• Question: What was the most interesting piece of information you have found out in your current field of study?

    Asked by ✔Harvey M✔ to Anne, Arthur, Rose, Ruhina, Thomas on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by sophie.
    • Photo: Ruhina Miller

      Ruhina Miller answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Unfortunately nothing interesting yet since I only started a few months ago and research can be a slow process, but I’m sure it will come! 🙂

    • Photo: Anne Canning

      Anne Canning answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      That I can make polymers made of proteins in the lab which can interact with enzymes made by animals.

    • Photo: Rose Simnett

      Rose Simnett answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hi Harvey M,
      I found it really interesting when we did some work on temperature responsive polymers. We made a co-polymer with two different monomers in. It was really cool to see how the different amounts of monomers in the polymer made a difference to the temperature behavior. This could possibly used as a drug delivery system, so when the polymer is outside of the body, the drug is trapped inside the polymer coil and when it’s in the body (and therefore at a higher temperature) the coil unravels and the drug is released!

    • Photo: Arthur Wilkinson

      Arthur Wilkinson answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      How to make an electrically-conductive paint that can still be brushed easily. We use particles called carbon nanotubes which are great for adding to polymers to make them electrically conductive. Unfortunately adding them to a liquid polymer (such as a paint sustem) often makes it go solid! This is because the tubes are strongly attracted to each other, so we grew the tubes on other small particles. These combined (or hybrid) particles allow the tubes to conduct electricity but not bond strongly to each other in the paint.

    • Photo: Thomas Farrugia

      Thomas Farrugia answered on 21 Jun 2015:

      Hoi Harvey – I reckon it’d be realizing that I can apply the current methodology that I’m using to lots of different proteins, so there’s the possibility of making some really cool films with interesting properties.

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