 I'd like to introduce to the stage Tim Dignan from the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. The title of Tim's presentation tonight is Salt Water Simply Vital Just a string of symbols scribbled on a page can be more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Newton's equations of motion took us to the moon. Schrodinger's equation, the foundation of quantum mechanics, describes the chemical properties of everything around you. These equations are tools for making incredibly accurate predictions. Unfortunately though, in many complex situations, solving them is too hard. For example, we would like to be able to predict whether or not two molecules dissolved in water will bind together. But to do this using Schrodinger's equation can be beyond the powers of even the huger supercomputer. And this is a massive problem because this binding of molecules in water, like two people drawn to each other across a crowded room, is the fundamental mechanism by which your body operates. It's also how most medical drugs work, and that means we have to rely on trial and error to find new ones, resulting in thousands of incurable diseases. We need to find approximate equations that are easier to solve. And to do this, we should follow the advice of Isaac Newton, who said truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, not in the multiplicity and confusion of things. Schrodinger followed this advice to discover his equation by focusing on a single hydrogen atom, the simplest possible element. Now the simplest possible part of the human body, it turns out, is salt water. And that's because when we dissolve salt in water, it breaks apart into perfect tiny spheres called ions, such as sodium and chloride. Now these ions aren't just simple though, they're also vital for life. They carry electrical charge, just like a balloon that's been rubbed against the carpet, and that means they can create electricity. It's the flow of ions in and out of your cells that causes your muscles to flex and carries the electrical signals in your brain that makes up your conscious. Now if we take the simple sodium ion from table salt, and it's two closest relatives, lithium and potassium, because they're so simple we might expect these three different ions to behave identically, but they don't at all. In fact, lithium is an effective treatment for depression. This used to be an ingredient in 7up, by the way, hence the up, as well as their slogan, taking the ouch out of grouch. And the other extreme is potassium, a component used in the lethal injection. Now in my research I've discovered a set of equations that can predict whether an ion will bind to another ion or to a simple surface. And this is incredibly exciting, as we may be able to use these same equations to predict the binding of more complex molecules, and hopefully one day use a set of scribbles on a page to design life-saving medicines. And that is why understanding salt water is simply...