Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
Corporate Sponsored Research Program on "Innovative Molecular Technology" Receives the 63rd Science and Technology Film Festival Award for Excellence in the category of Research and Technological Development
Shinichi Okoshi, Professor, Department of Chemistry
The Corporate Sponsored Research Program on "Innovative Molecular Technology" of the Organization for Interdisciplinary Research Projects, Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, has received the 63rd Science and Technology Film Festival Award for Excellence in the category of Research and Technological Development. The title of the award-winning video is "The Moment Crystals Form! The award was given in recognition of the film's contribution as an educational video that communicates cutting-edge research at the university to junior high and high school students.
The "Innovative Molecular Technology" Corporate Sponsored Research Program, led by University Professor Eiichi Nakamura, has developed a method to observe atomic and molecular movements and chemical reactions using an atomic-resolution transmission electron microscope equipped with a high-speed camera, and is working to realize a long-held dream of scientists to observe chemical reactions of atoms and molecules in real time. The results of this research have been the development of a new method for observing the movement of sodium and chlorine ions. This has resulted in a rare achievement: the visualization of the entire process of forming a rectangular salt crystal from an ionic pair of sodium and chlorine ions. Since salt crystallization experiments are a staple of chemistry textbooks from elementary school to high school, this video showing the rapid formation of salt crystals with a face-centered cubic structure attracted worldwide attention. The 20th century is said to be the century of images, and now that we have entered the 21st century, I feel that the era in which images of atoms and molecules can be used in science education has finally arrived.
The University of Tokyo "Innovative Molecular Technology" Corporate Sponsored Research Program YouTube channel
In 2010, University Professor Nakamura won the Excellence Award at the 51st Science and Technology Film Festival for his "Sonata of Carbon Clusters," and I hear that he is now working on a wide range of educational projects, from the production of English versions of crystal videos to teaching materials for elementary school students. I wish for further development of your work linking cutting-edge research and science education.
Faculty of Science News, July 2022