♪
Hi, my name's Jon Wilker,
and I study mussels.
♪
(Jon Wilker)
I got into science
because I've always
found it to be interesting.
I've always wanted to
understand how things work,
and how you can
make new things.
Chemistry is a good
avenue for that because
you can get down
to a very fundamental level
just to understand
how the world works.
(female narrator)
Jon is a chemist
at Purdue University
in Indiana.
His research lab
investigates
the adhesive qualities
of marine organisms
like oysters and mussels.
We've been interested
in studying mussels
because they make
interesting materials.
Mussels will find
a nice rock they like
and attach themselves
to the surface.
In doing this, they produce
adhesive, a glue, to stick.
It's kind
of interesting.
There's many applications
for a biologically-produced
adhesive that can set
in a wet environment,
something that makes really
strong bonds to the surface,
like a surgical
or dental adhesive.
♪
In a typical experiment,
we'll develop a new coating,
we'll take a bunch
of metal test plates,
we'll coat them all.
Typically, we just paint
them on, roll them on.
Then we'll put them
in seawater.
We'll add animals on top
and let them put their adhesive
if they choose to.
They have preference as to when
they put their adhesive down.
After they put
the adhesive down,
we'll cut off the animal,
then with each adhesive,
there's individual plaques,
discs of glue.
We'll put it
on the Instron machine,
clamp onto the threads,
pull that up,
and then we'll know how strong
the adhesive is.
♪
This morning,
we have a chance to do
a fun aspect of the job:
field work.
It's gonna be cold.
We're also trying
to prevent adhesion--
developing antifouling surfaces
for ship hulls.
If you could prevent
the fouling of barnacles,
mussels, and various types
of algae
onto ships,
that'd be great.
Because reducing
the drag of the ship,
you'll need less fuel.
You're burning less fuel,
so then creating
less pollution.
So less CO2.
(narrator)
In the lab or classroom,
Jon shares his passion
for science.
(Wilker)
I like teaching classes.
But I also work with
graduate students in the lab,
teaching them how to research,
and mentoring them.
The graduate students
are completely essential
to running the lab,
and when you're the professor,
and you get in the lab
occasionally,
and you talk
to the graduate students,
help guide them
in their projects.
But each student has
their own independent project.
A lot of the science
is a gradual progression,
and you're building up
knowledge and pictures
until you finally
may have an understanding
that you're happy with.
(narrator)
As part of their research,
Jon's team perform experiments
that someday may save lives.
(Wilker)
We have many different projects
happening in our lab.
All are really exciting.
We're trying to develop
new compounds
to prevent cancer,
not cure cancer,
but prevent it from happening
in the first place.
We work really hard.
You can't sugarcoat it
and say,
"Work 30, 40 hours a week,
you'll be fine."
It's not the case nowadays.
Expectations are high.
However,
it's really rewarding.
One benefit is that when
you start up your own lab,
you work on
whatever you want.
♪
After we characterize
the animal adhesive,
we design synthetic versions
of the adhesive,
preserving some
of the interesting
adhesive chemistry,
but at the same time,
dialing in
some flexibility
into the system
so we can adapt
the properties of the material
for different applications.
To support our lab's research,
we need money.
To get money,
we write proposals
to the federal
funding agencies.
This is a drawer
showing an example
of some of the proposals
we've written over recent years.
Some have been successful,
a lot of them have not.
Okay, let's just not
think about that anymore
and close this for now.
(narrator)
Jon loves science,
and puts time into it,
but also enjoys
his free time.
I like to jog.
It relaxes me and keeps me
in somewhat decent shape.
I feel good after that.
You can work through
things from research
in your mind,
or use it to step back
from research.
I kinda like that.
Obviously, scuba diving
is a constant--
somewhat research related,
but it's mostly a hobby.
Although, it's the hobby
that got me
into this research area.
Hey, that was fun.
And really cold.
Another fun thing
is learning how to race cars.
Excellent, cool.
I'll see you at the track.
Sometimes you're working
under the car,
and that can be relaxing
and therapeutic.
♪
One of the nice things
about this job is traveling,
sometimes to conferences
in far-flung places.
And sometimes
the traveling
can be in nice places
you want to visit.
In my case,
I recently went
to a conference
in Australia.
While I was there,
we got the dive gear
and explored
the Great Barrier Reef
and looked for new
research topics and ideas.
You get to decide
what you want to work on.
Do something that
looks really cool.
If you think science
is great, do it.
That's the best thing
about this,
you can find
some cool science
and go out and do it,
so that's fun.
♪
