA,Exeter, Reading, Leeds, Birmingham,Edinburgh, and one came all the way

from Melbourne in Australia!’Luke has already applied for funding

to repeat the course next year, and hopesit will become a regular event. ‘The par-ticipants got a great deal out of thecourse, and the number who came wasencouraging,’ he says. ‘It was hard work,with all that information condensedinto a short time, but the feedback I’vehad has been positive. It was veryworthwhile.’

The new 300 MHz NMR spectrometerrecently installed in Clare Grey’s laboffers a whole suite of new capabilitiesto apply this powerful, nondestructive,technique to the development of thenext generation of electrochemicaldevices – from batteries to fuel cells andsupercapacitors. Fitted with large gradi-ent amplifiers, the system allows verylow diffusion coefficients to be meas-ured, and magnetic resonance imagingtechniques can be applied. Clare’s group will primarily use this

new equipment to investigate electro-chemical devices for large scale grid stor-age applications. These include gaininginsights into the behaviour of elec-trolytes confined within porous elec-trodes, redox flow batteries and superca-pacitors. Monitoring the influence ofdevice scale and geometry using MRIwill help guide the design of next gener-ation grid storage devices, while opti-mising the diffusion coefficient will leadto enhanced performance.

NMR addition

Stork lecturer

The 2014 Bob Hay lectureship wasawarded to Oren Scherman. The lecture,awarded by the Royal Society ofChemistry’s macrocycles and supramole-cular chemistry group, is given in mem-ory of Bob Hay, one of the pioneers ofmacrocyclic chemistry in the UK.Each year’s winner is a younger

chemist, who can work anywherewithin the field of macrocyclic orsupramolecular chemistry. Oren gave hislecture at the group’s annual conferencein Norwich in December. Andreas Bender won the Hansch

Award. This prize goes to someoneunder 40 who has made a significantcontribution to the field of quantitativestructure–activity relationships. He won for his ‘outstanding contribu-

tions in the field of molecular similarity,

and integrating biological and chemicaldescriptors for in silico pharmacology’.The awards are presented at the

European QSAR symposia, and theGordon research conferences on com-puter-aided drug design. It’s been a good few months for

Gonçalo Bernardes, whose chemistryhas brought him two prestigious prizes.First, he was awarded the European

Young Chemist Awards’ Silver Medal. Hereceived this after presenting his group’sresearch a the European ChemistryCongress in Istanbul.He also received the 2014 European

Prize of the Royal Chemistry Society ofSpain’s chemical biology division. Thisaward recognises outstanding youngresearch leaders in the field of chemicalbiology. The prize also includes present-ing a lecture at the society’s biennialmeeting in La Coruña this coming July.

Ian Paterson recently visited theUniversity of Wisconsin in Madison,where he had the honour of being theinaugural Gilbert Stork lecturer.‘Gilbert has generously endowed a

lectureship series in organic synthesis atMadison where he did his PhD, and Iwas invited to be their first speaker,’ Iansays. ‘My postdoc, in 1979–80, waswith Gilbert Stork at ColumbiaUniversity, New York.’Gilbert is world renowned in the

organic chemistry community as agiant in the field of synthesis, and wasthe Todd visiting professor inCambridge back in 1979.‘He still goes to work at the age of

92,’ Ian says. ‘Perhaps some of my col-leagues would like to emulate this?’

NMR installation in action!

Prizewinning trio

Photos: Nathan

Pitt

Practical sessionsand lectures madefor a busy week!

Photo: N

athan

Pitt

8

News


Photos: Nathan

Pitt

Cambridge Chemistry held its firstgraduate admissions open day inOctober. More than 100 people inter-ested in pursuing an MPhil or PhD herecame to visit the department. ‘The idea was to give potential stu-

dents an insight into what Cambridgechemistry is like, and find out moreabout us and the research we do,’ saysRebecca Myers, who was one of theorganisers of the event. ‘It was a verybusy day!’The event included a wide selection

of talks from all areas of research thatare going on in the department, bothfrom senior PhD students and academicstaff. Attendees were able to tour ourlabs and other facilities, engage inposter sessions, talk to current studentsand meet potential supervisors.A second graduate admissions open

day will be held in the autumn, proba-bly in October, although no date hasbeen finalised as yet. Watch this space!

Open for admissions!We are sad to report the death of CarlDjerassi. He died on 30 January in SanFrancisco at the age of 91.Often described as the father of the

contraceptive pill, he was a pioneer invarious fields over the years. These include steroid chemistry and

optical rotatory dispersion in the1950s, the application of mass spec-trometry and NMR spectroscopy toorganic chemistry in the 1960s, andcomputer-aided structure determina-tion in the 1970s. His new approach to structure deter-

mination came to Cambridge via theappointment of Dudley Williams as apostdoc in 1964 – a lineage continuedtoday through Jeremy Sanders, whoworked for Dudley, and Chris Hunter,who worked for Jeremy.In later life, he switched from chem-

istry to art collecting and writing sci-ence-in-fiction plays and novels, andwas a substantial donor to gender stud-ies here in Cambridge. He was also amember of the Cambridge chemistryadvisory board. Carl had last visited Cambridge in

Nov ember for a ‘conversation’ event atSidney Sussex, where he was discussinghis life and work with the AstronomerRoyal, Martin Rees. This coincided with the publication of

a book of his reflections, ‘In retrospect:from the pill to the pen’.

Carl DjerassiFrank Allen, former executive directorof the Cambridge Crystallographic DataCentre, died in November. Frank joined the university’s chemi-

cal crystallography group in 1970, andplayed an important role in the estab-lishment of the Cambridge Structuraldatabase. Following his retirement in2008, he remained with the CCDC as anemeritus research fellow, which allowedhim to continue indulging his passionfor structural chemistry.His research involved collaboration

with many scientists around the world,resulting in more than 200 papers. Hewas also involved in the BritishCrystallographic Association, and wasits vice-president from 1997 to 2001.

Frank Allen

The 2014 BP lecturer was Sharon Glotzer ofthe University of Michigan. She visited thedepartment in November, and gave twolectures, one on soft matter quasicrystalsand their complex cousins, and the otheron digital discovery and design – the newage of materials on demand

The new home of Chris Hunter’s group,the Dudley Williams lab, had its officialopening in November. The ribbon-cutting was performed by

Dudley’s widow, Pat, and was followedby a champagne reception and a tour ofthe new facilities.Chris’s group moved from Sheffield

to Cambridge in September into newlyrefurbished labs. Dudley and his chem-

istry have played an important role inChris’s career, ever since he was a stu-dent here in the department.‘Dudley was a great inspiration to me,

and it seemed only right to name the labafter him,’ Chris says. ‘My group and I will be proud to

work in a lab bearing Dudley’s name,and look forward to doing excitingchemistry there.’

Dudley Williams lab openedPat Williamsperforms theofficial opening,watched bygranddaughtersAlexandra, Isabelleand Sophie

Photo: N

athan

Pitt

Photo: G

aby Bocchetti

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Research


Cambridge chemists have been helpingpreserve the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’sshipwrecked wooden warship whichwas raised from the Solent in 1982.Exposure to air after so long in the waterposes real degradation problems, andvarious techniques have been appliedover the years to preserve the wood. The Cambridge connection began fol-

lowing a chance conversation betweenOren Scherman and the ship’s director ofconservation, and he thought his group’schemistry might be able to help preservewaterlogged wooden artefacts. ZarahWalsh was just about to start a postdoc inthe group, following an analytical chem-istry-based PhD at Dublin CityUniversity, and was keen to get involved.‘I have no specific background in conser-vation science, but I thought the projectsounded fascinating,’ she says.

AVOIDING SYNTHETICSThe brief from the conservators was thatsynthetic materials should be avoidedwhere possible. They had been sprayingthe wood regularly with polyethyleneglycol-containing biocides as a preserva-tive, but that is fully synthetic. They werelooking for something more natural thatwould not need repeat applications, andthat would be able to treat all threecauses of wood degradation – instabilityupon drying, the build up of iron in thewood acting catalytically to cause theformation of sulfuric and oxalic acids,and bacterial degradation.After a lot of trial and error, the

Cambridge team finally alighted on atwo-tier system, with a cucurbiturilhandcuff to maintain the structure, and astrong iron binder that would cross-linkthe polymer to any iron that happened tobe present. This made it more responsiveto the environment, with the strength ofthe material changing relative to thelevel of iron present but always main-taining a basic level of support. The idea behind this two-tier system

arose after Zarah and PhD student Emma-Rose Janeček were bemoaning theprogress of their individual approaches.‘Emma-Rose had made an interestingguar-based material that was ratherstrong, and she was explaining that itcould bind well to itself that it didn’tneed to bind to anything else,’ Zarah says.‘But mine had no strength at all – onceiron was present it went very liquid. Weidly wondered what would happen if wemixed the two together – would we endup with something in the middle?’And it turned out that they did. ‘We

still needed to remove a few kinks, but itwas a major leap forward,’ she says. ‘Itallowed us to bind iron, and create apolymer network to give it strength.’They were then let loose on conserva-

tion. ‘After two years working on thematerial, we took it down toPortsmouth, and – once they hadexplained what we could and couldn’tdo – they allowed us to apply the mate-rial ourselves to a wooden archeologicalartefact,’ she says. ‘That was really excit-ing – and it worked very well, eventhough at first it was not obvious thatanything had happened.’The conservators kept an eye on the

wood over the coming days, and afterabout three weeks the polymer startedto delaminate from the surface. Oncethe conservators removed it, they foundpristine-looking wood underneath,with the iron salts having been removedfrom the surface without damaging thewood underneath – something they hadnot been able to achieve before. Two years later, the iron deposits have

not returned, which represents a signif-icant improvement over the poulticesthey had applied previously, where thesurface iron started to reappear after sixweeks or so. ‘It looks like our systemcreates an oxygen barrier at the surface,preventing the iron underneath it frombeing oxidised and moving through thewood,’ she says. ‘This is really important

for conservation! Long-term tests arenow under way to see how it behaves asa structural stabiliser. But regardless ofthe outcome, we have managed todevelop a material significantly betterthan poultices at cleaning iron depositsoff wooden surfaces. ‘It’s very satisfying to have made such

a positive contribution – and to bedoing chemistry that non-scientists areinterested in as they can relate to theidea of preserving the Mary Rose.’Z. Walsh et al. PNAS, 2014, 111, 17743

Wood preservation on the Mary Rose

This striking image on the cover of Chem Soc Rev accompanies atutorial review from Erwin Reisner, postdoc Jenny Zhang, PhDstudent Nicholas Paul and former group member Masaru Kato,who’s now at Hokkaido University in Japan. The review looks atthe protein film photoelectrochemistry of the water oxidationenzyme photosystem II, which is at the heart of the photosynthesisprocess. The technique enables the enzyme’s light-dependentactivity when adsorbed onto an electrode surface to be studied.

Carefully paintingthe polymer onto awood sample

Preserving a woodenship from the 16thcentury is achallenging task,especially one thatsank in 1545 andspent centuriesunder the sea

Research


The power of structure predictions

The new Herchel Smith professor oforganic chemistry, Chris Hunter, is nostranger to the department, havingcompleted his PhD in supramolecularchemistry with Jeremy Sanders in 1989.He moved back to Cambridge fromSheffield in October, and is now settlingback into life in the flat Fens after nearly25 years in the hills of South Yorkshire.He cut his synthetic teeth with

Jeremy making molecules designed forartificial photosynthesis. These large,complex molecules proved extremelydifficult to make, and a change ofapproach was much more successful –applying non-covalent chemistry, sothat coordination bonds were used tohold the assemblies together. ‘Almost byaccident, we also found a theoreticalmodel for the stacking of aromaticrings,’ Chris says. ‘It wasn’t anything wewere looking for, but it came to us as aresult of some of the experiments we’ddone, and we created a computationalmodel to explain it.’On leaving Cambridge and starting

his independent research career, hereturned to this model for aromatic pi-stacking, applying it to interactions inproteins and DNA. ‘I’ve had a long-run-ning research programme aimed atunderstanding how the stacking of thebases in DNA determines the relation-ship between sequence and three-dimensional structure,’ he says. ‘Howdoes it bind to proteins, and how is itpackaged in the nucleus of a cell?’In a new project that’s just getting

underway here in Cambridge, he is try-ing to make synthetic polymers thathave all the properties of DNA. ‘If you’relooking for an interesting molecule totry and make or emulate, it doesn’t getmuch more exciting than DNA!’ hesays. ‘It’s capable of evolving – or beingforced to evolve – to generate func-tional properties without actually hav-ing to design the molecular structure. Itessentially finds its own way.’The secret to how it does this lies in

the fact that it’s a linear polymer that canbe copied, which means that in vitroselection experiments can be done.‘We’re trying to make synthetic poly-mers that are more like conventionalplastics such as polystyrene, butequipped with hydrogen bonding sites,’Chris explains. ‘This would allow thepolymer chain to template its own syn-thesis. We could therefore use it in forcedevolution experiments, essentially allow-ing us to make evolvable plastics.’

Chris Hunter has returned to Cambridge after 25 years. His scienceincludes the prediction of DNA packaging and complex stability

different manner. We want to under-stand the basic chemistry of how thatworks – and whether it can be done!’If it were possible to make something

that could be forced to evolve, there aremany potential applications. ‘It could, intheory, be used for anything, providedyou can think up a way of forcing themolecules to evolve to that function,’ hesays. ‘There are straightforward thingspeople have done with nucleic acids inforced evolution, such as making newsynthetic receptors, sensors and cata-lysts. Those are obvious examples, butthere may be many more interestingapplications in the materials field –imagine a self-replicating plastic!’Returning to DNA itself, and starting

with the model developed all thoseyears ago for how aromatic moleculesstack, they have created a piece of soft-ware that enables DNA sequence to betranslated into a three-dimensionalstructure. They are now using it to tryand understand the first level of packag-ing of DNA in the nucleus. ‘If you stretch out the DNA in a

human cell nucleus out into a longstring, it is about two metres long, yet itis packed into about 1µm of space,’Chris says. ‘This is achieved by wrap-ping it around protein molecules, andthe way in which it’s wrapped aroundthose proteins depends on its sequence.Certain sequences get packaged veryefficiently and are tightly wrapped,while other sequences are much lesstightly wrapped and are therefore moreaccessible. These are the regions wheretranscription factors bind to initiategene expression. So the way DNA ispackaged in the nucleus is, somehow,organised or controlled by the sequenceof the DNA itself. Our software hasallowed us to take the first step towardsunderstanding this process.’

BINDING PREDICTIONSThe first level of packaging in thisprocess is called a nucleosome, andcomprises 147 base pairs of DNAwrapped around a protein complex. ‘Wesearched the whole of DNA sequencespace to predict which 147 basesequences would have the highest affin-ity to make those nucleosome com-plexes,’ he says. ‘We then experimentallytested the 12 sequences we predictedwould be the best binders, and all hadvery high affinity. It was good to knowthat it worked – we were able to makequantitative predictions of bindingaffinity from just the DNA sequence.’A large amount of effort in the group

is taken up by running experiments toquantify non-covalent interactions likethese, in various different systems. ‘We

His starting point is designing sys-tems that will form a duplex structure,mimicking the double-stranded forma-tion of DNA. If this is made up ofoligomers of a defined sequence thathave hydrogen bond donor or acceptorunits, these could pair in a sequence-selective manner analogous to the waythymine pairs with adenine, and cyto-sine pairs with guanine, in DNA. ‘So, forexample, if you make an oligomer withthe sequence acceptor–acceptor–donor–acceptor, that would pair in asequence-selective way with anothermolecule that has the sequence donor–donor–acceptor–donor,’ he explains.

SYNTHETIC CONTROLAnd they’re now starting to get this ideato work. The next stage, Chris says, is toinvestigate whether the sequence can beused to control the synthesis of a com-plementary oligomer. ‘We hope to beable to show that DNA isn’t such asuper-special molecule,’ he says. ‘Ibelieve there are huge numbers of dif-ferent kinds of chemical structures thathave replicating properties similar toDNA, but which might function in a

Photos: Nathan

Pitt

synthesise molecules that are designedto allow us to make a quantitative meas-urement of the thermodynamic proper-ties of aromatic stacking interactions,hydrogen bonding interactions andhalogen bonding interactions,’ he says.An important technique for measur-

ing these interactions is the doublemutant cycle experiment, developed byhis predecessor as Herchel Smithorganic chemistry chair, Alan Fersht, inhis work on side chain–side chain inter-actions in proteins. Basically, if there aretwo groups in a complex system thatform a non-covalent contact, and youcan quantify the stability of that com-plex, this technique can be used. First,the stability of the complex with thatnon-covalent interaction, such as ahydrogen bond, is measured. Then oneof the two groups is removed and thestability measured again, and then theother removed before stability is meas-ured once more. Finally, both groupsare removed at the same time, and afourth stability measurement is made.From these four measurements, a cyclecan be constructed that enables a singleinteraction to be dissected out from asystem in which there are very manydifferent interactions.

SOLVENT EFFECTSThe idea that these non-covalent contactscan be quantified means it should be pos-sible to start predicting the stability of thecomplexes, too. This has obvious applica-tions in fields such as drug design, wherepredicting how a new molecule mightbind could be used to decide whether itis worth making and testing.Another model they’ve developed is

designed to quantify how a solventaffects non-covalent interactions. Mostexperimental studies of weak non-cova-lent interactions are done in very non-polar solvents, with the assumption thatthe solvent has no impact as it is so over-whelmed by the much stronger non-covalent interaction that is being meas-ured, such as a hydrogen bond. ‘Theidea is that if you have a solvent that can-not make hydrogen bonds, it will notaffect the hydrogen bond that is beingformed in the solvent,’ Chris says.Surprisingly, he explains, this

assumption is not correct. ‘From thedata we collected, we could see veryclearly that the solvent was actuallyplaying quite a significant role – evenan innocuous, very non-polar solventsuch as carbon tetrachloride.’ Indeed, itturns out that everything affects every-thing else, so while molecules like car-bon tetrachloride are non-polar, theyactually have little patches on their sur-face that are slightly positive or slightlynegative – slightly positive in the case ofcarbon tetrachloride. This means theydo actually form weak but significantinteractions with the molecules that aredissolved in them, perturbing the

11

www.ch.cam.ac.uk


CV

Chri

s H

unte

r

Born: Dunedin in New Zealand, to Irish parents. Aftera spell in Nigeria, they returned to Portstewart inNorthern Ireland when he was four years old.

Education: After school in Northern Ireland, he cameto Cambridge to study natural sciences, staying on fora PhD with Jeremy Sanders.

Career: On finishing his PhD, Chris returned to NewZealand and a lectureship at the University of Otago inDunedin, the world’s most southerly university. ‘It wasa little like the end of the earth, but it’s a really greatplace, and I learned a lot,’ he says. Two years later, in1991, he moved to Sheffield, where he remained untilhis recent return to Cambridge.

Status: His wife Rosie McHugh is a director in theNHS Sheffield Care Trust, and will remain in Sheffielduntil next summer with their youngest son, Finn, whois doing his GCSEs. Son Conor is 25 and anaccountant in Glasgow; 18-year-old daughter Ciara isstudying architecture in Bath.

Interests: He loves surfing, although Cambridge is nobetter for that than Sheffield. ‘I thought I was movingcloser to the sea until I realised just how much theEast Anglian coast bulges out to the east – it’s actuallythe same distance from here to the closest decentsurfing beach, Sandilands, as it is from Sheffield!’ Healso loves walking, cooking and cinema.

Did you know? Continuing in a fine tradition ofstudent disco among Cambridge organic chemists(after Shankar Balasubramanian and Joe Spencer), heused to run the Pleasure Machine, Churchill College’sundergraduate disco. ‘Disco is clearly the secret ofsuccess in organic chemistry!’ he claims.

Front row, fromthe left: MarkWilliamson,Geneva Peterson,Cristina Misuraca,Elena SannaMartinez, MarinaBlanco Lomas, AnaBelenguer andJames McKenzieBack row: DiegoNunez-Villanueva,Jeremy Sanders,Jon Swain, ElkinLopez Fontal, FilipSzczypiński, MariaCiaccia, Alex Stross,Maxime Guitet,Rafel CabotMesquida, Chris,Michael AidenJinks and CristinaNavarro Reguero

there is a continuous scale, with every-thing interacting with everything else toan appreciable degree. Almost everythingis weakly polar, even alkanes. That tinyeffect we found and could quantify actu-ally turns out to correlate nicely to somequite big effects, and the measurementsin these very non-polar solvents extrapo-late well to water and the common polarorganic solvents.’While this initial approach was very

empirical, they are now in the processof developing a predictive computa-tional model and trying to generalise itto include interactions between anymolecules in any solvent. ‘One of thebig challenges in computational chem-istry is dealing with solvent as it is sodifficult to do simulations on a practicallevel,’ he says. ‘Most of the chemistry weare interested in happens in the liquidstate, and to simulate what happens in asolution all of the solvent moleculesand the interactions between themmust be included. This makes theprocess extremely demanding in termsof computer power and time.’Chris’s new approach simplifies the

system greatly, while being rigorouslybenchmarked against the experimentaldata. This renders it pretty accurate – andpractical to use. One way they’ve beenputting it into use is to predict the forma-tion of co-crystals. These have gained a lotof interest recently in the pharmaceuticalindustry as by forming a co-crystalbetween a drug molecule and a suitablepartner molecule, the physical propertiessuch as solubility and bioavailability canbe changed and improved. They have developed a software tool

that enables thousands of compounds tobe screened in a matter of minutes towork out which molecules might suc-cessfully make co-crystals with an activepharmaceutical ingredient. ‘We haveexperimentally verified that it workspretty well,’ Chris says. ‘We’re nowapplying it to practical problems – car-rying out a full crystal structure predic-tion for every potential pair-wise com-bination would be completely unwork-able. By predicting what might make agood co-crystal in a quick and simpleway, it should greatly facilitate the devel-opment of better drug formulations.’

behaviour of the hydrogen bond that isbeing measured.This has enabled them to tease out a

quantitative way of predicting whathappens in different solvents, as theyare now able to account for how thatsolvent had affected all the measure-ments – something had been makingpredictions difficult as the system wasnot behaving as expected. And they havenow managed to create a general treat-ment for how solvents affect non-cova-lent interactions.‘There’s a hierarchy of interactions in

a uniform gradation, from the truly non-polar like noble gases interacting witheach other, up to completely polar likethe hydrogen bonds between water mol-ecules,’ he says. ‘It’s not a case of non-polar things not interacting and hydro-gen bonded things interacting strongly –

Transcription factors are proteins thatcontrol the transcription of genetic infor-mation from DNA to messenger RNA bybinding to very specific sequenceswithin the DNA. A recent project inRobert Glen’s group, in collaborationwith Boris Adryan in the department ofgenetics and Sarah Bray at PDN, wasdesigned to create a better understandingof how these transcription factors actu-ally interact with the DNA. How do theyrecognise the right DNA sequenceamong all the possibilities, and how dothese sequences of DNA result in eitherblocking or initiating transcription?As Rubben Torella, who’s just finished

his PhD with Robert, explains, the orig-inal idea was to create a computermodel that simulated all the commoninteractions of the transcription factorCSL with DNA. This factor is an impor-tant part of the Notch signalling path-way, involved in cell–cell communica-tion that controls multiple cell differen-tiation processes. ‘We created all the possible combina-

tions of different strands of DNA boundto CSL,’ Rubben explains. ‘This tooksome time as we calculated the bindingbetween CSL and each individual DNAsequence – all 65,536 of them!’ Thisenabled them to rank the interactions inorder of binding ability.It’s all very well making these sorts of

calculations, but are they actually cor-rect? To find out, they ran in vitro assaysto test binding of DNA sequences withCSL, and also in vivo studies in a cell linewhere binding to the same sequences

could be measured in a more physio-logical context. ‘It turned out our predictions were

largely correct, and were able to predictwhich DNA sequence could be bound,and which wouldn’t,’ Rubben says. ‘As aconsequence we have shown that actuallya much larger repertoire of DNAsequences can be bound. This is impor-tant in the context of the whole genomewhere these subtle differences in bindingmay help in distinguishing the functionalDNA sites from the vast amounts of avail-able DNA, where the factor might alsobind but less strongly. There is thereforethe interesting question of why bindingat some sequences influences transcrip-tion, while binding at others does not.’One hypothesis why particular

sequences are so selective in cells is thatthe binding with the ‘correct’ sequenceis stronger, so it will remain bound forlonger so enhancing the effect. To betterunderstand what might be happening atthe molecular level, they applied molec-ular dynamics calculations to the sys-tem, which takes into account the waythe proteins and DNA move in real time. ‘By applying Newton’s laws of

motion, and allowing the system todynamically evolve over time during thesimulation, we can appreciate how theentire DNA/protein system explores dif-ferent dynamics,’ Rubben says. Calc ul -ating these dynamics for selected exam-ples revealed some interesting features.‘We found that when the transcription

factor is bound to the best-match DNA,there is a much stronger correlation in


Research

DNA interactions in action the dynamics of the system, increasingthe binding energy, and allowing thetransmission of a “dynamic signal”through the protein,’ he says. ‘There is a better signal transmitted to

the whole protein, whereas this doesnot happen with weaker binding. This isan exciting discovery, as regions of theprotein that are not directly bound toDNA, but are at a large distance from thebinding event, are also affected whenthe binding is strong. Since the next stepin initiating transcription requires thesignal to change the conformation ofthe protein at a distance from the DNAbinding event, this can explain whysome DNA–protein interactions pro-mote this, and others don’t.’The hypothesis was tested by mutat-

ing some residues within the protein.which appeared critical for the dynamicinternal signal. to see if this reduced thesignal transduction in vivo. The effects invivo from mutating three residues that,when altered, strongly reduced the sig-nal transmission across the protein incomputer simulations, were testedusing fruit flies. The CSL gene affects the development

of the fruit fly wing veins and, sureenough, the mutated gene stopped thewing growing properly – highlightingthe importance of the dynamic correla-tion between the protein and DNAsequence. This strongly supports a sig-nal transduction step within the pro-teins that regulate transcription, poten-tially explaining their selective actionsand demonstrating the fine level of con-trol within this process.R.Torella et al. Nucl. Acids Res.2014, 42, 10550

CuF2 cannot matchthe performanceof other systems

A good battery material needs to havehigh capacity and high voltage, becheap, and be reversible to enable thebattery to be charged and recharged. Afew years ago copper(II) fluoride wassomething of a hot topic among batteryresearchers, as it ticks the first three ofthese boxes – but making it reversibleproved impossible, and no-one couldwork out why this was so.CuF2 has a high operating potential,

thanks to the high electronegativity ofthe fluorine, but the high iconicity ofthe copper–fluorine bonds means there

is a large band gap, which makes it apoor conductor. And it’s difficult tostudy – CuF2 is a nanomaterial, and thusforms multiple different phases oncharging, making it extremely difficultto characterise. ‘High heterogeneity on asmall scale is challenging!’ says XiaoHua, a PhD student with Clare Grey.The answer, Xiao says, lies in a com-

bination of NMR experiments and syn-chrotron X-ray techniques. The synchro-tron experiments enable the battery tobe studied in real time while it’s charg-ing and discharging, and NMR facili-tates the measurement of light ele-ments, in this case, lithium. ‘When abattery finishes one discharge-chargecycle, ideally you expect to get the ini-tial materials back,’ he explains. ‘But inthe case of copper fluoride, you do notsee copper fluoride form after the bat-tery finishes the full cycle.’They found that what was happening

was the copper dissolved in the elec-trolyte, combined with the lithium flu-oride, and formed Cu1+ during the first

charge cycle. The copper dissolutionconsumes the majority of the LiF,thereby stopping the CuF2 from beingre-formed on charging. This is why thecapacity disappears in the second andsubsequent cycles, and explains whyCuF2 will not make an effective batterymaterial, despite its initial high capacityand voltage.Although CuF2 seems to be problem-

atic as a successful battery material,explaining why it doesn’t work is stillimportant – and the paper was high-lighted as a ‘hot paper’ by the AmericanChemical Society. ‘We created a guide-line for future researchers, giving anidea about where it is worthwhilespending their efforts,’ Xiao says. ‘It’s notas if the material can be easily improvedby doping or surface coating like whatmany researchers are focusing on – it’smore about how to engineer this mate-rial or to change the electrolyte to makethis material perform better.’ X. Hua et al. J. Phys. Chem.2014, 118, 15169

The importance of being reversible

13

www.ch.cam.ac.uk


There are many advantages in carryingout reactions in a continuous flowprocess rather than a traditional stirredflask or batch reactor – not least that it ispossible to connect multiple flow reac-tors together so more than one step of asynthesis can be performed, one afteranother, without any need for isolationbetween each step. However, the practi-cality of daisy-chaining reactorstogether is not as straightforward as onemight think. Claudio Battilocchio and his col-

leagues in Steve Ley’s InnovativeTechnology Centre have been looking atways this can be achieved more success-fully. The idea was to create a holisticapproach that could be applied to anygeneral synthetic process.‘Chemists automatically think about

the chemical transformations, but theintermediate steps that link themtogether are not as important,’ Claudioexplains. ‘Our idea was to divide thedesign of a synthetic flow procedurebased into three different layers. The toplayer contains all the chemistry whereasthe second layer is associated to thedownstream processing operations toconnect the chemistry steps together.The bottom layer handles information,which connects and controls the chem-istry steps together.’This information layer manages the

flow chemistry data that is collectedabout the formation of intermediatesbetween the different steps and gives thesystem the ability to respond to anychanges, such as the amount of that

intermediate that has been formed. Thisallows each step to be self-regulated forthe best results. ‘The different machines in a flow

sequence operate different steps, butwithout any information layer wewould need several people to controlthem,’ Claudio explains. ‘One person cancontrol one or two machines, but morethan that is often impractical. Howeverif the system looks after most of them,with each module responding to stimulisuch as the formation of intermediates,we can be much more productive.’ As an example, they created a system

that connected three chemistry stepsand their associated work-ups, with thesystem designed at each step to auto-matically respond to changes, enablingself-regulation. ‘We designed the systemto self-regulate in order to reduce theamount of reagents used and waste pro-duced, but it could also send alerts ifthere was a problem,’ he says. ‘This isvery different from the current system –there is a paradox in continuous flowchemistry that, despite the promise ofautomation, the operator has to spend alot of time in front of the machine tocheck it is working properly.’The key to the remote controlled

automated system that regulates thesequence of steps is that they are nottreated individually, but each module ofthe system is regulated in order to inter-act with each other. ‘If there is a problemwith the first step, the second and thirdwill continue to process material whilethey can, but that first part will shut

down to enable the operator to solve theissue and start it up again. On the otherhand, if the operator is not there, eachmodule will shut down safely once“their” starting materials are used up.’ Essentially, this modular configura-

tion of the system enables remote con-trol by a single operator. Now, Claudiosays, they are looking to use specificsensors that detect intermediates,enabling the system to optimise itself aswell. ‘This would allow the singlechemist operating the whole system tofocus on the chemistry, and decidingwhat to do next, rather than running thesynthesis,’ he says. ‘All the routine oper-ations would be performed and con-trolled by the machines.’R.J. Ingham et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2015, 54, 144

The next step towards automated synthesis

The aim of Switch Off Week is to raisethe awareness of how our daily use ofenergy has an impact and how, byswitching off electrical equipment, theuniversity can become a more sustain-able place. The week features a pro-gramme of events organised centrally bythe environment and energy team, andmore locally by environment & energycoordinators and Green Impact teams.The first university-wide Switch Off

Week was held in February 2013 during

a week that had an unusually cold snapof weather, so it was highly challengingand demanding requiring a determinedeffort to switch off especially heaters. Itwas therefore very encouraging that,during that period, there was an overall2.1% saving (corrected to take intoaccount the cold weather) on the uni-versity’s energy bill compared to theprevious week.The 2014 Switch Off Week was held

in November. On the Wednesday, theSwitch Off Week Roadshow came to theCyberCafé, bringing with it the EnergyBike Challenge that allowed people toexperience the effort required to powera 90W sound system and light show.Tim Hele spectacularly smashed the uni-versity’s previous record by cycling for 1hour, 1 minute and 1 second! There were also opportunities to

make energy-saving pledges, and sweepup the many freebies including waterbottles, cycle seat covers and fortunecookies. At lunchtime, there were repeatshowings of Green World Rising’s series

of short films on the state of climate andsolutions to the climate crisis, narratedby Leonardo DiCaprio. At the end of the week, the chemistry

department decreased its electric use by0.89%. Overall, during the whole week,the university used more than 3000kWhless electricity, a reduction of 0.36%. Of course, the message of switching

off to save energy continues all year. Youcan make a difference in making the uni-versity a greener place by switching offlights and equipment when it’s notneeded. Every little helps. Richard Turner

Switch off and save energy

Taking care of allthe layers of theflow procedureallows bettersystem control

Richard Turner andSheila Batemanrun the stand inreception (far left);Tony Gill from theCybercafé makeshis energy-savingpledge to turn offnon-essentialelectrical items atthe end of his shift

I believe I was the last person out of FreeSchool Lane Physical Chemistry, as itwas closed down in 1958 for the moveto Lensfield Road. Like many a ‘brain-drainer’ I was hot foot for America, hav-ing completed a PhD’s research underRonald Norrish, but had been offeredanother year for writing up and extend-ing the work, staying on in the oldbuilding. I had also managed that year toget married. My lab was on the top floor, up the

steep staircase, and I painstakingly built agas-kinetic flow system for reactions ofchlorinated hydrocarbons. An old projectleft over from the 1940s, it was not mychoice of research topic – I came toCambridge from London eager to doflash photolysis and spectrocopy, butfound myself drafted into this becausethere was some petrochemical moneyleft over in Norrish’s budget. The lab hadan unforgettable feature, a cavity blastedinto the plaster wall by a detonation inwhich Fred Dainton (later Sir Frederick,Baron Dainton) had once mangled hishand when treating an organic peroxidewith insufficient respect.My arrival coincided with the depar-

ture of George Porter, whose geniuswith flash photolysis helped propelNorrish to a Nobel Prize. After Porterleft for Sheffield, Brian Thrush, to hisgreat credit, kept the field alive inCambridge in the 1950s, with greatexperimental talent, but limitedresources.

Usually, on Norrish’s visits to thethird floor, he would simply ask what Ihad been doing, snort, and move on.What I had enthusiastically been doingactually elicited no more than mildcuriosity and a certain suspicion on hispart. This had been to make some of theearliest advances in gas chromatographyprompted by the late, delightfullyWelsh, Howard Purnell. Together westaked our claim to the earliest studiesof temperature effects on elution-times,all this with makeshift columns anddetectors feeding a mirror galvanome-ter, whose swinging light-spot we excit-edly plotted on graph paper as eachpeak arrived. The luxury of a pen-recorder came much later.Howard and gas chromatography

were the rescue of my PhD. By using thelatter to measure trace by-products ofthe pyrolysis and combustion of CH2Cl2and CH3Cl , I was able to concoct aplausible set of chain-reaction mecha-nisms, with the usual under-determinedfinesse of: ‘the following mechanism isconsistent with the experimentalresults…’ As my contemporaries will know, the

tensions of the Norrish entourage werenot reflected in the rest of the depart-ment. The waggish Morris Sugden, thecourteous, stone-deaf Moelwin-Hughesand the shyly expert John Agar, kepttheir research and academic intelligencewell clear of the department head,while, in my own case, college life at


Alumni

Last out of Free School Lane King’s, in a brilliant international post-grad community, was just the distrac-tion I needed. I also remember withgreat affection Fred Webber, the top-floor technician whose kindness andsupport at difficult times I shall neverforget, not to mention his promptemergency licking of my eyeballs afteran acid splash on one occasion. Not alltechnical staff were as easy-going, how-ever. I particularly remember the store-keeper whose response to every requestwas an automatic: ‘We’re cutting downon that’, followed by: ‘Are you sure youreally need it?’ Looking back, I think I owe my later

cultural development to one incidentmore than any other – the enforcedclosing of the Free School Lane labs at6.00pm. on safety grounds. (As wellthey should have been in view of thefrequent explosions and lax attitudes tosafety in those days.) This, along withthe libraries and the marvellousCambridge provision that one couldturn up at any lectures whatever, wasthe beginning of my eventual longmarch through the academic world tobecome a linguist and literary historian.I confess that I snuck out to many amorning humanities lecture, knowingthat Norrish was always a late starter onhis rounds of inspection. And so to America and the delight in

being addressed by my Christian name.My connection with generous and free-thinking King’s continues to this day,where periodic non-resident dinnersmake the perfect night out fromLondon. Michael Hoare

Former Physical Chemistry glassblowerCyril John Smith passed away on 25August after a short illness. Cyril was born in Cambridge in

1930, the second of four children. Heattended Coleridge School until the ageof 14, when he left to become a labora-tory technician for students at BartsHospital, who had been evacuated fromLondon and temporarily housed in thechemistry department, then inPembroke Street. After the war, whenthe Barts students returned home, Cyrilobtained a job in chemistry, workingwith John Woodcock carrying outchemical preparations in the XL lab. When chemistry and physical chem-

istry, then two separate departments,relocated to Lensfield Road, he joinedphysical chemistry as a research techni-cian for the flash photolysis groups. Theapparatus required for this work was notcommercially available as it had to becreated from quartz, so Cyril became anexpert in designing and making suchequipment. Much of his handiwork was

used by the 1967 Nobel laureates,Norrish and Porter. During his long career with the

University he worked alongside hisbrother Eric, who was the department’shead of photography. Cyril was also avery keen member of the lab cricketteam, and its secretary for some time.He took early retirement in 1990, andspent a lot of time enjoying his twomain hobbies, gardening and fishing.

Edgar ‘Tiger’ Coxall, who was chief tech-nician in charge of the electrical work-shop for many years, passed away inDecember 2014. Tiger was born in Longmeadow in

1928, one of three children, and went toschool in the village of Lode, just north-east of Cambridge. He joined the chemistry department in

November 1942 as a lecture room assistant when the labs inPembroke Street were not only home to Cambridge studentsbut also to evacuated students from London universities andthe Ministry of Supply. In 1946 he joined the Royal Navy for his two years’ national

service. On being demobbed, he returned as a technician onthe inorganic floor, specialising in maintaining the fluorinegenerators both in the ‘old lab’ and then in Lensfield Road. He gradually became involved in the repair of electrical

apparatus and set up the electrical workshops, where he even-tually designed and built a great deal of novel equipment thatwas not commercially available. Tiger retired in 1992, having completed 50 years with us.

He was a very active sportsman, playing cricket for the depart-ment, football for local clubs and an avid West Ham supporter.He was also a very keen motorcyclist, and rode regularly untila few months before he passed away.

Cyril John Smith ‘Tiger’ Coxall

Without the talents of the department’sphotographers, Chem@Cam wouldn’thave those wonderfully striking imageson the front cover – or the lovely por-traits of our chemists inside. But whydoes a chemistry department employphotographers? As Nathan Pitt says,when people ask him what he does for aliving, they’re often rather surprisedwhen he tells them he does photographyin a university chemistry department. In reality, although taking photos is

an important part of what they do,there’s rather more to it than that –they’re responsible for anything andeverything involving graphics or imag-ing. ‘On the photography side, we doportrait shots for publications, passportsand visas, but we also do still life pho-tography of science equipment andinteresting experiments, either forpapers and theses, for record-keeping,or even because they’ve managed tomake something really pretty,’ explainsCaroline Hancox. ‘Our colleague GabyBocchetti in reprographics also does alot of graphic design, such as creatingjournal covers. She’s something of awhiz in Illustrator!’There’s also a good deal of events

photograpy, such as conferences andlectures, and corporate and other visi-tors to the department. ‘We’re well prac-tised in the art of taking photos ofNobel prizewinners and other distin-guished scientists waving their armsaround during lectures!’ Nathan says.‘We also cover outreach events such asthe department open day, and otherevents involving Cambridge chemistsoutside the department itself. Scienceweek is always fun – Peter Wothers’ lec-ture is good for dramatic photos, andfinding interesting shots of the kidsdoing science in the labs is never dull.’Perhaps unsurprisingly, for such a var-

ied occupation, Nathan and Carolinecite different aspects as their favourite.As well as the more explosive parts ofdemonstration lectures, Nathan lovesthe variety – he could be photographinglectures one day, poster printing anotherand creating stretch canvases another. Caroline, meanwhile, gets a huge

amount of satisfaction out of taking por-traits, particularly ones on location likethose we use in Chem@Cam. ‘Teasing agood photo out of someone whodoesn’t like having their picture takencan be a challenge!’ she says. ‘I start bychatting with them, and once they’verelaxed I tell them it will soon be over!‘If they’re still looking really miser-

able, I’ll tell them to smile as this is thelast photo – they go “phew!” and relaxinto a good pose in their relief. It’s allabout showing them it’s not scary, andthat I’m not trying to make them lookawful in the picture. It’s good to breakdown their barriers and let them comethrough in the photo. Getting that goodshot is incredibly satisfying.’

TECHNICAL CHALLENGESChem@Cam’s cover shots can also poseinteresting technical challenges. ‘A lot ofthe time, working out how to get thebest shot is a case of trial and error, andin future shots we can build on what welearnt before,’ Nathan says. ‘That’s a lotof the fun of it – working out what wewant a shot to look like, and how toachieve it.’The flaming letters on our last cover

are a great example. ‘With shots likethis, we have to work with people whoknow how to create the effect we’relooking for,’ Caroline says. ‘ChrisBrackstone really enjoyed working outhow to make them, and without histechnical help it the shot would nothave been possible.’


In the know

Smile for the camera!Photographing lasers is another fun

one. Way back in Summer 2003, thecover featured a student in DaveKlenerman’s lab who was working witha laser. But visualising a laser isn’t sim-ple. The answer lay in taking a shotusing the flash with the lights off tovisualise the student and the equip-ment, and then leaving the shutter openwhile wafting dry ice at the laser, givingit something to ‘hit’ so it could be seen.Having already worked out how to visu-alise lasers meant taking the laser-basedcover shot for Autumn 2013 was justthat little bit easier.A decade ago, film was still routine,

and part of their office was a darkroom.Not any more – everything is digital.‘We use programmes like Photoshopand Lightroom – a digital darkroom ina light room!’ says Caroline. Going digital also allowed them to

lose the darkroom in 2009, giving themmore space for the increasingly largeequipment they need. ‘With a very largeprinter and the laminators, it was a bitof a squeeze to trim posters and lami-nate things,’ Nathan says. ‘Looking back,it seems a little farcical – our now-retired colleague John Holman had tobreathe in so we could squeeze pastbetween him and the laminator whenhe was sitting at his desk.’

POSTERS AND VIDEOSPrinting is an important part of whatthey do. ‘We do all the poster printingin the department,’ Nathan says. Whiletheir input into the design is limited,they swap lo-res screen-grab logos andcrests for hi-res vector graphics so theylook sharp, and do occasionally offerdesign and technical advice.‘Poster printing comes in peaks and

troughs, but generally we do about 250a year, of different types,’ he adds. ‘Westill make traditional paper and lami-nated posters, but increasingly we’remaking canvas and cloth posters. Thesehave been really popular – you can foldthe poster up in your bag, and not havethe battle of trying to get away with aposter tube as hand-luggage on EasyJet!’An activity that’s in its infancy for

them is taking videos. They don’t getasked to do it very often, and theirequipment remains limited, but occa-sionally they’re asked if they can take avideo. ‘A good example is the replace-ment of one of Clare Grey’s NMRmachines a little while back, when themagnet was being purged,’ Nathan says.‘Safety officer Martin Maundersthought it would be good to havefootage of the clouds of gas coming off,so we took about five minutes offootage as a record. What we do is fairlyinfrequent and very simple at themoment, but we have half an eye onexpanding in the future, if the demandis there.’

Caroline, Gaby andNathan, picturedwith the assistanceof a self-timer!


Chat lines

Jeremy Sanders sent this pair of snaps along. He was recently inChina, and was made an honorary professor at Nanjing Universityof Science and Technology. He and his wife Louise were rathertaken aback to see his name up in lights outside! And he’s alsobeen hob-nobbing with royalty... with a visit to BuckinghamPalace for the presentation of his CBE by Prince William.

A wedding full of chemistry

As readers will be well aware, we love anice wedding photo in Chem@Cam. Andthis one involves not one but three mem-bers of the department – the bride andgroom and, as a bonus, the photographer.Celine Galvagnion, a postdoc with

Chris Dobson, and Alexander Buell, aresearch fellow in the Dobson andKnowles groups, got married on 6September in Magdalene College – andthe pictures were taken by our very ownCaroline Hancox.Celine is originally from Pontoise,

near Paris, and Alexander hails fromStuttgart in Germany, and they first metin the lab on the day of Alexander’s vivain June 2011. ‘Jane Clarke had orderedeverybody to vacate lab 290, as my viva

was to take place in an adjacent room,’Alexander says. ‘Celine, who had startedher postdoc a few weeks earlier, was thelast person remaining in the lab, desper-ately trying to finish her work beforeshe left. I was a bit early for my viva, sowe got to talk…’He proposed a couple of years later dur-

ing a road trip in the US. The year after.they were married. ‘We went on honey-moon to the Galapagos Islands, which wasa trip to remember – and the ideal desti-nation for two scientists!’ he says.And they’re greatly enjoying working

together, too. They’ve published fourpapers together this year – and arerather hoping there will be many moreto come.

Photo: C

arolin

e Han

cox

David Plumb retired in September, afteralmost a decade working in thedepartment’s electrical workshop.Department members will recall him goingaround the building testing all theelectrical equipment to check it’s safe.Colleagues past and present were on handto give him a rousing send-off.

Photos: Gab

y Bocchetti

Computer officer Chris Chalk retired inMarch after 23 years in the chemistrydepartment, and more than 40 with theuniversity. He’s pictured with head ofdepartmentDaan Frenkel at his leavingparty in the Todd Hamied room. Despitethe smiles, we’re sad to see him go!

Michael PittasWe are sad toreport that oneof our cleaners,Michael Pittas,has died. Hejoined us inchemistry in2010. Ourthoughts arewith his wifeCheryl, who isalso a cleanerhere in thedepartment.

Photo: N

athan

Pitt


www.ch.cam.ac.uk

Minkoo Ahn’s wife Sookjin gave birth totheir daughter Christine (right) on 31October. It was just four days afterMinkoo’s PhD viva... ‘What a week for meto receive two titles – dad and Dr!’ he says.Christine was born at the Rosie, and

weighed in at 2.84 euro-baby-units(that’s 6lb 4oz in a more Imperial way).Minkoo has stayed on for a year’s post-doc in Chris Dobson’s group, and sayshe’s loving being a dad.‘It’s demanded various responsibili-

ties for Christine such as changing nap-pies!’ he says. ‘But it has also granted methe great privilege to be overjoyed bybeing with her, and seeing her adorableface every day.’

Andrew Wheatley’s wife Wendy gavebirth to Joseph Henry (left) on 29 July,weighing in at 7lb 15oz (that’s 3.6kgfor the euro-baby-unit-lovers amongyou). His arrival in the middle of aheatwave contrasted somewhat with hisbig sister Abigail’s arrival – a CD casehad to be pressed into action to scrapethe car free of snow then!Andrew says he’s now learning the

joys of ironing miniature shirts, andpreventing the adoring big sister fromsmothering her little brother with over-zealous attempts at cuddles.

Slightly belatedly, here’s Hugo DavidWard (right), who was born on 1March last year. He’s the first child ofVanessa de Souza, a research fellow atDarwin who works in David Wales’group, and her husband Edmund Ward,who did a PhD in materials with PaulMidgley and now works for Ofgem.Belatedness makes for a great picture

though… ‘Hugo likes messy play,’Vanessa tells us. ‘In the picture, he’s cov-ered in chocolate Angel Delight, and issitting in (and eating from) a tray ofspaghetti.’ The boy will go far!

On the left is Francisco Pinteus da CruzLopes Bernardes (phew!), son ofGonçalo Bernardes and his wife FilipaPinteus da Cruz, who’s also DPhilorganic chemist.Francisco was born on 23 September

in Gonçalo’s home town of Lisbon inPortugal, and weighed in at 3.6 euro-baby-units (that’s almost 8lb in old UKbaby-units). ‘He is very relaxed,’ Gonçalo says.

‘Being a father is the best thing ever!’

Every year, SouthCambridge RotaryClub borrows thedepartment’s carpark in the run upto Christmas. Theythen chargeshoppers forparking, all in theaid of charity.This year, thechemistry car parkraised £5828 –more than a fifthof the £35,827total raised fromall the club’sChristmas parkingactivities. Thegood causessupported thisyear include East Anglia’schildren’s hospice,Cambridge Dial-a-Ride, Romsey Mill,the GuildfordRotary Eye project,Wintercomfort,Campod, and the University of CambridgeVeterinary School Trust.

Hiking Yorkshire’s Three Peaks makes fora challenging expedition at the best oftimes, but in filthy weather that chal-lenge increases somewhat. But that’swhat personnel administrator EmmaGraham and glassblower KeithParmenter did back in September. The 25-mile trek takes the intrepid

walker up 2277 ft Pen-y-Ghent, thenWhernside, which tops out at 2415 ft,and finishes off with Ingleborough, at2372 ft high – all within 12 hours.‘I’m pleased to say we managed to

complete it as a team in 11 and a halfhours,’ Emma says. ‘We set off at 7am andthe weather was awful– it rained contin-uously for at least eight hours, but as weapproached the third peak the sun brokethrough and saw us through to the end.’Emma says the plan to do the walk

originally started as something to doherself to mark her 40th birthday, butshe then persuaded a friend, her cousin,and Keith to join her so she had somecompany on the hills.‘I’d also recently gone through a

really tough time at home as my son,who is 17, had recently attempted totake his own life and proceeded tospend a number of months in hospital,’she says. ‘So, as we were putting theeffort in, I felt it was an excellent oppor-tunity to raise money for the YoungMinds charity. ‘Shockingly, suicide is the third leading

cause of death in 15-24 year olds, andYoung Minds is a charity that helps toprevent teenage suicide by workingclosely with children, young people andtheir families to improve the emotionalwell being and mental health of adoles-cents. They incredibly important work.’With donations from family, friends

and colleagues in the department,Emma raised just over £1000 for thecharity. ‘It was a fantastic experience,made all the more worthwhile from themoney I raised,’ she says. ‘Keith and Ihope to continue with mountain treksnext year. Hopefully we’ll get betterweather next time!’

Three Peak challenge Four more future chemists!


Chat lines

Christmas cheerThe usual mix of faces old and new attended theassistant staff Christmas party in the Cybercafé,including Nathan Pitt, who was wielding the camera

Clockwise from above right:Chris Chalk and Pat Chapman;Alex Archibald and RayFreshwater, David Plumb andChris Lowe; Tim Dickens andFinian Leeper; ChrisBrackstone, Mark Hudson andDave Pratt get stuck into thewine; John Offley, ChrisSporikou and Mike Sleep;Mike Todd-Jones, Sabina Coleand Patrick Donnelly

19

Puzzle corner


Last issue’s solutionsChemDokuIt had to happen. A dozen years of ChemDoku-setting, and finally I succeeded in rendering itinsoluble thanks to a typing error. As numerousreaders pointed out, there was insufficientroom for all the gold (a grand problem to have,if you’re not a ChemDoku!). Chris Cornish-Lawrence summed it up nicely – maybe thealchemists had been at work, and succeeded inconverting another metal to gold during theprinting process.This didn’t put a handful of intrepid readers

off, however, and by the judicious act of turningsilver into gold managed to come up with asolution. Gold stars to David Wilson, GodfreyChinchen and Morgan Morgan. And a £20reward also goes to Godfrey Chinchen, as cho-sen by Ginola the cat-shaped office assistant,who dragged herself off the heated floor in thebathroom briefly to pick catbiscuits.

Triads for the 21st centuryThe Triads puzzle didn’t pose an impossiblechallenge, probably because it was set by DavidWilson and not me. The alphabetically adjacentelement symbols in the triad whose atomicnumbers are less than 72 are Mo/Mn, Sb/Scand Cs/Cr; those less than 82 are Tb/Tc, Ce/Cdand Ta/Tb; and the under 92 group are Th/Ti,Pa/P and Hg/Hf. Correct solutions came from Godfrey

Chinchen, Richard Moss, Richard Brown, TomBanfield, Ian Fletcher and Keith Parsons. Andthe feline prize-picker’s final furry fling sendsthe £20 prize in the direction of Tom Banfield.

This issue’s puzzlesElemental word chainGraham Quartly sends along this puzzle, his lat-est variant on is theme of words made fromatomic symbols… Using the symbols foratomic elements a word chain can be con-structed changing just one element at a timee.g. Fe N S -> Fe At S -> B At S -> B At He Whatare the sequences of triatomic words specifiedby these clues? (Remember only one elementmay be transmuted at a time.)1) Flavour / Objective / Water holder / Connection/ Big ship / Organ / Put a top on / Be frightened2) Provide food / Impact hole / Town Announcer/ Maritime construction / Baked goods / Provideswith drink / Friends / Plants providing a bitterpurgative3) Geographical feature / Small child / Pile of stones / Biblical murderer /Rubbish collector / Cereal / Organ /Wash bowl

Elementary, my dear chemistAnd here’s one from David Thompson.He says... There have been 169 Nobellaureates in chemistry, from the firstrecipient in 1901 to the latest in 2014.In many of these years, there was morethan one recipient. Only one person hasreceived the prize twice – FrederickSanger. When I looked through the listof laureates I was surprised to see howmany names were unfamiliar, but it is afew years since the last lecture Iattended! Some of these people havesurnames that can be built up fromchemical elements – the first laureatewas van’t Hoff (surname can be madefrom fusing hydrogen with oxygen and

two atoms of fluorine), but perhaps the bestknown recipient is Marie Curie whose surnamecannot be made up from atoms unless a new ele-ment has just been named... How many chem-istry laureates can be synthesised from the ele-ments in this way?

Chemical killer ChemDokuAnd finally… another one from DavidThompson, who spares my potential blushes byfilling the ChemDoku slot. However, as afiendish bonus, the inner ‘cages’ one mightexpect to see in a killer ChemDoku are absent.He adds that there are no single-value innercages, and offers this hint – vanadium, if madefrom three separate elements, can only be syn-thesised by adding fluorine and oxygen to car-bon. This will release a large number of neutronsbut this is, fortunately not relevant, he says!

Email puzzle entries to [email protected], orby snail mail to Chem@Cam at the address on p3

O V Mg Ne

Na C Si S

N F Cl Ne Si

N Ti F Be

Sc B Ti C

Cl Mg Be Ne

O Na

O Ne Cl Li Ne

Na O V

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 Sian Bunnageat [email protected], or call01223 336339.

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

Chem@Cam is written,

edited and produced

by SARAH HOULTON

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