Chemists have been building molecular models for centuries. It’s a crucial exercise in understanding the interactions that take place and are otherwise invisible. But there’s no denying drawing structures or fiddling with Molymod lacks the excitement and spectacle of a live experiment. Now, this traditionally dull activity could be about to get a new lease of life, thanks to advances in a technology more often associated with gaming: virtual reality (VR). EIn David Glowacki’s lab at the university of Bristol, UK, molecules appear right in front of you in all their moving, three-dimensional glory. You can push, prod and even wrestle with them. Glowacki has spent five years perfecting the Nano Simbox VR system, which gives those who don Occulus Rift-style headsets an experience of total immersion in the molecular world. Armed with ‘atomic tweezers’ one can attempt to tie a wriggling peptide chain into a knot, or manipulate a drug molecule so ...
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