On March 14th, 2019, Professor Martin Karplus, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013, visited Emmanuel College. He gave an academic lecture to students and professors entitled “Motion: Hallmark of Life. From Marsupials to Molecules”. In his lecture he traced the intellectual path between motion in animals and the molecules that make motion possible. He presented recent work that he found were most interesting!
Dr. Karplus focused on the laws of motion for organisms to molecules and atoms. He shared a quote by Dr. Richard Feynman, “…everything that living things do can be understand in terms of the jigglings and wigglings of atoms”. Dr. Karplus then discussed the role of ATP synthase and showed an animation of how myosin “walks” on actin and how kinesis “walks” on microtubules to transport materials in an organized fashion. At the end of the lecture, a reception was held for students to meet Dr. Karplus and ask questions about his approach to science, academics, and education.
The department would like to thank Dr. Karplus for his wonderful talk, the FENS seminar committee for all their assistance, President Sr. Janet Eisner and the Office of the President for support, Dr. Michelle Watt and members of the Chemistry Club for all of their hard work in making this event possible!
~written by Amanda Castelluccio, edited by A. Gerdon
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