Arieh Warshel - About chemistry and life - Interview - Goldstein on gelt - Jan. 2014

Naomi - click here and write a clever title Transcription of interview with Arieh Warshel on January 6, 2014. Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, Financial Planner & Investment Advisor Arieh Warshel is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California. He is a fellow at the National Academy of Science and he is the 2013 Nobel Prize Laureate in the area of chemistry. Douglas Goldstein, financial planner & investment advisor, interviewed Warshel on Arutz Sheva Radio. Douglas Goldstein: You’re prize is for what they call the development of multi-scale models for complex chemical systems. Could you describe that? Arieh Warshel: It’s basically developing computer programs that model how [inaudible 0:01:25] are working but if you could model how something works, you might understand what it is doing. Douglas Goldstein: How is it that you even could imagine that you could use computers to model such things when there is simply wasn’t the computing power at the time? Arieh Warshel: There was enough computer power at least in the early 70 to see how did the election go. So we never really use too much computer power, we always find smart way to do it and it didn’t happen in one day. We first model small molecules and then it become clearer and with enough simplification, you could model almost everything. It’s a process and I started believing in it quite early like in 1975. Douglas Goldstein: The Nobel Prize research that you’ve done actually has been attributed to allowing other scientists to develop programs to let’s say unveil chemical processes such as the purification of exhaust fumes or even photosynthesis and green leaves. What’s the connection? Arieh Warshel: Basically, developing ways to model how bones are being broken in molecule in a real environment not just in the gas phase, it could be used to any chemical process and it could also be used to exhaust fume but it’s really more for studying photosynthesis. Douglas Goldstein: How about various industrial or medical applications? Do you see that? Arieh Warshel: The main thing that we’ve done is to emphasize chemistry and for those who don’t know chemistry, everything in life is chemistry. It’s basically breaking and making bones in molecules. Everything is molecules including a lot the way we think. So what we’ve done was we allow to model molecular processes in complex systems and if you have industrial process let’s say some molecules you want to break them fast when you put them on a catalyst which could be some material with a lot of big holes, you could model it by the programs that we developed. Douglas Goldstein: Since you’ve done the research many years ago, can you show us some examples that maybe we would’ve seen where this was applied to improve our lives? Arieh Warshel: One thing is developing of drugs. If you have some molecules that you want to bind to a protein in order to prevent this protein from doing something bad in your body. We have programs where you put in the program the giving molecule and you ask how strongly it go into the protein and stay bound to it so it would not be able to do the bad things that it is doing. Douglas Goldstein: This issue that Israel is facing of brain drain, is it a real problem and is it just the free market and we should accept that as normal? Arieh Warshel: I don’t think it’s completely free market. I think Israel should try to do what they can to keep good scientist, difficulties to figure out who is good and who is not. One should try to keep good [inaudible 0:07:01] in Israel. Douglas Goldstein: What would you recommend if you were coming to visit the prime minister that he should do in order to improve our odds of keeping good people? Arieh Warshel: There are limited resources but if you succeed to identify a research which is looking very poor missing and in some case different in what people are doing, trying to give enough resources, not unlimited but enough resources is one way to do it. Sometimes also when people come back for [inaudible 0:07:42] having identifying the most promising directions which is very difficult by the way and then trying to bring them to Israel is another option but having resources is the most important thing. You don’t have as much as in the United States but something reasonable could help. Douglas Goldstein: A lot of professors that I know including people in my own family, I know that they unfortunately spend a lot more time writing grants than actually doing research. If those people were in Israel, wouldn’t they be able to go after the same grant money or it just doesn’t work that way? Arieh Warshel: First of all, people who are running the National Council Institute have the same problems. Essentially [Delmas] of Islamic National Council Institute said recently in interview in science magazines that he like to give to the top people money without writing grants. So the problem exists everywhere, in Europe and in America. It’s become worse and worse and the answer is that it would be good like in England in some extreme places like the Medical Research Council, they succeed to have support for top people without writing too much grants. It’s almost like politics. If you give top people like the Max Planck Institute in Germany have directors who do not have to write grants so it makes it extremely good for them and less good for others but it is one of the possible solutions that you have to some people the luxury of not being forced to write grants. Clearly writing the grants is a major drug that doesn’t help science. There are people who are telling me that my idea would become more crispy if I write the grants but it is incorrect and the more I write the grant, the less chance to get it. It’s a problem without a clear solution but again if one could have identify the top promising direction and would prevent him for writing grants or giving grants for 7 years, this would have been great for some. Douglas Goldstein: What you’re describing would be a situation where the government would actually put money into science for example maybe the chief scientist would make the decisions and then those scientists would get to enjoy that money to fund the research without having to go shopping around? Arieh Warshel: Yes and it’s very complicated. In science magazine two weeks ago, there was a very interesting interview with the head of the National Council Institute who address this questions and the dilemmas that he has which is to have less money but still to make less people writing grants. Douglas Goldstein: Let’s talk about a touchy topic that Israeli academics have which is simply the issue of academic boycotts. Have you felt any of that or do you think that it is actually negatively affecting Israel? Arieh Warshel: I wrote twice in the Daily Trojan, maybe you could find against English Professors who try to introduce a boycott against Israel and I basically say it is [anti-Semitic] and he claims that he is not so we have two articles. He claims that he is being chased. I made a point that he says Israel bombed a university in Gaza so I say how dare you tell to people in Beer Sheva the missile come from Gaza to blame them, but it was as pathetic as usually so I really don’t like this boycott, I think it is a problem and it makes me quite angry and I always thought that it would be nice boycott those who call for the boycott because [audio glitch 0:12:48] significant power in academic but not everybody is [audio glitch 0:12:52]. Douglas Goldstein: How could people follow your work? Arieh Warshel: If you type my family name in English Warshel in Google, you will find my group site and this is the easiest way to follow my work. Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show (Monday nights at 7:00 PM on www.israelnationalradio.com. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. Securities offered through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, NFA, SIFMA. Accounts carried by National Financial Services LLC. Member NYSE/SIPC, a Fidelity Investments company. His book Building Wealth in Israel is available in bookstores, on the web, or can be ordered at: www.profile-financial.com (02) 624-2788 or (03) 524-0942. Disclaimer: This document is a transcription and/or an educational article. While it is believed to be current and accurate, divergence from the original is to be expected. The original podcast can be heard at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. The opinions rendered herein are those of the guests, and not necessarily those of Douglas Goldstein, Profile Investment Services, Ltd., or Israel National News. Readers should consult with a professional financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/.