Going to a conference
So, the last few days I’ve been a little busy preparing for a conference that’s on next week. It’s at Noosa (the Gold Coast!) orgainsed by my supervisor and others. It’s on Quantum Nanoscience, which covers all applications of quantum mechanics on the nanoscale - that’s much bigger than atoms, but still much smaller than an integrated circuit, say. The reason why this is such an interesting area is that at this size, it’s not always clear how, or even if, quantum mechanics will be important (i.e., to describe a single atom it’s essential, but to describe a cricket ball it’s irrelevant - what happens in between?)
I’m giving a talk at the conference about quantum mechanics and its role in biology, and in particular some work that I’ve been doing on making “minimal models”, the simplest possible models, for the effect of surrounding proteins and water on certain molecules of interest. We’ve shown that a certain type of mathematical model that’s widely used in more conventional quantum applications (the “spin-boson model) applies also to collections of coupled biomolecules (e.g., chlorophyll molecules that are involved in photosynthesis, and couple together to move energy around). What’s really neat is that it’s (comparatively) easy to change all the parameters, just by choosing different molecules, changing your solvent, heating it up or cooling it down, or even using genetic engineering to make very specific changes. That means we should be able to explore all sorts of interesting predictions made by the model, and hopefully learn more about biology and physics.
At least, that’s what I’m going to try and convince everyone! I’m ever so slightly nervous, as I haven’t ever given a talk for “experts” before. For other physicsists, yes, but not for a whole room of people who are quite familiar with the material, and will probably know if I say something not quite right!
Anyway, I’ll hopefully have access to the internet while I’m there and I’ll give some tidbits about what transpires. Till then, have a good weekend!