John McGinness
Encyclopedia
John Edward McGinness is an American physicist
and physician
. McGinness worked as a in the field of Organic electronics
and Nanotechnology
.
and after his B.S. in 1966 he received his PhD for Physics at the Rice University
in 1970.
He became assistant professor for Biophysics at the University of Texas (Tumor Institute).He received his MD from University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1985 and worked in Internal Medicine for one year, changing to psychiatry and working at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston from 1989 till 1992 Author of roughly 40 research publications, book chapters, and presentations.
In 1972, while working at the Metallurgy department at Youngstown State University, Dr. McGinness suggested that electronic conduction in melanins (polyacetylene
, polypyrrole
, and polyaniline
"blacks" and their copolymers) is analogous to conduction in amorphous solids such as the chalcogenide glass
es. This area was originally pioneered by Neville Mott, among others. That is, it involves such things as mobility gaps, phonon
-assisted hopping, polaron
s, Quantum tunneling, and so forth. This report anticipated the later Nobel-prize-winning work of Shirakawa et al. on conduction mechanisms in other oxidized polyacetylenes.
From Youngstown, Dr McGinness moved to the Physics Department of The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
. The department had an interest in the physical properties of Melanin
as a possible hook to treating melanoma
. While of enormous importance now, this was a research backwater at the time. With the notable exception of Bolto et al., who had reported http://www.drproctor.com/os/weisspaper.pdf high conductivity in iodine-doped polypyrrole
, few but melanoma researchers had much reason to look at the electronic properties of such rigid-backbone polymer "blacks". This is why the putative first molecular electronic device came from a cancer hospital.
The chalcogenide glass
es show "switching", in which an applied "threshold voltage" reversibly switches a material from a low-conductivity "OFF" state to a high-conductivity "ON' state. The similarity of conduction mechanisms suggested that the melanins might also demonstrate voltage-controlled switching. Following this lead, Dr McGinness and his MD Anderson coworkers constructed a voltage-controlled switch incorporating melanin as its active element . They also further characterized its electronic behavior.
This device was a "proof of concept" for McGinness' model for electronic conduction in such materials. In many ways, this work directly anticipated that leading to the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "For the Discovery and Development of Conductive Polymers", but with some differences. First, McGinness built an actual device with a high conductivity "ON" state, while they looked at passive high conductivity in another of the same class of polymer. Similarly, the Nobel winners worked in reverse—they stumbled upon passive high conductivity in another oxidized polyacetylene, unknowingly repeating the work of Bolto et al. with similarly iodine-doped polypyrrole
. They then developed a model to explain high conductivity in such materials. This model was rather similar to Dr McGinness', with the addition of solitons for the special case of pure polyacetylene.
The pictured device represents several putative "firsts" in organic electronics
. E.g., this voltage-controlled switch is apparently the first identifiable "active" organic semiconductor
device. (An active device is one in which a current or voltage controls current flow.) As such, it is arguably parent to many later developments in organic electronics
. In fact, only in the last decade or so have similar devices reappeared. Moreover, organic electronics is part of Nanotechnology
. So this gadget is the putative first nanotech device. As such, it is now in the Smithsonians Institution's National Museum of American History collection of early electronic
devices.
Similarly, while high-conductivity had been observed decades before in Charge transfer complex
-type organic semiconductor
s and in polypyrrole http://www.drproctor.com/os/weisspaper.pdf, the "ON" state of the pictured device was the demonstration of a high "metallic" conductivity state in the linear-backbone conductive polymer
s. Thus, a subsequent news article in the journal Nature makes much of this materials "strikingly large conductivity", "high conductivity", and "large conduction".
At present, such oxidized polyacetylene
s and their derivatives are the most commonly used commercial conductive polymers. Further, the pictured device exhibited negative differential resistance, now a well-recognized property of electronically active conductive polymers.
Interestingly, For further perspective concerning where this device fits in the history of Organic Electronics, see reference 9. A sample quote:
Since he was at a cancer research institute, McGinness' other interests included the role of free radicals in the action and toxicity of the anticancer drugs cisplatin
, adriamycin, and bleomycin
. E.g., he was the first to show (10) that the kidney toxicity of cisplatin
involves reactive oxygen species
. Some of this work was done with Harry Demopoulos
, famous as the doctor in Clint Eastwood
's Dirty Harry movies and as the person who resolved the Doris Duke
will dispute. McGinness was also involved in the dielectic spectroscopy of water bound to membranes. This was related to the future development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
John and his coworkers also obtained two US patents for organic-polymer-based energy storage devices (batteries),US patents# #4,366,216 and #4,504,557
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
. McGinness worked as a in the field of Organic electronics
Organic electronics
Organic electronics, plastic electronics or polymer electronics, is a branch of electronics dealing with conductive polymers, plastics, or small molecules. It is called 'organic' electronics because the polymers and small molecules are carbon-based...
and Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
.
Education
McGinness studied physics at the University of HoustonUniversity of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
and after his B.S. in 1966 he received his PhD for Physics at the Rice University
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
in 1970.
He became assistant professor for Biophysics at the University of Texas (Tumor Institute).He received his MD from University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1985 and worked in Internal Medicine for one year, changing to psychiatry and working at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston from 1989 till 1992 Author of roughly 40 research publications, book chapters, and presentations.
Work
John McGinness pioneered much of the modern field of organic electronics.Polyacetylene
Polyacetylene is an organic polymer with the repeat unit n. The high electrical conductivity discovered for these polymers beginning in the 1960's accelerated interest in the use of organic compounds in microelectronics...
, polypyrrole
Polypyrrole
Polypyrrole is a chemical compound formed from a number of connected pyrrole ring structures. For example a tetrapyrrole is a compound with four pyrrole rings connected. Methine-bridged cyclic tetrapyrroles are called porphyrins. Polypyrroles are conducting polymers of the rigid-rod polymer host...
, and polyaniline
Polyaniline
Polyaniline is a conducting polymer of the semi-flexible rod polymer family. Although the compound itself was discovered over 150 years ago, only since the early 1980s has polyaniline captured the intense attention of the scientific community. This is due to the rediscovery of its high electrical...
"blacks" and their copolymers) is analogous to conduction in amorphous solids such as the chalcogenide glass
Chalcogenide glass
A chalcogenide glass is a glass containing one or more chalcogenide elements. These are Group 16 in the periodic table e.g. sulfur, selenium or tellurium. Such glasses are covalently bonded materials and may be classified as network solids. In effect, the entire glass matrix acts like an...
es. This area was originally pioneered by Neville Mott, among others. That is, it involves such things as mobility gaps, phonon
Phonon
In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter, such as solids and some liquids...
-assisted hopping, polaron
Polaron
A polaron is a quasiparticle composed of a charge and its accompanying polarization field. A slow moving electron in a dielectric crystal, interacting with lattice ions through long-range forces will permanently be surrounded by a region of lattice polarization and deformation caused by the moving...
s, Quantum tunneling, and so forth. This report anticipated the later Nobel-prize-winning work of Shirakawa et al. on conduction mechanisms in other oxidized polyacetylenes.
From Youngstown, Dr McGinness moved to the Physics Department of The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is one of the nation's original three comprehensive cancer centers established by the National Cancer Act of 1971. It is both a degree-granting academic institution and a cancer treatment and research center located at the Texas Medical Center in...
. The department had an interest in the physical properties of Melanin
Melanin
Melanin is a pigment that is ubiquitous in nature, being found in most organisms . In animals melanin pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. The most common form of biological melanin is eumelanin, a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acids, and their reduced forms...
as a possible hook to treating melanoma
Melanoma
Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes. Melanocytes are cells that produce the dark pigment, melanin, which is responsible for the color of skin. They predominantly occur in skin, but are also found in other parts of the body, including the bowel and the eye...
. While of enormous importance now, this was a research backwater at the time. With the notable exception of Bolto et al., who had reported http://www.drproctor.com/os/weisspaper.pdf high conductivity in iodine-doped polypyrrole
Polypyrrole
Polypyrrole is a chemical compound formed from a number of connected pyrrole ring structures. For example a tetrapyrrole is a compound with four pyrrole rings connected. Methine-bridged cyclic tetrapyrroles are called porphyrins. Polypyrroles are conducting polymers of the rigid-rod polymer host...
, few but melanoma researchers had much reason to look at the electronic properties of such rigid-backbone polymer "blacks". This is why the putative first molecular electronic device came from a cancer hospital.
The chalcogenide glass
Chalcogenide glass
A chalcogenide glass is a glass containing one or more chalcogenide elements. These are Group 16 in the periodic table e.g. sulfur, selenium or tellurium. Such glasses are covalently bonded materials and may be classified as network solids. In effect, the entire glass matrix acts like an...
es show "switching", in which an applied "threshold voltage" reversibly switches a material from a low-conductivity "OFF" state to a high-conductivity "ON' state. The similarity of conduction mechanisms suggested that the melanins might also demonstrate voltage-controlled switching. Following this lead, Dr McGinness and his MD Anderson coworkers constructed a voltage-controlled switch incorporating melanin as its active element . They also further characterized its electronic behavior.
This device was a "proof of concept" for McGinness' model for electronic conduction in such materials. In many ways, this work directly anticipated that leading to the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "For the Discovery and Development of Conductive Polymers", but with some differences. First, McGinness built an actual device with a high conductivity "ON" state, while they looked at passive high conductivity in another of the same class of polymer. Similarly, the Nobel winners worked in reverse—they stumbled upon passive high conductivity in another oxidized polyacetylene, unknowingly repeating the work of Bolto et al. with similarly iodine-doped polypyrrole
Polypyrrole
Polypyrrole is a chemical compound formed from a number of connected pyrrole ring structures. For example a tetrapyrrole is a compound with four pyrrole rings connected. Methine-bridged cyclic tetrapyrroles are called porphyrins. Polypyrroles are conducting polymers of the rigid-rod polymer host...
. They then developed a model to explain high conductivity in such materials. This model was rather similar to Dr McGinness', with the addition of solitons for the special case of pure polyacetylene.
The pictured device represents several putative "firsts" in organic electronics
Organic electronics
Organic electronics, plastic electronics or polymer electronics, is a branch of electronics dealing with conductive polymers, plastics, or small molecules. It is called 'organic' electronics because the polymers and small molecules are carbon-based...
. E.g., this voltage-controlled switch is apparently the first identifiable "active" organic semiconductor
Organic semiconductor
An organic semiconductor is an organic material with semiconductor properties. Single molecules, short chain and organic polymers can be semiconductive. Semiconducting small molecules include the polycyclic aromatic compounds pentacene, anthracene, and rubrene...
device. (An active device is one in which a current or voltage controls current flow.) As such, it is arguably parent to many later developments in organic electronics
Organic electronics
Organic electronics, plastic electronics or polymer electronics, is a branch of electronics dealing with conductive polymers, plastics, or small molecules. It is called 'organic' electronics because the polymers and small molecules are carbon-based...
. In fact, only in the last decade or so have similar devices reappeared. Moreover, organic electronics is part of Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
. So this gadget is the putative first nanotech device. As such, it is now in the Smithsonians Institution's National Museum of American History collection of early electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
devices.
Similarly, while high-conductivity had been observed decades before in Charge transfer complex
Charge transfer complex
A charge-transfer complex or electron-donor-acceptor complex is an association of two or more molecules, or of different parts of one very large molecule, in which a fraction of electronic charge is transferred between the molecular entities. The resulting electrostatic attraction provides a...
-type organic semiconductor
Organic semiconductor
An organic semiconductor is an organic material with semiconductor properties. Single molecules, short chain and organic polymers can be semiconductive. Semiconducting small molecules include the polycyclic aromatic compounds pentacene, anthracene, and rubrene...
s and in polypyrrole http://www.drproctor.com/os/weisspaper.pdf, the "ON" state of the pictured device was the demonstration of a high "metallic" conductivity state in the linear-backbone conductive polymer
Conductive polymer
Conductive polymers or, more precisely, intrinsically conducting polymers are organic polymers that conduct electricity. Such compounds may have metallic conductivity or can be semiconductors. The biggest advantage of conductive polymers is their processability, mainly by dispersion. Conductive...
s. Thus, a subsequent news article in the journal Nature makes much of this materials "strikingly large conductivity", "high conductivity", and "large conduction".
At present, such oxidized polyacetylene
Polyacetylene
Polyacetylene is an organic polymer with the repeat unit n. The high electrical conductivity discovered for these polymers beginning in the 1960's accelerated interest in the use of organic compounds in microelectronics...
s and their derivatives are the most commonly used commercial conductive polymers. Further, the pictured device exhibited negative differential resistance, now a well-recognized property of electronically active conductive polymers.
Interestingly, For further perspective concerning where this device fits in the history of Organic Electronics, see reference 9. A sample quote:
- "Also in 1974 came the first experimental demonstration of an operating molecular electronic device (emphasis-added) that functions along the lines of the biopolymer conduction ideas of Szent-GyőrgiAlbert Szent-GyörgyiAlbert Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt was a Hungarian physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He is credited with discovering vitamin C and the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle...
. This advance was made by McGinness, Corry, and Proctor who examined conduction through artificial and biological melanin oligomers. They observed semiconductor properties of the organic material and demonstrated strong negative differential resistance, a hallmark of modern advances in molecular electronics.58 Like many early advances, the significance of the results obtained was not fully appreciated until decades later...(p 14)"
Since he was at a cancer research institute, McGinness' other interests included the role of free radicals in the action and toxicity of the anticancer drugs cisplatin
Cisplatin
Cisplatin, cisplatinum, or cis-diamminedichloroplatinum is a chemotherapy drug. It is used to treat various types of cancers, including sarcomas, some carcinomas , lymphomas, and germ cell tumors...
, adriamycin, and bleomycin
Bleomycin
Bleomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic produced by the bacterium Streptomyces verticillus. Bleomycin refers to a family of structurally related compounds. When used as an anticancer agent, the chemotherapeutical forms are primarily bleomycin A2 and B2. It works by causing breaks in DNA...
. E.g., he was the first to show (10) that the kidney toxicity of cisplatin
Cisplatin
Cisplatin, cisplatinum, or cis-diamminedichloroplatinum is a chemotherapy drug. It is used to treat various types of cancers, including sarcomas, some carcinomas , lymphomas, and germ cell tumors...
involves reactive oxygen species
Reactive oxygen species
Reactive oxygen species are chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen. Examples include oxygen ions and peroxides. Reactive oxygen species are highly reactive due to the presence of unpaired valence shell electrons....
. Some of this work was done with Harry Demopoulos
Harry Demopoulos
Harry B. Demopoulos, MD is an pioneer in the medical aspects of free radicals, especially in the areas of ischaemic injury, the toxicity of anticancer drugs, and in spinal cord injury...
, famous as the doctor in Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
's Dirty Harry movies and as the person who resolved the Doris Duke
Doris Duke
Doris Duke was an American heiress, horticulturalist, art collector, and philanthropist.-Family and early life:...
will dispute. McGinness was also involved in the dielectic spectroscopy of water bound to membranes. This was related to the future development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , or magnetic resonance tomography is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures...
John and his coworkers also obtained two US patents for organic-polymer-based energy storage devices (batteries),US patents# #4,366,216 and #4,504,557
Further reading
- John McGinness, Proctor, P.H., Harry DemopoulosHarry DemopoulosHarry B. Demopoulos, MD is an pioneer in the medical aspects of free radicals, especially in the areas of ischaemic injury, the toxicity of anticancer drugs, and in spinal cord injury...
, Hokansen, J.A. and Van,N.T. In vivo evidence for superoxide and peroxide production by adriamycin and cis-platinum. In: Pathology of Oxygen. A. Author, (Ed.). Academic Press, New York, 1982, pp. 191–202. - McGinness J, Kishimoto A, Hollister LE. Avoiding neurotoxicity with lithium-carbamazepine combinations. Psychopharmacol Bull. 1990;26(2):181-4.
- McGinness JE, Grossie B Jr, Proctor PH, Benjamin RS, Gulati OP, Hokanson JA. Effect of dose schedule of vitamin E and hydroxethylruticide on intestinal toxicity induced by adriamycin. Physiol Chem Phys Med NMR. 1986;18(1):17-24.
- McGinness J. A new view of pigmented neurons. J Theor Biol. 1985 Aug 7;115(3):475-6.
- Gulati OP, Nordmann H, Aellig A, Maignan MF, McGinness J. Protective effects of O-(beta-hydroxyethyl)-rutosides (HR) against adriamycin-induced toxicity in rats. Arch Int Pharmacodyn Ther. 1985 Feb;273(2):323-34.
- Schrauzer GN, McGinness JE, Ishmael D, Bell LJ. Alcoholism and cancer. I. Effects of long-term exposure to alcohol on spontaneous mammary adenocarcinoma and prolactin levels in C3H/St mice. J Stud Alcohol. 1979 Mar;40(3):240-6.
- Pietronigro DD, McGinness JE, Koren MJ, Crippa R, Seligman ML, Harry DemopoulosHarry DemopoulosHarry B. Demopoulos, MD is an pioneer in the medical aspects of free radicals, especially in the areas of ischaemic injury, the toxicity of anticancer drugs, and in spinal cord injury...
. Spontaneous generation of adriamycin semiquinone radicals at physiologic pH. Physiol Chem Phys. 1979;11(5):405-14. - McGinness JE, Crippa PR, Kirkpatrick DS, Proctor PH. Reversible and irreversible changes in hydrogen ion titration curves of melanins. Physiol Chem Phys. 1979;11(3):217-23.
- Kirkpatrick DS, McGinness JE, Moorhead WD, Corry PM, Proctor PH. High-frequency dielectric spectroscopy of concentrated membrane suspensions. Biophys J. 1978 Oct;24(1):243-5.