Molecular Scissors

Anant Babu Marahatta (ananta037@gmail.com)
Tohoku Univ.
Japan

You might wonder to know that molecules work like a scissors in the presence of UV radiation. Such molecules are called “molecular scissors”. Here is an example of it in which an azobenzene moiety acts as a handle, a ferrocene unit acts as a pivot point and two phenyl groups act as the blades.

The conformational changes induced by cis-trans isomerization of the azobenzene switch, due to alternating irradiation with UV and visible light, are translated into a rotational movement around the metal center of the ferrocene unit.

Source: a text book about “Controlled Rotary Motion at the Molecular Level”

What a clear Chemistry !!

Anant Marahatta
Chemistry Department
Tohoku University
Japan
(ananta037@gmail.com)

It is a fact that if one could direct the computer according to his/her intention, one would get fantastic information about any disciplines of science. Computational chemistry which uses chemical software to compute chemistry behind matter has become fundamental tool in the cutting edge research. Now a day, without the computational approach, the experimental research findings are being difficult to accept by the scientific society. One of the very clear chemistry of single molecule rotation on crystalline surfaces is clarified here.

Fig (a) and (b) explain the alignment of dimethylsulphide (CH3)2 S molecule over Au(111) and over Au(100) surfaces respectively. Over Au (111) surface, one methyl group lies on the three-fold hollow site while another methyl group sits on the top site. In contrary, over Au (100) surface, both methyl groups occupy the hollow site present between atoms. During the rotation, if one CH3 group is passing the atop site while another one is above the hollow site (like in Au(111)), the rotation becomes facile. The opposite is true at Au (100) surface.

What a clear illustration, isn’t it? It’s a challenging finding of computational chemistry over experimental one.


If you are interested to read above chemistry in detail, you are advised to go through
J. Phys. Chem. C 2011, 115, 125–131

6.8 M Earthquake at the middle of the symposium

Anant Marahatta
Tohoku University
Sendai, Japan

The “Global Center of Excellence” (G-COE) program of Chemistry Department, Tohoku University, Japan had organized 4 days long int’l symposium from August 17 to 20, 2011. There were around 200 participants from the Graduate school of (Science, Life science, Pharmaceutical science and Engineering). Out of them around 20 were int’l delegates from Korea, Taiwan, Geneva, US, Germany, China, France and Canada. The symposium was divided into Oral and Poster sessions. Only selected candidates were asked to give oral presentation within 25 min. time interval.

It was the third day (August 19) of the symposium. All the events were running smoothly. All the participants were inside the auditorium hall. After the talk about “significance of metal-metal bonding to enhance the catalytic activity of binuclear complex” given by the guy from Germany, the chair person announced the 15 min coffee break. We all had a light snacks.

It was around 14.20, second half of the afternoon session was called and all the participants including Tohoku’s professors entered inside the hall. The guy from Korea was already ready for the presentation. He was from “Pohang University of Science and Technology” South Korea. He at first introduced his university and did not hesitate to tell about “how young is his university (less than 25 years, younger than him)”. His title was “Single Crystal to Single Crystal Post-Synthetic Modification via Framework Constituting Metal Ion exchange”. He was speaking about smart supramolecules with some wonderful videos and illustrations. Suddenly, the one story auditorium hall received quite strong jolt. The high tech. auditorium hall started to produce some noisy sounds (chuii, chuii….sound of glass wares). The speaker said “wow!!, what happened? ” Though this was even not became the news of the Japanese TV and radio channels, the int’l delegates were saying “Oh my god!! Is it called earthquake? What to do? Where are our host students…etc”. By chanting it, they left the hall and reached at the main entrance. The tremor was over within around 5 sec. At the middle of this scenario, the Japanese professors requested all to calm down by announcing not to scare, it’s not a big quake. The speaker started to talk after about 1 min disturbance. My eyes were looking towards the guys from US and Germany. They had made their face horrified. They were talking each other about that tremor. Anyway, the schedule of that day was completed successfully.

I was asked to follow them in excursion on 20 Aug. On that day, they shared about their initial thoughts raised (due to the March 11, 9 M quake) before finalizing the Tohoku’s invitation. If they were correct, they used to think “what to do if earthquake occurred at the middle of the symposium”.

What a coincidence? Isn’t it? They must have got nice experience.

How long will Japan be suffered by the energy crisis?

Anant Marahatta
Tohoku University
Sendai, Japan

One of the major consequences made by the giant tsunami after the scary earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011 is on the Fukushima based nuclear power plants of Japan and damaged the reactors very badly. Immediately after this, the world is forced to think about the nuclear energy consumption in the form of electric energy. Japan has already decided not to depend on nuclear energy but how? Several arguments are being raised.

The Japan government said, "We have a power shortage this year and we are calling for a 15 percent cut in electrical usage." Office buildings are being told to set their thermostats to 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Everywhere, escalators and elevators have been shut down. No Microwaves, ACs, Toasters etc. are allowed to run in the universities, food chain stores, supermarkets, department stores etc. Tohoku University, one of the nation’s high tech university, is asked to minimize the electricity usage as possible as it can. Even though all the lighting systems are set to control automatically, the university has even removed several tubes and fluorescent lamps. All the laboratories are asked to turn on the light after 5 pm if possible. Cafeteria helps this campaign even not tuning TV set.

The Environment Ministry advised workers to use gel sheets or eat foods that cool the body. It also suggested that employees limit overtime hours, work from home and take two weeks of vacation. Since, Japanese are very much hard working peoples and they usually bring lunch packs prepared by them and supposed to use the microwaves present at their offices. But due to the energy crisis, several Japanese are forced to eat without heating. The matter is also concerned about their health.

This sort of campaign is not only for the summer but is going to be a big event to change the way of life in Japan and people's lifestyles. The push to save energy in Japan comes from this Nuclear energy crisis.
How long will Japan be suffered by this crisis?

Molecular Rotor Measures Viscosity of Live Cells

Anant Babu Marahatta
Tohoku University
Japan (ananta037@gmail.com)

Introduction:
Viscosity is one of the major parameters determining the diffusion rate of species in condensed media. In bio-systems, changes in viscosity have been linked to disease and malfunction at the cellular level. These perturbations are caused by changes in mobility of chemicals within the cell, influencing signaling and transport and the efficiency of bimolecular processes.

Observation:

Fluorescence measurements of 1 made in methanol/glycerol mixtures of different viscosities shows that the fluorescence quantum yield increases dramatically with increasing solvent viscosity.The observed increase in fluorescence intensity is consistent with the restricted rotation of the phenyl group in the medium of high viscosity. The rates of radiative and nonradiative decays have been calculated from the measured fluorescence lifetimes and quantum yields. From these results, it has been concluded that, for 1, the nonradiative decay rate increases with decreasing viscosity, and the radiative decay rate remains approximately constant. Thus 1 is truly a molecular rotor which displays both fluorescence intensity and lifetime sensitivity to viscosity of the environment.

For detail, readers are requested to go through J.AM.CHEM.SOC. 2008,130, 6672-6673 if interested.

We must learn “How to love nation” from Japanese devotement

Anant Marahatta
Tohoku Univ.
Japan (ananta037@gmail.com)

After the scary and massive catastrophe on March, 2011 in northeastern Japan, several consequences raised in the world. Germany has already announced to shut down all the nuclear power plants within a decade; China has stopped to increase the number of power plants until the full safety measures are installed into already existed plants and the world’s super power USA has also checked the safety precautions in all the power plants including the biggest one located in the danger zone at California. Experts have already warned the US government and asked for installing safety measures especially in thhe California based reactors.

The victimized country, Japan, has already suspended around 40 reactors out of 50 for close inspection. It has decided to build 20m high seawalls around the reactors located in the danger zones to block them from giant tsunami. The biggest nuclear energy crisis forces to reduce the office hours of world’s largest manufacturers like Sony, Canon, Toyota, Honda, Toshiba and several others. Almost all the companies, universities and many research institutes, supermarket complexes, food-chain stores etc. are asked to minimize the electricity consumption. For it, all Japanese are doing their best by even removing their kitchen wares etc. Most of the chain stores and restaurants are using the play cards holding “Let’s do our level best. Never give up, Tohoku. Let’s build new Japan” at their main entrance. This is a very praiseworthy dedication of the citizens towards their nation.

Since the northeastern part of Japan has been jolting by several aftershocks. Almost every day, the skyscrapers are shaken 3-4 times in an average. After the strongest 9 M tremor on March 11, more than 5 jolts are already categorized into the strong range. They all cross 6 M in strength. The local and central government announce the tsunami warnings immediately after the strong earthquakes. But every Japanese is ready to challenge this horrified situation and gives his/her full support to the government for renovation.

We must learn “How to love nation” from their devotement.

Mixi vs. Facebook in Japan

Mixi, which was launched in February 2004, is the biggest social networking site in Japan. It is growing rapidly. The site has already more than 5 million users. Around 80% of those users are reported as “active”. The name “Mixi” supposedly refers to the fact that “I” can “mix” with other users. To join Mixi, you need to be invited by an existing member. The Mixi URL assigned to you contains a unique user number beginning at 1 and increased sequentially, it’s easy to tell how recently a user joined.

On the other hand, one year since Facebook was introduced to Japanese market; it is obvious that Facebook is not popular at all in Japan, while it is very successful in most of other countries.
Why Facebook is not popular in Japan?