Heather Hobbs Research & events news Energy Solution Wins Global Award


Revolutionary artificial foam which captures and converts the sun’s energy more effectively than living organisms, has won The Earth Awards 2010 at a ceremony held during September in London.


David Wendell (front row 3rd from left) was presented with


the overall winners award by His Majesty Mizan Zainal of Malaysia and Her Majesty (pictured front row, centre)


The Photosynthetic Foam, devised initially by Dr Carlo Montemagno and developed by Dr David Wendell, both from the University of Cincinnati, won the $50,000 prize after being selected from over 500 entries from around the world. The team pitched to an audience of leading CEOs and investors at a Dragon’s Den style Summit held in partnership with the Financial Times at Marlborough House, London. Some of the advantages of the foam is that is a more land efficient means of producing biofuels because it is not reliant on soil as it is a synthetic material; all captured energy is converted to sugars, unlike natural plant photosynthesis where a large amount of energy is used to maintain the life of the organism; also because of higher conversion rates, the foam


is able to keep working in more carbon- intense environments such as urban environments or polluted manufacturing locations.


Professor Wendell explains: “The great aspect of Artificial Photosynthetic Foam is that it can practically contribute to a better tomorrow – which is exactly what the Earth Awards is about. Whether it’s the environment or the economy, this process has the potential to transform humanity’s approach to energy production and make an immediate positive contribution to reducing harmful carbon emissions.”


The aim of the Earth Awards, which identifies viable ideas from fashion to architecture and consumer products, and marries them with investors to provide a real solution to improving quality of life, is to give the designer the means to enter the worldwide consumer marketplace. David Wendell won the ‘Future’ category before being declared the overall winner of the 2010 awards.


TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. Ipswitch Transfers Files from ISS


Data from scientific experiments being conducted in the 4.5-metre diameter cylindrical Columbus laboratory attached to the International Space Station, is to be transferred back to Earth via Ipswitch’s WS_FTP Professional solution for safe storage and retrieval. Astronauts will be conducting research using the Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System (MARES), a large, aisle-mounted exercise device, to generate and collect data on musculoskeletal, biomechanical and neuromuscular human physiology, in order to better understand the effects of microgravity on the muscular system. Test are expected to use 20 hours of crew time and be commissioned for up to three years; generated data will be stored on MARES’ hard drive to a monitoring laptop and then down to Cadmos the scientific support facility at the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), Toulouse, France, which is in charge of monitoring the experiments.


“Crew time is so valuable and the volume of data involved is so large that a reliable and secure system for data transfer was absolutely essential,” explained Alain Maillet, Cadmos engineer. “WS_FTP gives us the possibility to transfer all our scientific data files automatically and securely, not only in space, but also back down to Earth.


Agilent awards Excellence in NMR


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Alain Maillet talking to the ISS Picture Courtesy of CNES/P. Jalby TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. 2


Goodfellow Award Presented at South African IoP Conference


The 2010 Goodfellow Award for best paper resulting from PhD research in the field of condensed matter physics/materials science was presented to Dr Lisa Coetsee at the annual South African Institute of Physics (SAIP) conference on October 1 in Pretoria. Dr Coetsee’s paper, entitled “XPS analysis for degraded Y2SiO5:Ce phosphor thin films,” dealt with the degradation of Y2SiO5:Ce phosphor thin films ablated in Ar gas.


In announcing the award on behalf of SAIP’s Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science (CMPMS) specialist group, Professor Japie Engelbrecht noted that Dr Coetsee’s research represents groundbreaking research on the emission of light from Ce light emitting centres. The paper was selected by a panel of experts who evaluated a total of five papers during the evaluation process.


Dr Coetsee (left) was unable to attend the conference, but the prize was awarded to her by Professor Hendrik Swart, her supervisor and also head of the Department of Physics in Bloemfontein, South Africa.


The Award, bestowed by CMPMS at the SAIP conference each year, is funded by the Goodfellow Group of Companies. Managing Director Stephen Aldersley said: “The innovative work that’s being done by these PhD students is an inspiration to us all. We at Goodfellow are pleased to do our part in highlighting the research of these exceptional young professionals.”


TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. 3 Professor Martin Karplus


Martin Karplus, Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University; and Laboratoire de Chimie Biophysique, ISIS, Université Louis Pasteur, has received the 2010 Russell Varian Prize awarded by Agilent Technologies for his paper, ‘Contact Electron-Spin Coupling of Nuclear Magnetic Moments’*.


Dr Karplus’ ground-breaking work, which was done in the late 1950s and early 1960s, set the stage for a generation of researchers to take his theoretical idea and refine it to the point that it is now considered one of the most valuable measurements available for determining chemical structure directly from NMR spectra. The calculations are eponymously called the ‘Karplus equations’. Many applications have been developed over the years covering all areas of NMR. The applications are used routinely by pharmaceutical research as well as national laboratories studying biological phenomena.


“I am honoured to receive the Russell Varian Prize this year particularly because, unlike previous recipients, I am not an NMR spectroscopist,” said Professor Karplus. “My theoretical work has benefited greatly from NMR, as have my collaborations with experimentalists in the field.”


The award was presented at the International Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems (ICMRBS), held during August in Cairns, Australia.


*J. Chem. Phys. 30, 11-15 (1959). TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. 4


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