• Question: Do you like doing atoms in your university ???

    Asked by Millsy to Sandra, Lewis, James, Hummy on 14 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Lewis Wright

      Lewis Wright answered on 14 Mar 2017:

      I liked my Atomic Physics course when I was an undergrad, but now I get to play with atoms in solutions basically every day!

      I do different things to them, and then find out how what I did affected how they work.. 🙂

    • Photo: Sandra Greive

      Sandra Greive answered on 15 Mar 2017:

      Yes, its most beautiful when you can see an atomic resolution X-ray structure of a protein. Like this one of a Zika virus protein.
      https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/entry/pdb/5mfx
      Click 3d visualisation, this will give you model of how it looks. Go to Polymer Visual and click on ‘Type’ and select ‘balls and sticks’ from the drop down menu. Go to the top Density (2Fo-Fc) menu and click on ‘show’ and select ‘everything’ from the drop down menu. Then click on the central image and drag the mouse around until you can see the blue (electron density of each individual atom) with the balls (atoms) and sticks (bonds) inside.
      We make the protein crystallise and then shoot X-rays at it. Where there are electrons (around atoms) The X-rays deflect and we can use super computers to take this information and turn it into a picture of the molecule at atomic resolution. It looks beautiful, but I don’t come close to understanding the physics and maths behind it. I was really bad at physics at university.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 15 Mar 2017:

      I did not like Physics at all. So I very much doubt you’ll find any hopeful answer from me. I am a core biologist turned forensic scientist turned analytical chemist. As you may have noticed, trying to avoid mathemetics and physics, as much as possible 🙂

    • Photo: James Martin

      James Martin answered on 15 Mar 2017:

      if you like maths, there is some really cool (and strange) stuff going on. it’s a privilege to learn actually, and i reckon it should be introduced earlier in schools.

Comments