PSI Newsletter

Summer 2012 PSI Newsletter Inside this issue: Frogs and Physics 1 Frogs and Physics Dr Mark Dickinson and Andrew Gray, Curator of 1 Chemical Society review Herpetology at the Manchester Museum have been ex- accepted ploring the world of frogs with a class of Year 12 Physics students at the Manchester Museum. 2 A Message from the Director The day started with an introduction into the use of col- 3 Photon 12 our in the animal kingdom. The students were also intro- A student meets Prince 3 Branchpoint expansion in a fully duced to a “glass frog” (where you can see its internal Charming (an extremely rare complementary three-way organs) and a “splendid tree frog”, one of only about a splendid tree frog) DNA junction hundred left in the world. 3 Three dimensional optical im- Andrew explained how frogs were dying out in the rain forests of Central and South aging of actinide ions using two America as a result of a fungus. His research, which combines field studies with captive photon spectroscopy observations, focuses mainly on investigating the biology of the rare treefrog species. All the studies conducted are completely non-invasive and are aimed at gaining a fuller un- Chemical engineering of mo- 4 derstanding of the species concerned, so that the knowledge can be used to help con- lecular qubits - a joint publication between MIB and PSI serve them. Physicist Dr Mark Dickinson from the Photon Science Institute then explained the phys- 4 Louise Natrajan visits the INE ics behind the research, including the use of visible and infrared techniques to analyse the 5 Detecting free radicals in the frog’s skin, and a master class in infrared techniques. Students were allowed to use the atmosphere infrared imaging apparatus to look at near and far infrared imaging and spectroscopy. 6 Report on the EPR conference and David Collisons birthday lectures 8 Flash Bang - Andrew Thomas teaches school children about the science of explosions This newsletter consists of a combination of articles, high- lighting both recent grant successes and those of a personal nature. Two treefrogs – spot the one only camouflaged in the visible part of the spectrum Please send any items you have either for The Photon Chemical Society Review accepted Science Institute website or Andrew Thomas and Karen Syres have co-written a review entitled “Adsorption of or- the next newsletter to [email protected] ganic molecules on rutile TiO2 and anatase TiO2 single crystal surfaces” which has been accepted for publication by Chemical Society Reviews. Page 2 PSI Newsletter Summer 2012 A Message from the Director The major change within the PSI since Christmas has been projects we have decided upon are: the arrival of many new colleagues. These include: Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering spectroscopy (CARS): Cassy Kenny, who has replaced Joan as the Director’s PA. this has arisen from discussions with colleagues at MIB (chiefly Hopefully everyone has now met Cassy and introduced Roy Goodacre). It could probably become a focus for developing themselves. Cassy appears to be coping with the oddities further advanced Raman techniques. of the Director and the PSI staff remarkably well. The new Sum Frequency Generation spectroscopy (SFG): this is already layout for the newsletter has been Cassy’s initiative. an area where we have invested a small amount of money, and it Steve Mottley and Siraj Mohammed have arrived from is leading to a good deal of external interest and funding. We Chemistry to re-establish an electronics workshop in the already have funds from National Nuclear Laboratories, BP and PSI. Thanks to everyone who has helped Steve and Siraj EPSRC through collaboration with Imperial and Durham. An- settle in. Hopefully we will have a further appointment in drew Thomas and Rob Lindsay, who have led the development electronics shortly. of the project, have further ideas and we have interest from other groups at MIB and Chemistry in studying other systems. Alistair Fielding has arrived from the University of Göttin- gen to take up a position as an Application Scientist/Senior EPR spectroscopy of photo-excited states: this is a project that Lecturer – a post partly funded by Bruker. Alistair’s remit comes from moving the national EPR facility into the PSI. There is to design new experiments to use the beautiful new has been previous work in this area, but the range of spectrome- spectrometers within the ground floor laboratory. ters we have in the PSI combined with the laser facilities make this an opportunity to perform experiments other groups are Some of these changes have required a re-organisation of not equipped to perform. office space. We have divided up the former post-room to create two new offices and we are about to divide Kathy’s Finally, we’ll develop the optical microscopy further. Already office into two to create still further space. I think it is a Mark Dickinson and Tom Waigh, working closely with Vicki mark of the success we are achieving that we have to re- Allan, have developed a Photoactivated Localisation Microscopy organise to accommodate new staff. As the PSI grows, (PALM) which allows optical microscopy well beyond the diffrac- regular re-organisation and re-allocation of space is likely. tion limit. We will continue in this area, building strongly links to Life Science, but also looking for other collaborators who can A new experimental officer post in laser spectroscopy has use this very high resolution optical microscopy. been advertised and I hope we can fill this post before the summer. This will strengthen the research support team in These projects will occupy most of the time of the PSI research PSI and allow Med and Alasdair to help deliver an ever team over the remainder of 2012. Other funded projects will improving service to academics. Part of the reason I could also be supported as a high priority. This means that a low prior- persuade the Dean to release this post was because we ity will be given to research projects that are not externally have obtained external funds to develop the sum fre- funded. This is simple fairness – our salaries and those of all sup- quency generation spectroscopy experiment in the ground port staff depend on earning research funds, so those that earn floor laboratory. As we attempt to grow the PSI further, such funds should receive a better service. This means, in turn, external funding for the research support team is essen- that Med and Alisdair have been instructed not to support tial. groups which have no external funding unless the work is ap- proved directly by me. This is not their decision, it is mine. If you We are now planning the growth within the next phase. have a problem with this position, please speak to me directly. I’ve proposed we pursue four new projects. These have been chosen based on a balance of factors, which include: projects that have already obtained significant external Richard Winpenny funding and published significant work; projects that have the potential to obtain significant external funding and Director of the PSI contribute world-leading science; projects that build links to other sections of the university and beyond. The four Page 3 PSI Newsletter Summer 2012 PHOTON 12 Durham University, 3-6 September 2012. Members of the PSI are taking a leading role in the organization of PHOTON 12 at Durham University this year. Dave Binks, Mark Dickinson, Krikor Ozanyan and Patricia Scully are all on the Programme Committee and will be chairing sessions at the conference. PHOTON 12 is the IOP’s premier event in Optics and Photonics and is the largest optics conference in the UK. The event is the main forum for the IOP Optics and Photonics Division and the IOP Quantum Electronics and Photonics Group. For more information see the conference website at www.photon.org.uk. Branchpoint Expansion in a Fully Complementary Three-Way DNA Junction An article from Steven Magennis, Tara Sabir and Anita Toulmin "Branchpoint Expansion in a Fully Complementary Three-Way DNA Junction", has featured on the front cover of JACS. The research, which was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Gunnar Schröder (Forschungszentrum Jülich), Dr. Anita Jones (University of Edinburgh) and Prof. Peter McGlynn (University of Aberdeen), describes the use of single-molecule FRET, time -resolved spectroscopy, and molecular modeling to determine the global structure of a fully complementary three-way DNA junction. Three-way junctions are key biological intermediates and are used as building blocks for nanoscience applica- tions. The study revealed local unpairing at the branchpoint to form a nanoscale cavity, despite the full Watson-Crick com- plementarity of the DNA junction. The structure accounts for earlier observations of the structure and flexibility of three- way junctions. DOI: 10.1021/ja211802z Three Dimensional Optical Imaging of Actinide Ions using Two Photon Spectroscopy Congratulations to Louise Natrajan who has been awarded an EPSRC grant in the new directions for EPSRC research lead- ers scheme, for the value of £311,505. The title of her work is: “Three Dimensional Optical Imaging of Actinide Ions using Two Photon Spectroscopy”, and this will provide a 2 year extension to her EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship. Page 4 PSI Newsletter Summer 2012 Chemical engineering of molecular qubits – a joint publication between MIB and PSI C. J. Wedge, R. E. George, G. A. Timco, F. Tuna, S. Rigby, E. J. L. McInnes, R. E. P. Winpenny, S. J. Blundell and A. Ardavan, “Chemical engineering of molecular qubits”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2012, 108, 107204. DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.107204 The arrival of the EPR facility within PSI has changed the face of the ground floor laboratory.

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