#8 – Coelenterazine | Project Chemistree

Let’s talk about Coelenterazine. Not all chemists work with chemicals.

Really – you read that right. Not all chemists work with chemicals.

Take Dr Thomas Griffiths for example. He works on a particularly tricky and unstable molecule called “Coelenterazine” (it’s pronounced “Selenterazine” – the “Coel-” is the same as “Coeliac”). Way down in the deep ocean it’s super dark. So a bunch of the organisms that live down there literally glow. Weirdly, it seems like most of the glow-y fish and jellyfish produce their own light using coelenterazine.

Unfortunately, the molecule itself is really hard to make and on the rare occasions you can isolate it, it doesn’t last long.

That’s where chemists like Tom come in.

He uses the University’s super computer to run simulations to look at how the molecule behaves when it glows.

When you head to Science Space to take a look for yourself, look for the red 3D-printed molecule on the tree. It’s super cool!

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