SEEDS (2014)
Ben Feringa is considered to be one of the world’s most creative chemists. With his research on molecular nanomachines he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016, together with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Fraser Stoddart. In collaboration with the University of Groningen, where Feringa works as a Professor of Organic Chemistry, Jos Jansen was asked to capture the essence of Feringa’s work. He spent several months following the research carried out by Feringa’s study group, where scientists and students perform their experiments on a daily basis. The nanomachines and switches are in fact special molecules composed by the researchers in a test tube. Under a special light they start to move and behave like a miniscule motor. Feringa feels that universities should be a ‘playground’ for scientists, where they can follow their curiosity without restriction. During Noorderlicht, a scientific symposium about this research will take place in the presence of the three Nobel Laureates.
