Thursday, June 8, 2023
SCIENMAG: Latest Science and Health News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag - Latest science news from science magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home SCIENCE NEWS Technology and Engineering

Army researcher uses math to uncover new chemistry

April 26, 2018
in Technology and Engineering
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
IMAGE

Credit: US Army illustration by David McNally

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (April 25, 2018) — In the future, materials scientists will use advanced software to specify the properties they desire and a program will deliver a choice of optimized chemical compounds.

Dr. B. Christopher Rinderspacher, a theoretical chemist with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, recently published a paper describing the process of using mathematics to design chemical compounds by reducing complexity and taking advantage of machine learning.

"What this does is actually open up the potential number of compounds," Rinderspacher said.

The search for chemical compounds with particularly useful properties is like finding a needle in a haystack, he said. In the past, chemists would search based on an established framework and often find new combinations in a hit or miss fashion.

"The problem with that is you never find anything that's truly new or surprising because what we want is something that breaks the norm," he said. "If we stay within our own thought patterns — conventional thought patterns — we're never going to find breakout materials."

Advances in materials science will result in stronger, lighter armor or equipment for a Soldier of the future. This aligns with Army modernization priorities that seek long-range precision fires, next generation of combat vehicles, future vertical lift platforms and Soldier lethality. Materials science will play a huge role in realizing the Army of the future, officials said.

"Science usually works by walking up to the frontier of what we know and poking around," he said. "Where do we find something new and interesting?"

By introducing a new path to discovery, Rinderspacher hopes to point chemists in the right direction using a mathematical approach. Using what's known as nuclear charge distributions, he developed a general theoretical framework for finding chemical compounds he's looking for.

The conventional path for discovering new chemical compounds is "long and tedious," he said. "If we were to go wherever we wanted, in terms of all the possible chemicals without any restrictions that aren't inherent to your problem, you would be able to access everything."

The key, he said, is coming up with a way to optimize what's known as "probability density functions in chemical space."

In the next three to five years, Rinderspacher said he hopes to incorporate machine learning with his algorithms to deliver a solution and narrow the search parameters for new chemical compounds.

The Journal of Mathematical Chemistry, known for its "original, chemically important mathematical results" using non-routine mathematical methodologies, published Rinderspacher's paper.

Rinderspacher has been pursuing this line of research since January 2009. That's when he came to the lab as a post-doctoral fellow after earning his doctorate at the University of Georgia. A self-proclaimed puzzle solver, he said he is driven by finding efficient solutions.

"I know that some people are really driven by the application that will be at the end, but to me getting it to work is fascinating enough," he said. "I like to look at the problem and then figure out, 'How many other problems are like that and can be solved the same way?'"

The activity of math is thinking about generalizing stuff, organizing ideas and showing what does and doesn't work, he said.

"The right math will get you there," he said. "It's mathematical thinking — outside of the box — that I'm trying to enable."

Read the paper at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10910-018-0896-3

###

Media Contact

T'Jae Ellis
[email protected]
410-306-1583
@ArmyResearchLab

http://www.arl.army.mil

Original Source

https://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?article=3211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10910-018-0896-3

Share25Tweet16Share4ShareSendShare
  • Bumblebees

    When it comes to bumblebees, does size matter?

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • Solving cancer, together

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • Investigating the placenta: Discovery from Stowers Scientists shows why this often-overlooked organ should be given more attention

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • ‘Smart drugs’ give new hope to some patients with advanced pancreatic cancer

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • Paul Ellison, PhD, receives SNMMI Mars Shot Fund award

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • Insilico Medicine Founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD presents at Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference

    64 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

We bring you the latest science news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Latest NEWS

UTHSC researchers’ work on human pangenome aids understanding of common chromosomal abnormality

Null results research now published by major behavioral medicine journal

Multiple sclerosis more prevalent in Black Americans than previously thought

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 206 other subscribers

© 2023 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US

© 2023 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In