Keir's Summer Science

Corkscrew molecules emit circularly polarized light

Molecules than can emit and detect circularly-polarised light may be the next step forward in technologies such as computer displays, which currently waste over three quarters of light energy by passing it through filters for colour and polarisation. Dr Matthew Fuchter from the Department of Chemistry and Dr Alisdair Campbell from the Department of Physics have recently published papers in Nature Photonics and Advanced Materials, which show how conventional light-emitting polymers can be doped with a helical chiral molecule, whose handedness determines the direction of the emitted light. Similar molecules can be used as transistors to detect circularly-polarised light. Circular polarisation is the basis of 3D cinema and television, and this discovery could lead to the development of lightweight, efficient 3D displays, such as for mobile devices. The use of circularly-polarised light in fibre optic cables could double their capacity for carrying data and such light could be used for transferring data in next-generation quantum computers.

Bird brains similar to mammal brains

Computational neuroscientist Professor Murray Shanahan has developed the first ever map of a bird’s brain, and compared it to those of humans and other mammals. Several bird species (surprisingly, including pigeons) show high intelligence and ability for reasoning, problem solving and use of tools. From anatomical studies of the pigeon brain, Professor Shanahan’s team build a map of the key processing areas, and found that the bird hippocampus is very similar to the mammalian one and that the nidopallium caudolaterale plays a similar role to the hippocampus in decision-making, despite having evolved differently. Professor Shanahan says, “Birds have been evolving separately from mammals for around 300 million years, so it is hardly surprising that under a microscope the brain of a bird looks quite different from a mammal. Yet, birds have been shown to be remarkably intelligent in a similar way to mammals such as humans and monkeys. Our study demonstrates that by looking at brains that are least like our own, yet still capable of generating intelligent behaviour, we can determine the basic principles governing the way brains work.”