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SUMMARY:Bringing electrostatics to light: Electrometry probes a new dimens
 ion at the molecular scale - Madhavi Krishnan\, Physical and Theoretical C
 hemistry\, University of Oxford
DTSTART:20190517T150000Z
DTEND:20190517T160000Z
UID:TALK115021@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lorenzo Di Michele
DESCRIPTION:The desire to “freely suspend the constituents of matter” 
 in order to study their behavior can be traced back over 200 years to the 
 diaries of Lichtenberg. From radio-frequency ion traps to optical tweezing
  of colloidal particles\, existing methods to trap matter in free space or
  solution rely on the use of external fields that often strongly perturb t
 he integrity of a macromolecule in solution. We recently introduced the 
 ‘electrostatic fluidic trap’\, an approach that exploits equilibrium t
 hermodynamics to realise stable\, non-destructive confinement of a single 
 macromolecule in a room temperature fluids\, and represents a paradigm shi
 ft in a nearly century-old field. The spatio-temporal dynamics of a single
  electrostatically trapped object reveals fundamental information on its p
 roperties\, e.g.\, size and electrical charge. We have demonstrated the ab
 ility to measure the electrical charge of a single macromolecule in soluti
 on with a precision much better than a single elementary charge. Since the
  electrical charge of a macromolecule in solution is in turn a strong func
 tion of its 3D conformation\, our approach enables for the first time prec
 ise\, general measurements of the relationship between 3D structure and el
 ectrical charge of a single macromolecule\, in real time. I will present o
 ur most recent advances in this emerging area of molecular measurement and
  demonstrate how such high-precision interaction energy measurements may b
 e opening up a unique view of molecular-scale matter in solution.
LOCATION:Small Lecture Theatre\, Cavendish Laboratory
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