Anatoly Kolomelsky, PhD

First think of a Crookes radiometer-that child’s toy resembling a light bulb with a spinning vane inside.  Now compress that idea to the size of a single molecule-one in which two alkyl chains adhere via a sulfur atom to a gold particle.  With heat, the alkyl chains spin like a two vane radiometer.  Rice University chemistry professor Anatoly Kolomelsky used computer simulation to demonstrate this concept which he supposes could be the basis for as-yet unimagined materials (such as implanted medical devices that never need new batteries).            MORE

Image Credit:  Rice University