Nobel Laureate in Chemistry says research should focus on basic science

Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, one of the developers of molecular machines, visited Brazil to take part in IUPAC 2017.

By Maria Fernanda Ziegler  |  Agência FAPESP – As he poses to have his picture taken, Scottish-born American chemist Sir James Fraser Stoddart, 2016 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, asks the photographers if he should make a Sean Connery face. Unlike his fellow Scot, Stoddart is still getting used to being treated like a celebrity – which to some extent he is.

While visiting Brazil for the 46th World Chemistry Congress held by the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry (IUPAC 2017), Stoddart gave interviews and more than 100 autographs. At the end of the day, he was tired and deeply touched. “I’ve never been welcomed as warmly as here in Brazil,” he said. 

Stoddart shared the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Bernard L. Feringa for the design and synthesis of molecular machines, or nanomachines, an advance that paved the way for the world’s first intelligent materials.

According to the Nobel committee, the trio developed “the world's smallest machines”. The technology is already being used to create microrobots and materials that repair themselves without the need for human intervention.

In living organisms, cells perform functions such as temperature regulation and damage repair. The trio succeeded in replicating these types of functions in synthetic molecular machines, which convert chemical energy into mechanical motion and thus are able to carry out various tasks.

The applications are numerous and may lead to new practices in medicine and information technology. As Stoddart says, the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “was for a fundamental discovery that came from a fundamental development. Every machine ever invented has led to an incredible change in our lives”.

He is a firm advocate of basic research. “Young people should look for hard problems and then solve them without worrying about the application,” he says. Since he won the Nobel Prize, he has been working on a gold mining startup that will use molecular machines to separate gold from ore without using contaminants and with a far lower cost.

Meanwhile, Stoddart travels the world giving lectures and networking with younger researchers. His daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren attended the Nobel award ceremony in Sweden and provided live coverage via Twitter, including several snapshots of the family on their trip.

They included a picture of Stoddart in full Scottish regalia holding his cell phone. “On the eve of his @NobelPrize lecture, @sirfrasersays is addicted to ‘the twitter’,” one of his daughters tweeted. He is indeed enchanted by Twitter, which he discovered a few months ago. “It’s a great way to keep in touch with people, especially the youngsters, and, who knows, to inspire them,” he says. “I know changing is the only way for us to survive.”

Here, is an edited transcript of the interview given by Sir Fraser to Agência FAPESP.

Agência FAPESP – How can molecular machines change the world?
J. Fraser Stoddart – I think they will play their part in an industrial/technological revolution of very sizable proportions over the next few decades. It was a fundamental discovery that came from a fundamental development of basic research. Every machine ever invented has led to an incredible change in our lives, from the steam engine to the electric motor to the internal combustion engine. Just think of all that has happened in the subsequent development of those machines. So with molecular machines, I think we’re in for a very spectacular ride in the decades to come. 

Agência FAPESP – And in this case, what are the applications?
Stoddart – They have several applications that will lead to new practices in medicine and health, and to new developments in information technology. It’s hard to go into detail at the moment, but the number of possible applications is huge. I’m passionate about a project that could revolutionize gold mining. With a team at Northwestern University, we’ve created a startup that’s testing a method to separate gold from ore using molecular machines. It’s a far cheaper and more environmentally correct way to do so, and it won’t contaminate nature or the people employed in mining. I’m very excited to be able to help my students and see how Nobel-winning research can be used today.

Agência FAPESP – What originally motivated you to do research?
Stoddart – I grew up on a farm that must have had electricity only when I was about 17 years old. I think at that time, I used to dream of doing something useful in the world. So I chose science. I went to Edinburgh and I was blessed to have excellent schoolteachers who could very well have been university professors. At the time I didn’t realize this, but it was a great start. In Edinburgh, a teacher gave me some very good advice. He said. “Whatever you do, start by trying to find a big problem.” Nanomachines resulted from a problem that began wandering about my mind while I was reading in the library. And again, I was blessed when my postdoctoral supervisor, nine months after I arrived in Canada, said I was going to Brazil.

Agência FAPESP – To Brazil?
Stoddart – Yes indeed. To Brazil – to Curitiba more precisely, for a year. At the time, in 1972, there was no e-mail, no fast postal service, even phoning was difficult. So I ended up being free to explore my own ideas, the way I used to do on my father’s farm when I was a child. My supervisor liked that a lot. That was when I visited Brazil for the first time. 

Agência FAPESP – In your opinion, which area of chemistry may represent a new era? What advice would you give young scientists?
Stoddart – Well, if I knew what the new frontier to cross in chemistry will be, I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here giving lectures and interviews. I’d be in the lab, doing research with my students. I always tell my students you shouldn’t go back to your home country or any other country and practice the same chemistry you practiced during your PhD. If you do, all you’ll achieve is raise the status of your mentors. What I tell them is they should find a research field that’s very different, so that if substantial progress is made, the name of the researcher and laboratory will be associated with that progress. I also tell them they shouldn’t think about winning a Nobel prize. That’s a bit crazy because, in chemistry, there have been only 175 since 1901. It may or may not happen. It isn’t a worthwhile dream, but I think being a successful scientist is. You have to be able one way or another to find something that isn’t very popular until the moment you enter the field.

Agência FAPESP – But it seems people always focus on applications, don’t they?
Stoddart – I think that has changed a little in recent years. Some scientists may think that way, but the best students who come to my group don’t arrive thinking about applications. They want to do basic research simply because they love doing it and to find solutions to very hard problems. That’s enough to get up at 7 o’clock in the morning and keep on studying until late.

Agência FAPESP – You have made critical remarks about Donald Trump. How should science change in this new world setting?
Stoddart – Change probably has never been as fast as now. Many old democracies as well as younger ones appear to be in trouble. This is an opportunity for other countries in terms of leadership. There are some very talented people around, and it’s a matter of organization for them to be able to show all their creativity. But who knows what may happen? I’m very concerned about my old country, the United Kingdom. I’m concerned because I took part in the movement of bringing people from other parts of the world and the creation of this continental Europe. When I left the UK and moved first to Canada, my group was 65% non-British, and it was incredible. Everyone benefited. Brexit is heartbreaking. It’s not just bad for science and technology. It’s bad for finance, bad for trade, bad for the National Health Service in the UK, which depends to a great extent on people coming from other countries to keep it going. It’s bad for farmers, who depend on people coming to pick fruit in the summer, and so on. When you look at all that, it’s a complete disaster. It’s hard to believe politicians have orchestrated this. As for the United States, I believe the phenomenon is different, and I’m not so concerned. I think it can be reversed. I believe it’s probably temporary. But whether it goes away or not, we’ll never get back to where we were.

Agência FAPESP – You’re a success on Twitter. What made you start using it?
Stoddart – Yes, I enjoy it a lot. It’s a great way to keep in touch with people, especially the youngsters, and, who knows, to inspire them. I also know changing is the only way for us to survive. I find that with Twitter, I can write about these years of my life since I won the Nobel. I’ve thought so many times of writing a sort of diary, but it never worked out, I always ended up losing my writings. It was a suggestion by the editor of Nature, a great friend of mine who lives a few miles away from my daughter in England. On Twitter, I also talk about everyday things like the lectures I give and attend or more trivial things like the first-class compartment on the plane full of walls between the seats. It’s more or less like England, full of railings and walls. People liked that and commented.