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Interview: Frances Arnold. Nobel Laureate, Perkin Medallist, enzyme pioneer

Frances Arnold talks to Simon Frost about science in policy, directing evolution, the Nobel Prize, and more.

On the day the 2023 laureates of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry were announced, we caught up with 2018 Nobel laureate Frances Arnold, who was recently awarded SCI's Perkin Medal.

The 2023 Perkin Medal honours Arnold's innovations in directed evolution – an approach she developed for creating new enzymes and improving existing ones. By mutating and recombining the gene that encodes the enz
SCI – Where Science Meets Business •

New Zealand is now a part of Horizon Europe. The UK is not. Time for Plan Z?

The UK science and industry community is awaiting an update on the country’s potential re-admittance as a member of the Horizon Europe collaboration programme – a week after UK and EU negotiators agreed a draft deal on Britain’s re-entry to the programme, during which time New Zealand, a country some 11,000 miles from Brussels, signed an agreement to join.

It was understood that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would be meeting with EU President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday on the margins of the NA

Sir Patrick Vallance's Lister Memorial Lecture makes clear the importance of science in government

‘Think of any area of policy in government, where science, engineering or technology doesn't play some role or have some input – I can't think of any one.’

The UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, made clear the importance of connection between science, business and government as he accepted the prestigious SCI Lister Medal at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on Thursday evening, in front of an invited in-person audience and via public live stream.

‘Whether it's how we build our
Materials World •

3D bioprinting: in print condition

The next generation of organ replacements could be under the additive manufacture umbrella. Simon Frost reports.

Around 70% of patients waiting for an organ, sadly, never get one. A potential route to bridging this regretful gap between supply and demand is the development of 3D bioprinting, where living tissue constructs could be created from scratch. But the complexity of biocompatibility and the relatively young field of 3D printing mean that there are challenges ahead in both technological
Materials World •

The future of non-stick ships

Researchers are downscaling test methods to better understand anti-fouling surfaces, as Simon Frost finds out.

In his famous catchphrase, Hergé’s Captain Haddock equated ‘blistering barnacles’ with all kinds of frustrations. Biofouling is one of the oldest problems in marine engineering – aquatic life accumulates on the hulls of ships and other manmade structures submerged in the sea. It creates frictional drag in seafaring vessels, reducing their speed and fuel economy.
Materials World •

Engineers respond to the Apprenticeship Levy

Consultation on the UK Government’s plans for a levy on large businesses to fund apprenticeships closes at the beginning of October. Simon Frost finds out how the engineering industry is responding.

The Engineering UK Report 2015 claims that between now and 2022, there will be 2.56 million job openings in engineering companies in the UK, with 257,000 of those being new vacancies. Alongside a doubling of the number of young people studying GCSE Physics, an increase in the number of students taki
Materials World •

Fall of man reversed

Simon Frost looks at research into adhesives and materials in the restoration of a severely damaged Renaissance sculpture.

A 15th Century marble sculpture of Adam that shattered into 28 pieces and hundreds of tiny fragments in a fall has gone back on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), after years of unprecedented collaborative research and repair by conservation scientists, materials scientists and engineers.

The statue was carved from a block of Carrara marble by Italian
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