First research paper using the Molecular Workbench submitted to arXiv

Credit: M. Rendi, A.S. Suprijadi, & S. Viridi

Researchers from Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia recently submitted a paper "Modeling Of Blood Vessel Constriction In 2-D Case Using Molecular Dynamics Method" to arXiv (an open e-print repository), in which they claimed: "Blood vessel constriction is simulated with particle-based method using a molecular dynamics authoring software known as Molecular Workbench. Blood flow and vessel wall, the only components considered in constructing a blood vessel, are all represented in particle form with interaction potentials: Lennard-Jones potential, push-pull spring potential, and bending spring potential. Influence of medium or blood plasma is accommodated in plasma viscosity through Stokes drag force. It has been observed that pressure p is increased as constriction c is increased. Leakage of blood vessel starts at 80 % constriction, which shows existence of maximum pressure that can be overcome by vessel wall."

This blog article is not to endorse their paper but to use this example to illustrate the point that a piece of simulation software that was originally intended to be an educational tool can turn out to be also useful to scientists. If you are a teacher, don't you want your students to have such a tool that assumes no boundary to what they can do? The science education community has published numerous papers about how to teach students think and act like a scientist, but much less has been done to actually empower them with tools they can realistically use.