Molecules for Minecraft fans

What do you get when you mix molecules and Minecraft? MolCraft, of course. The new Minecraft world of protein structures was created by students in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hull, with support from our Outreach Fund.

"The idea was triggered by the Geological Society's Minecraft map of the UK," says Dr Mark Lorch, "It got me thinking that there must be a way to bring structural information from the protein data back into Minecraft. So I set an undergraduate project to work in it.

"The project students came up with the workflow, and the RSC grant allowed me to employ some of them to finish off the world. Plus the grant is funding the server that is running MolCraft, which means than anyone can just log into the world and explore the molecules."

Mark has written more about the project at The Conversation, and on The Guardian website.