J2IFAM meeting

Category : Conferences

A group of five Ph.D. students from the University of Valladolid have organized the VIII Meeting of Young Researchers in Atomic and Molecular Physics (February, 24-26, 2016). The event is part of the activities of the Atomic and Molecular Physics Group (GEFAM) of the Spanish Physical (RSEF) and Chemical (RSEQ) societies. The meeting will bring together Ph.D. students and postdocs from several Spanish groups in the field interested to share their research experience, problems and possibilities.

J2IFAM-2016

 


Gravitational waves

Category : Cosmology General News

Einstein would be happy: Researchers at LIGO announced the detection of gravitational waves. Simulations indicate that the signal is originated by the merging of two black holes which collided 1.3 billion light-years away. The LIGO experiment is made of two facilities separated 3002 km. Each site has two L-shaped ultra-high-vacuum arms, 4 km long on each side, containing several interferometers. Distortions in the space-time caused by a gravitational wave produce an astonishing small -yet detectable- signal equivalent to 1 part in 10²¹. Watch the videos from ligo.org or download a ring tone for your cell phone! This does not happen everyday.


Caminati visit

Category : Group News

Walther Caminati visited the UVA the first week of December to discuss common research. Professor Caminati works at the Università di Bologna (Italy) and is author of more than 350 publications. He has explored multiple chemical problems using rotational spectroscopy, in particular molecules with large-amplitude tunnelling motions. He previously enjoyed a sabatic year at the UVa in 2005.

Caminati

Prof. Caminati at the UVa last December 2015.


Encounter on Physics

The Faculty of Sciences hosted a new “Encounter on Frontiers of Physics” last December 2-3, 2015, organized by the “Duques de Soria” Foundation, together with the Universities of Valladolid (UVa) and Salamanca (USal). The meeting included seven conferences by different specialists on relativity, neutrinos, magnetism, graphene, Raman spectroscopy and others. José Cernicharo (ICMM – CSIC, Madrid) talked on “Astrochemistry: Chemical complexity in the space”.

Cerni_IMAG0573-1024x611

In the picture above Pepe Cernicharo addresses the audience in his talk.

 


Grabow visit

Category : Group News

Jens-Uwe Grabow visited our lab the last weeks of November. Prof. Grabow (Uni. Hannover) is a world expert in rotational spectroscopy. Some of his interests include the relation between Spectroscopy and particle physics, large-amplitude motions, and new spectroscopy techniques. The visit continues a long-standing collaboration with the Hannover group.

Jens_visit2015Prof. Dr. Jens-Uwe Grabow at the Faculty of Sciences – UVa.


RSEQ talk

Category : General News

Prof. Miguel A. Sierra (UCM, Madrid), General Editor of Anales de Química (the Journal of the Spanish Chemical Society), gave a lecture to the UVa Chemistry students last October 23. The talk was titled “Chemistry: An impure Science?” and discussed on the relevance and double use of chemical tools. Prof. Silverio Coco, local President of the RSEQ, presented the local section to the students and explained some of their activities.

charla rseq octubre 2015


Neutrino mass

Category : General News

Particle Physics made a hit again. The Nobel prize of Physics was awarded to researchers working in neutrino oscillation. The experiments showing conversion between different types of neutrinos prove that they must have some mass (unlike the initial assumption of the Standard Model). The Swedish Academy called it “Metamorphosis in the particle world“. The Chemistry prize was (again) Biochemistry, and focused in DNA repair.

SuperkamiokandeThe ultra-pure water pool used in theSuper-Kamiokande neutrino detection experiment in Japan may have nice recreational possibilities (credits).


HRMS 2015

The XXIV Colloquium on High Resolution Molecular Spectroscopy (HRMS 2015) was organized in Dijon last August 23-28, 2015. Our group presented a poster on the conformational map of enflurane. Emilio Cocinero gave a plenary talk at the meeting. Next meeting in the HRMS series will be in Helsinki in 2017.

HRMS2015In the picture below part of the Spanish team at the HRMS 2015, including Dionisio Bermejo and José Luis Domenech (CSIC), Alberto (UVa) and María Eugenia Sanz (UCL, London).

HRMS2015 foto españoles


Molecules on comet

Category : Cosmology General News

Results from a mass spectrometer on board the Philae lander revealed 16 organic molecules in the surface of the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, according to a report in Science. The article is part of a special issue on the comet. The spectrum was recorded about half an hour after the first touchdown and shows four compounds never observed before on comets. Most of the organic compounds contain nitrogen, but not sulphur. The observed molecules include acetone, propionaldehyde, acetamide, glycolaldehyde and etylene glycol. Science has collected other results in his Rosetta web page. Unfortunately these initial results might be also the last since Philae does not communicate since July 9.

F1.mediumsn-BibringPhilaeIn the figure above stars can be seen above the cliff where Philae landed in comet P57.


New PCCP cover

New cover on PCCP! A work in collaboration with the Brooks H. Pate group in Virginia was featured as cover of PCCP in the July 28th issue. We show how transient chirality in the anesthetic sevoflurane is stabilized on formation of the dimer, as two different diastereoisomers (homochiral: left/left or right/right; heterochiral: left/right or right/left) are formed and distinguished by their spectral rotational signature. The structure of the dimers were fully resolved usign isotopic information, rendering information on the weak hydrogen bonds stabilizing the cluster.

PCCP cover sevo2sevo2