Air and Fire, Earth under Water

Priestly Medalists, from left: Paul Flory (1974), Linus Pauling (1984), and Gabor Somorjai (2008 )

Every other year, the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting includes a Tribology Symposium under the Colloids and Interfaces division. This year, the meeting was held in New Orleans, and I was able to participate by presenting our research on the conformational origins of polymer brush lubrication. The Priestly Medal went to Gabor Somorjai for his contributions to surface science and catalysis. He essentially established the field here in the US, popularly being referred to as the “father of modern surface chemistry”. I keep a copy if his Chemistry in Two Dimensions: Surfaces (1981), based on his lectures at Cornell, handy on my office bookshelf. Our research group traces its lineage to his group at UC Berkeley, where my professor spent his postdoc years. We now employ the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) techniques of surface anayses and scanning probe microscopies (SPM) to study tribological phenomena. I was therefore excited to listen to his talk, and did not miss the chance to take a photo with him. It was a little bit odd being somewhat of a scientist’s groupie, but Somorjai–a huge bear of a Hungarian–was surprisingly warm and winsome. He then awkwardly excused himself for his autograph-signing appointment.

 

António Gedeão’s Lágrima de preta

António Gedeão is the nom de plume of Rómulo Vasco da Gama de Carvalho, a poet and physical chemist, who also wrote on the history of science, and instruction manuals in physics, chemistry, and the natural sciences. He published his first book of poems in 1956 under the pseudonym António Gedeão. In 1964, to commemorate the 4th centenary of the birth of Galileo Galilei, he wrote Poema para Galileo. This poem, set to music and sung by Manuel Freire, became a hit, along with others such as Pedra Filosofal and Lágrima de preta.

I could not find an adequate English translation of Lágrima de preta, although there are some literal translations online. I thus attempted my own poetic translation below:

 

What I Actually Do

1989 – IBM Fellow Don Eigler is the first to controllably manipulate individual atoms on a surface, using the STM [Scanning Tunneling Microscope] to spell out “I-B-M” by positioning 35 xenon atoms, and in the process, perhaps creating the world’s smallest corporate logo. (from IBM Press Room)

“Atomic force microscopy (AFM) employs a tip/cantilever assembly to probe the forces between an ultrafine tip and a sample substrate. It can track topographic features by maintaining a constant repulsive force between the tip and sample during scanning by monitoring the normal deflection of the cantilever. The cantilever bends vertically in response to attractive and/or repulsive forces acting on the tip, with deflection from its equilibrium position being proportional to the normal load. Lateral forces can also be detected by monitoring the twisting of the cantilever from its equilibrium position. The amount of torsion represents frictional force acting on the tip as it slides along the sample surface.

“The normal and lateral signals are monitored simultaneously by the AFM detection system so that load and friction data can be collected together in the form of a friction-load map.^1,2 This provides information on the load dependence of friction that is central to the use of AFM in tribological research.³ This document describes the experimental method and technical aspects of generating friction-load maps by AFM.” (from “Friction-Load Maps”)

 

Manila, My Manila

1.

It did not take much to once again get accustomed to the amenities of Manila living. I woke up early, at around 6, despite just having gone to bed at 3. I arrived the previous night from a grueling trip from Florida, entailing four plane changes. It’s my first time to be home in more than three years. The maids were also up, as was usual, doing chores and preparing breakfast. When I asked one of them for coffee, she asked back perfunctorily whether I preferred espresso or americano. My jaw dropped. One of the first things we replaced when our house burned down was the espresso machine from Starbucks. This was the $140 version, before it was discontinued, and replaced with the whopping $350 one. My dad, brother-in-law, and I were hooked on it. Apparently, this was not handy enough for my folks; they had to train the household help to be full-pledged baristas. Oh, by the way, Nene also pointed out that she steams milk and makes cappuccino.

 

Watson: “My Life with DNA”

Two years ago, about this time, I attended a lecture by James Watson, titled “My Life with DNA”. It clearly sounded like one he has already given in so many occasions, the traveling roadshow of a venerable Nobel Laureate in his netherworld of retirement. It was a very casual retelling of his life and the stories around the discovery of DNA’s structure. I worried sometimes where the talk was leading to, as one would with a grandfather who was about to make a fool of himself without knowing it. Afterall, Watson was 77 to the day that day, and beamed like Bilbo Baggins as the audience sang him his Happy Birthday song.