Oracle Magazine, September/October 2018
With compute power and accessibility via the cloud we are able to scale up this really complex science technology and help solve problems in education and beyond Becky Sage CEO Interactive Scientific ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2018 42 molecules while being prompted to discover additional facts for themselves Although the first products using the platform originally targeted K 12 students Interactive Scientific is now collaborating with universities to bring it to higher education as well The company is also starting to expand into pharmaceutical research In the past researchers painstakingly constructed physical models of molecules to visualize how they work Today simulations let researchers assemble and explore new molecules many times as fast For example using Nano Simbox VR technology researchers can play a kind of 3D molecular Tetris arranging different molecules together ultimately to discover new drugs Sage says For researchers the platform is used more as a toolkit she explains They want to upload their own simulations and use the platform to manipulate and understand their molecular systems in the way thats most useful to them The platform could also accelerate research as demonstrated by a recent VR project involving Interactive Scientific Oracle and scientists at Bristol University In the project users performed tasks applicable to molecular research such as retwisting helical molecules and even tying them in knots significantly faster and more successfully with VR headsets and controls than with a traditional touchscreen or mouse As simulations become faster we can now do this in real time which will change how drugs are designed and how chemical structures are taught says Adrian Mulholland a Bristol University chemistry professor
You must have JavaScript enabled to view digital editions.
