A NOBEL LAUREATE AT SOLEIL
On 25 May 2010, SOLEIL Synchrotron welcomed a distinguished guest: one of the 2009 Chemistry Nobel laureate, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan.
This molecular biologist was honoured for shedding light on the structure of the ribosome.
Roger Fourme – former scientific director of SOLEIL
The ribosome is a nano-machine found in all our cells that manufactures proteins.
This machinery is indispensable for the existence of life; it has probably existed for billions of years in different forms.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan – biologist
Imagine if you have a large machine but you don’t know what it looks like, then it is very difficult to understand how this machine works, right?
But if you can look at the machine in great detail, you will be able to understand exactly how it works. And what the people who got the Nobel prize last year did was to produce an atomic structure of the ribosome, which is a huge molecule: it has more than half a million atoms! And I should point out – since this is by SOLEIL - that this kind of work would be impossible without synchrotrons.
Roger Fourme
The technique used involves crystals; we illuminate these crystals with extremely intense X-ray beams that can only be produced by synchrotron sources, like SOLEIL for example.
The Nobel Prize winner’s visit to SOLEIL provided an opportunity for an informal discussion on research in today’s world.
Tom Blundell – Cambridge University, Great Britain
We are also hugely aware that over the last 30 or 40 years, governments have invested in basic science in the expectation that society will get something from it.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
I firmly believe that unless we support fundamental science at a substantial level, we will not have any applications twenty years from now.
Roger Fourme
I entirely agree with what Venki just said; he advocates a substantial fundamental research effort, unconstrained by short-term preconceived objectives.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
When we talk about synchrotron radiation, and in fact as synchrotron radiation wouldn't even exist if it weren't for physicists wanting to understand fundamental laws of physics, you know, then we wouldn't even know about it.
John Helliwell, Manchester University, Great Britain
We talk about probability, and probably the answer is that in 5 years' time we will have the solution, and taxpayers don't like that. We have an image problem.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
I think we are not convincing… we are not taking the time and trouble to convince, you know, the average non-scientist why it's worthwhile. I mean, it's our job to convince the farmer or truck driver why some fraction of their income should go to support our research, OK?
John Helliwell
I did my best.
Roger Fourme
Venki himself had a traditional academic career during which he didn’t have to worry about the practical impact of his work. As it happens, his work has made it possible to envisage the fabrication of new antibiotics and thus serves as a guide for the production of new drugs, which is obviously a subject of very considerable collective importance.
Roger Fourme
It was a nice occasion simply to express the need for more cooperation.
