ATP Synthase
ATP-Synthase was commissioned in 2006 for the Design4Science exhibition and since has toured to the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Copenhagen Medical Museum, Porto University Gallery, Cambridge Lab for Molecular Biology and Dublin Science Gallery. The work is based on the enzyme ATPase which charges ADP molecules to ATP so that they can transmit usable energy around cells. The solution to the structure of the molecule won Sir John Walker a Noble Prize for chemistry in 1997 for his novel insight that the molecule acted through continuous rotary motor action. The form of the molecule is suggested through the mapping of holes cut into the 10mm sheet glass by waterjet.
The sculpture alludes to movement.; through changes in the viewer’s perspective, the form seems to appear and disappear. The closer the work is to the viewer the more reflections can be seen in between the layers and the more diffuse the edges become.
The work measures one meter cube, around nine million times larger than the molecule it represents. The meter is our central measure which is approximately half way between the smallest possible scale and the cosmic scale.