Meccano origins for visiting Nobel scientist

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Meccano origins for visiting Nobel scientist

Nobel Laureate Sir Harold Kroto

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Massey University is to host two lectures by Nobel Laureate Sir Harold Kroto.

Professor Kroto is a world leader in the groundbreaking realm of nanoscience and nanotechnology, a new area at the borderline of chemistry, physics and biology involving the study of matter on an extremely small scale. One nanometre is one-millionth of a millimetre and a single human hair is around 80,000 nanometres in width.

His lecture at the Albany campus on February 4 is titled Architecture in NanoSpace and will reveal the wonders of scientific developments in this specialised area to a general audience.

The title of his February 16 lecture in Palmerston North is Science, Society and Sustainability.

The British scientist, who won the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1996 and is now based at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University, says new experimental approaches which focused on the way atoms cluster together have led to the production of novel nanostructures and a general refocusing of research interests on ways of controlling so-called bottom-up self-assembly.

“This new approach is leading to novel advanced materials with new applications. On the horizon are possible applications ranging from civil engineering to advanced molecular electronics that are promising to transform the socio-economics of everyday life.”

He says fundamental advances “suggest that supercomputers in our pockets (as well as our heads) and buildings which can easily withstand powerful hurricanes and earthquakes are possible.”

The son of Polish parents born in Berlin who fled Europe at the outbreak of World War II, Professor Kroto was born and educated in the northern England town of Bolton.

In an online autobiography, he says a childhood fascination with Meccano engineering kits unleashed his interest in science. At high school he was “attracted by the smells and bangs that endowed chemistry with that slight but charismatic element of danger which is now banned from the classroom,” he says on the Nobelprize.org website.

Professor Kroto, also a keen, semi-professional graphic designer, helped set up the Vega Science Trust website (www.vega.org.uk) which makes television and internet programmes for general viewing to increase scientific understanding and knowledge.

His visit to New Zealand has been arranged by Massey’s Institute for Fundamental Sciences and New Zealand Institute for Advanced Studies, in association with Massey Foundation.

Both lectures are free, but seating is limited and reservations are essential. For the Albany lecture contact albevents@massey.ac.nz or telephone Events Management 09-414-0800 ext 9228. For the Manawatu lecture contact T.J Wilson@massey,ac.nz, or telephone 06-356-9099 ext 3508.

Architecture in NanoSpace - February 4, Wednesday 6.30pm at Sir Neil Waters’ Lecture Theatre Building, Massey University Albany, Gate 1, Albany Highway.

Science, Society and Sustainability - February 16, Monday 1.30pm at Regent on Broadway Theatre, Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North

ENDS

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