Chemists at Work

Simona Francese is a chemist by training who is passionate about forensics. Our fingerprints are what make us unique -- but they're also home to a world of information hidden in molecules that reveal our actions, lifestyles and routines. In this riveting talk, chemist Simona Francese shows how she studies these microscopic traces using mass spectrometry, a technology that analyzes fingerprints in previously impossible detail, and demonstrates how this cutting-edge forensic science can help police catch criminals

Modern drug therapy has transformed life on the planet and saved countless lives since the advent of antibiotics in the early 20th Century. Yet today, a huge amount of waste in healthcare has to do with drug therapy that is at best useless - and all too often, harmful. Dr. Jeff Balser challenges us to imagine a not-so-distant future in which the human genome and big data converge to transform healthcare, allowing us to do the right thing — and only the right thing — for the right person, at the right time and in the right location

Nearly every other year the transistors that power silicon computer chip shrink in size by half and double in performance, enabling our devices to become more mobile and accessible. But what happens when these components can't get any smaller? George Tulevski researches the unseen and untapped world of nanomaterials. His current work: developing chemical processes to compel billions of carbon nanotubes to assemble themselves into the patterns needed to build circuits, much the same way natural organisms build intricate, diverse and elegant structures. Could they hold the secret to the next generation of computing?

Prof. Carolyn Bertozzi is a chemical biologist who invents technologies and medicines based on disease causing sugar molecules. Your cells are coated with sugars that store information and speak a secret language. What are they trying to tell us? Your blood type, for one -- and, potentially, that you have cancer. Carolyn Bertozzi researches how sugars on cancerous cells interact with (and sometimes trick) your immune system