'Building science with carbon', topic of discussion in 'Science Weeks' of the University of Navarra

Rafael Sirera PHOTO: Manuel Castells

On November 16 and within the lecture series organized by the School of Sciences of the University of Navarra on the occasion of the 'Science Weeks' took place the talk "Building Science with Carbon" with the participation of professors José Ramón Isasi, from department of Chemistry and Soil Science, Iker Zuriguel, from department of Physics and Applied Mathematics, and Juan Antonio Palop, from department of Chemistry Organic and Pharmaceutical. "Carbon has been the main protagonist in this year's Nobel Prize-winning research, since both the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry, announced last October, are related to this chemical element," says Professor Rafael Sirera, from Degree of Chemistry at the University of Navarra.

award "The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Andre Geim and Kostantin Novoselov, of the University of Manchester, for the isolation and study of graphene, a two-dimensional material made of carbon, in the shape of a sheet and the thickness of an atom, which gives it very interesting properties for future applications: it is transparent, very dense, a very good electrical conductor and highly elastic and hard. Graphene could be used as a component in microprocessors, touch screens and cell phones, among others," Sirera points out.

About the Nobel of Chemistry, Sirera emphasizes that "this year has gone to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for their advances in organic synthesis using palladium catalysts, thus enabling the design and obtaining new complex organic molecules in a faster and more effective way", emphasizes the professor of Chemistry on graphene".

"This activity, which has been carried out every year since 2000, brings students and people with scientific curiosity closer to a priori complex and extremely specific aspects related to Nobel Prize-winning research in one of the scientific disciplines. The outline is always the same: two or three professors who are experts/knowledgeable about the awarded research explain in a simple and informative way what this research has consisted of and what repercussions it has had and has had on our society. Initially this activity took place on December 10th of each year, the day on which the prizes are awarded in Stockholm, but later it was incorporated as another activity in Science Week since, at final, the aim is to disseminate and bring science to society", concludes Sirera on the lecture series organized by the School de Ciencias.