Dr. Alejandra Soriano from the Molecular Science Institute (ICMol), in collaboration with Dr. Elena Pinilla form the Valencia Nanophotonics Technology Center (NTC) of the UPV, organized the activity “Create your own Blandiblú” within the framework of the 22nd Summer Camp of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC). This activity consisted in the fabrication of the well-known Blandiblú from easily accessible products like white glue, borax, water and some food colourant. For making the experiment funnier and more interesting, fluorescent compounds were added to make the Blandiblú bright when irradiating with UV light.

The Summer Camp of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) is addressed to children between 5 and 12 years old that suffer from cancer disease. It offers them educational leisure time in a natural environment, where they can play outdoors with other children, while being always under an appropriate medical control.

For further information on the 22nd Summer Camp and the AECC Valencia, visit the following links:

https://www.aecc.es/Nosotros/Dondeestamos/Valencia/Paginas/22CampamentodeveranodeAECCValencia.aspx

https://www.aecc.es/ 

60 pre-university students visited the facilities of the Molecular Science Institute during the 7^th Summer Scientific Campus, which is organized by the "Valencia International Campus of Excellence VLC/CAMPUS", together with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and supported by Obra Social La Caixa.

Students between 15 and 18 years old learned about the scientific research carried out at the Institute. They also had the opportunity to discover the cutting-edge equipment available at our laboratories.

The visits took place on the 4^th and 18^th of July. Some of the Institute members gave a general overview of the research lines and groups working here. They also clarified the basic safety rules to follow when working in a lab. On the first day, the basics about nanoparticles and the Magnetic Super Capacitor based on graphene-FeNi3 nanocomposites were explained. Then, the students had the chance to get closer to a clean room and to discover the use of some equipment, namely: powder X-ray diffraction, an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), an optical microscope and a contact angle goniometer. On the second day, they learned about photochemistry, supramolecular chemistry and their bio-medical and sensing applications. The researchers also showed how to measure photochemical properties of the materials by means of fluorimeters, photoreactors and nanosecond lasers.

For further information on the International Campus of Excellence, visit the following links:

http://campuscientificos.blogspot.com.es/
https://www.campuscientificos.es/

The Specialized Group in Nanoscience and Molecular Materials from the RSEQ and RSEF (NANOMATMOL) grants NANOMOLMAT 2016 award, to the best PhD theses of 2016.

Manuel Souto has won the first runner-up doctorate NANOMOLMAT 2016 prize for his thesis entitled "Multifunctional Materials based on TTFPTM dyads: towards new Molecular Switches, Conductors and Rectifiers", which was supervised by Jaume Veciana and Imma Ratera, from the NANOMOL group at ICMAB. Dr. Souto is working presently at the Institute of Molecular Science of the University of València.

The second runner-up award was for José Jaime Baldoví Jachán (Universitat de València) for his thesis developed at the Institute of Molecular Science on "Rational design and modeling of f-block molecular nanomagnets" supervised by Eugenio Coronado Miralles, Juan Modesto Clemente Juan and Alejandro Gaita Ariño.

The results of the contest have been made public at the Meeting of the NANOMATMOL group during the XXXVI Biennial Meeting of the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) in Sitges, on June 26, 2017. The first prize was for Leonardo Scarabelli (Universidad de Vigo) for his thesis on "Rational synthesis and self-assembly of anisotropic plasmonic nanoparticles" supervised by Luis M. Liz Marzán.

During their stay in Valencia, on the occasion of their participation as a jury of the Rey Jaime I Awards, the researchers Prof. Jean Marie Lehn (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1987) and Prof. Ben Feringa (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016) have offered a colloquium focused on the topic "Molecules in Action: Molecular Dynamics and Molecular Machines".

The event opened with the address by Eugenio Coronado, Director of the Molecular Science Institute, who introduced both researchers and summarized the main achievements that made them worthy winners of the Nobel Prize. A special mention was made to the recently deceased Dr. Harry Kroto.

Afterwards, Jean Marie Lehn showed some of his work related to the central topic of the symposium: Molecules in Action, with special focus on Molecular dynamics. Firstly, he emphasized the importance of the nuclear correlation time in the study of fluid dynamics. In addition, he exposed the role of the imines as molecular motors, along with the concepts of motional dynamics and constitutional dynamics. Finally, he presented systems capable of helically fold and unfold (or even both) upon binding of a metal ion, thus reproducing an extension-contraction similar to our muscles movement.

Then was the turn of Ben Feringa, who exposed the research done in the control of molecular motion, based on the concepts previously developed by Lehn. He showed how molecular motors are capable of transforming energy into movement, providing examples of how these can help us to improve current cancer treatments and overcome the problem of bacterial resistance. He also amazed the audience with the recent advances in the study of rotational motion using the defocused wide-field image technique and especially with the possibility of obtaining nanocars by converting rotational movement into translational

The colloquium ended with a fruitful debate in which the public was able to address their questions not only to the two speakers, but also to the other members of the court of the Jaime I Awards present there. Namely, Prof. Miguel Yus (U. Alicante), Prof. Luisa de Cola (U. Strasbourg), Prof. Markus Antonietti (Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces), Prof. Rodolfo Miranda (IMDEA Nanociencia), Dra. Silvia Osuna (U. Girona), Prof. Otilia Mó (UAM). Prof. Roberta Sessoli (U. Firenze) y Prof. Mauricio Prato (Biomagune). Issues such as the future of supramolecular chemistry or the role of computational chemistry in research were addressed. An interesting discussion about how to make chemistry more attractive, emphasizing its important role in the several research areas took place. Ben Feringa stressed the power of chemistry to create things without the limitations present in nature.

Rey Jaime I Awards are bestowed by the Rey Jaime I Awards Foundation with the aim of promoting Science and Research in Spain. Its six awards (Basic Research, Economics, Clinical Medicine, Environmental Protection, New Technologies and Entrepreneur) are one of the best remunerated in the country.