• Question: what is the most recent compound you've made?

    Asked by anon-253975 to James_the_Scientist on 11 May 2020.
    • Photo: James Beswick

      James Beswick answered on 11 May 2020:

      This is an interesting question! My body makes lots of chemical compounds which help keep me alive, and I also make chemical compounds if I ever cook something (check out the ‘Maillard Reaction’ : https://modernistcuisine.com/2013/03/the-maillard-reaction/). In terms of what you were *actually* asking me, it is a bit hard to explain through this text box as I can’t draw you the structure. However I can tell you than it includes ‘functional groups’ such as a ‘carboxylic acid’ and a ‘urea’ – which you might be interested in looking up! This compound was then sent to a team of biologists who tested it against a particular biological target, to see how effective the compound was.

Comments

  • Photo: Alena

    Alena commented on :

    Hi Izzy, I haven’t made a compound but I have made fluorescent malaria parasites, how about that? I did that by introducing into the parasites genes coding for proteins that glow in different colours, so I have blue, green, orange, red and burgundy parasites. This allows me to follow the parasites under a special microscope that can detect the fluorescence, which makes it easier to study them.