Lindau 2013: a conference with a difference

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Picture hundreds of chemists taking over a tiny island. It may sound bizarre, but that’s pretty much what’s happening in Lindau, Germany right now.

I’m lucky enough to be at the 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, an annual event that sees Nobel laureates summoned to the beautiful Bavarian island of Lindau, along with 600 of the world’s most promising and passionate young researchers, all hoping to meet their heroes. This year, it’s chemistry’s turn. Brian Kobilka, Harry Kroto, Akira Suzuki and Ada Yonath are just some of the 35 science legends who will be taking to the stage this week.

It’s a conference like no other, with one specific goal: To build bridges. Bridges across generations, across cultures and across disciplines. As all the speakers have achieved remarkable things in different areas, the talks and discussions will cover a mish-mash of topics, from drug discovery to quantum theory. Many will focus on grand challenges such as sustainability or energy production, and broader topics such as science communication are also on the agenda.

But the scientific programme is only half the fun of the Lindau meetings. If you’ve been to many conferences you’ll know that often the most valuable networking opportunities come not from the formal sessions, but from the coffee breaks in between. The organisers at Lindau know this too, and the busy social programme aims to create an informal setting and get people talking. Throughout the week there is plenty of free time and tons of events – dinner parties, themed get-togethers, a concert and even a boat trip on the last day. With researchers from nearly 80 countries it is a unique chance for scientific and cultural exchange, as well as a chance to mingle with some of chemistry’s biggest stars.

During yesterday’s opening ceremony, participants were urged to make new friends, express their opinions, talk, share, argue and make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Everyone seems to be embracing the Lindau spirit so far. Outside the conference centre, television cameras capture the arrival of Laureates, government ministers and international guests of honour. Inside, scores of ‘fans’ are queuing up to have their photo taken with Robert Grubbs, and all over the island gaggles of chemists can be overheard talking about their work, as they explore the cobbled streets and take in the stunning views of nearby mountains.

The atmosphere is one of excitement, intrigue, anticipation. I’m certainly looking forward to hearing from some chemistry greats, and will post about some of the highlights. In the meantime, there are some great online resources via the official website’s Mediatheque, including info on all the Nobel laureates attending this year, and the genius Nobel Labs 360° hub, where you can take a virtual tour of some of their labs. For live updates keep an eye on the #lnlm13 Twitter hashtag.

For decades the Nobel Laureate meetings at Lindau have inspired great things. I’m sure this year will be no exception.

If you’re in Lindau, let us know! Post your experiences and highlights below – what are you most looking forward to?

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Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2013/07/01/lindau-2013-a-conference-with-a-difference/

Lindau 2013: Squabbles in Science

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Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m not a chemist. I always enjoyed chemistry at school – I’d even go as far as to say I was good at it – but in the end the lure of the living was just too strong and I opted to do a biology degree.

It turns out that not being a chemist is something I have in common with several of the Nobel Laureates here in Lindau. Some were awarded the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine, or in physics. Others’ pioneering chemistry work was an offshoot from a career in another scientific field. 2012 chemistry Nobel Brian Kobilka, who opened the first day of scientific lectures with a summary of his work on G-protein coupled receptors, explained he was a ‘new kid on the chemistry block’.

‘I’m a physicist, but hey no one’s perfect!’ quipped David Wineland at the beginning of his talk on quantum theory (to a murmur of agreement from the crowd). The next day Erwin Neher told us he ‘trained as a physicist, won a Nobel in physiology & medicine and I’m now speaking at a chemistry meeting.’

Three days in, I’ve heard from more than 20 Nobel laureates from across the whole spectrum of science, and there are many more still to come. (I won’t go into much detail here – keep an eye on the website for videos). I’m beginning to realise the extent to which the sciences are intermingled. As Jean-Marie Lehn neatly summed up in his talk: ‘Physics concerns the laws of the universe, and biology the rules of life. Chemistry builds a bridge between the two.’

I suppose it’s obvious that the boundaries between sciences are blurred – quantum theory relates to atoms, photons and particles – the very building blocks of chemistry. And often, the problems biologists and physiologists face must be tackled with chemistry. Kobilka used x-ray crystallography to visualise the molecular structures of GPCRs, cell membrane receptors that control the body’s responses to hormones and neurotransmitters.

But despite all this common ground, there’s still a fair amount of inter-subject tension in the world at large. When Kobilka (and colleague Robert Lefkowitz) were awarded the chemistry Nobel last year, some seemed genuinely annoyed it had been netted by molecular physiologists rather than ‘real’ chemists. Inter-science mudslinging is typical within universities – and starts at undergrad level.

The whole thing strikes me as baffling – surely scientists all want the same things, and should pool their expertise to fight the big battles (pathogen vs. drug, or man vs. the energy crisis) rather than bickering over chemistry vs. biology! This is one of the aims of the Lindau meeting, and the Nobel laureates themselves are a shining example of how cross-discipline collaborations can achieve great things. With any luck this will encourage participants to rise above the politics and point-scoring.

For some at least the message seems to be sinking in. Over the past few days I’ve met so many researchers here who are keen to learn from one another. When I asked one if he was here to see any of the Nobellists in particular, he said: ‘not really – I’m mostly here to meet new people, from different fields. In my area of work you don’t meet many people from other areas of science at conferences. I’m hoping to learn from this.’

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Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2013/07/03/squabbles-in-science/

One small step towards understanding the chemistry of alien atmospheres

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Guest post from Chemistry World intern Daniel Johnson…

Our first family computer didn’t have much processing power. In fact it sometimes felt like the technological equivalent of a boxed monkey with an abacus. So when my brother installed SETI@home (it stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) – a program designed to harness home PCs to crunch through radio telescope data – the result was a device incapable of supporting anything but a game of Minesweeper.

An artist’s impression of a hot Jupiter (at bottom right), a giant planet that orbits extremely close in to its host star. Credit: Leiden Observatory

Judging by recent developments, however, it turns out my curious and philanthropic sibling needn’t have bothered. Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have developed a new method which could allow us to analyse the make-up of exoplanets in greater detail than ever before. According to results presented at the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting on the 5th July, the new technique will allow astronomers to ‘efficiently search for water on hundreds of worlds without the need for space-based telescopes’. The implications? Easier to look for planets that may harbour those green many-legged aliens, for a start. Furthermore, having improved the technique for water, the team, headed by Jayne Birkby of Leiden University, may now move on to other atmospheric molecules such as O2, CO2 and CH4.

Looking at the method itself is a lesson in how old principles can be combined to make huge advances. The technique uses the CRyogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES) instrument, mounted on the VLT. Just as important is the relationship between the Doppler shift of electromagnetic radiation and the velocity of a body (the same effect that makes the siren of a passing ambulance rise and fall in pitch).

The CRIRES spectrograph has been in service since 2006; astronomers having been using the Doppler shift to find exoplanets for years. So what’s new?

Well, previously astronomers measured the Doppler shift in a star’s spectrum caused by the planet’s gravitational field. As the star is much heavier, it barely moves, spinning in a small circle at only a few km/h. But Birkby and her team flipped this around, using the Doppler shift caused by the planet’s motion around the star (c. 400,000km/h). According to Birkby, hunting for water meant looking at longer wavelengths where ‘the Earth’s atmosphere starts to obstruct what we are looking for’.  Sited at high altitude in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the VLT is ideally placed to minimise atmospheric effects, but still the spectrum received a combination of signals: from the exoplanet, the star itself and some distortion owing to our atmosphere. However, the Doppler effect shifted the exoplanet’s contribution while the rest of the spectrum stayed the same. This is where the CRIRES comes in. Its extremely high resolution can distinguish individual water lines in the spectrum, allowing the overall pattern to be identified.

An analogy for the process is this: imagine you’re looking for a needle in a haystack (surely someone did it originally for the phrase to exist). Even more unfortunate for you is that Herr Doppler is making the needle move as you search. You must discount the useless hay (distortion from the Earth’s atmosphere and the spectrum of the star) and find the moving needle (the water signal). Your one flimsy advantage? You know what the needle looks like.

It’s easy, then, to understand the excitement when they actually found the signal. ‘Of course we were delighted when we saw the signal jump out at us,’ said Birkby, going on to convey her excitement that this technique could be used ‘to look for Earth-twin planets’.

The researchers can now move on to looking for more atmospheric molecules – such as methane, carbon dioxide and oxygen – gradually building up a picture of the atmospheres and histories of thousands of exoplanets. It raises the tantalising prospect of one day finding a planet with a similar atmosphere to our own, where life may have existed or even exists today. Our present understanding of the chemistry of alien atmospheres is extremely limited, but techniques like this will lead the way, allowing us to ask those initial questions and find out if Earth’s chemistry is unique or astronomically mundane. But for now, back to the Minesweeper.

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Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2013/07/05/one-small-step-towards-understanding-the-chemistry-of-alien-atmospheres/

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The Heat Director Paul Feig Talks Sandra and Melissa’s Fiery Chemistry – Video

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