MOLECULES, an original science show, premiered at the Power Center for the Performing Arts, in Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 4-7, 2009. MOLECULES is a high-energy, entertaining, and inspirational one-act science show. A cast of five actors progress in time through music, song, dance, and multimedia, from middle school to college levels of science education. With great original music that is combined with musical hits from the past, exciting dance numbers, high-quality large screen multimedia, a little magic, and a rock-the-house finish, MOLECULES will ignite your science passion. You can read part of the playbill.
The musical contains a sequence where the scientist reviews in their mind data acquired to date and has an idea to move their project forward. This sequence uses real data from our lab for this scene. The movie is shown at this stage of the show.
The movie contains images from the work of the following group members: Kevin Landmark, Seungpyo Hong, Christopher Kelly, Douglas Mullen, and Almut Mecke. The theme of the movie comes from the work of many, many group members over the past decade.
For the science behind the movie see the following publications:
Bioconjugate Chemistry 2008, 19, 1748-1752.
Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2008, 112, 9339-9345.
Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2008, 112, 9346-9353
ACS Nano 2008, 2, 773-783
European Physical Journal E — Soft Matter 2004, 14, 7-16.
The creator of MOLECULES is award-winning producer Alec Friedman, whose work has aired on HBO, ABC, A&E Network, MTV, and PBS. The science consultant for MOLECULES is Dr. Brian Coppola, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry and Associate Chair for Curriculum & Faculty Affairs at the University of Michigan, Department of Chemistry.