Pint of Science: From Giant Planets to Nanorobots

Learn about the giant gas and ice planets in our solar system, and how the tiniest of robots could one day operate as tweezers inside living cells.

Exploring the Realm of the Giants
Dr Leigh Fletcher (Royal Society Research Fellow, University of Oxford)
The four giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, exhibit startling diversity in their environmental conditions and climate, despite the similarities in their origins. We’ll discuss some of the more recent insights into their dynamic and ever-changing atmospheres and look ahead to the future – in particular to ambitious plans to return to the ice giants in the coming decades.

Chemistry in motion: Towards the development of the tiniest robots
Dr Gokce Su Pulcu (Junior Research Fellow of Somerville College and Post Doctoral Fellow of Chemical Biology, University of Oxford)
Will it ever be possible to create a nanoworld, where armies of tiny molecules work to make their own nanomachines or construct their own nanobuildings? We don’t know yet, but we are working to develop molecules that can carry tiny loads to a target destination. We will talk about the power of chemistry to make things from bottom up as Richard Feynman says: “There is always room at the bottom.”