Bright molecules for sensing, computing and imaging: a tale of two once-troubled cities

Abstract

The circumstances in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which led to a) the generalization of luminescent PET (photoinduced electron transfer) sensing/switching as a design tool, b) the construction of a market-leading blood electrolyte analyzer and c) the invention of molecular logic-based computation as an experimental field, are delineated. Efforts to extend the philosophy of these approaches into issues of small object identification, nanometric mapping, animal visual perception and visual art are also outlined.

Keywords

• blood electrolyte analyzer
• luminescent PET sensing/switching
• molecular logic-based computation
• photoinduced electron transfer
• small molecular edge detection