The Dose Makes The Poison

In light of recent controversies, including discussions regarding fluoridation of Irish drinking water, this new infographic, by Compound Interest for Sense About Science sums up my views better than a lengthy blog post. It's part of their efforts to make sense of the chemistry-related stories we read about in the media. Their free guide on the subject is a must read for those with views on water fluoridation.

(click on the image for a larger version)

Who said chemistry wasn't fun?

A University College Cork video has been shortlisted by Times Higher Education (THE) as one of the best videos submitted for the World University Rankings.

The video features Declan Kennedy's fantastic Chemistry Magic Show which is a regular feature of Science Week at UCC and other outreach events. Filming and production is by Stephen Bean, also of UCC. Here's a short clip:

Science in Stone

Hidden away in the courtyard of a building close to Cork's Saint Finbarre's Cathedral is a unique reminder of Cork's scientific heritage crafted by one of Ireland's greatest craftsmen.

The piece is made up of 3 individual limestones panels each measuring 74 x 94 cm. Arranged one above the other, with a chiselled limestone surround the panels are unmistakeably the work of the Cork stonecarver Seamus Murphy.

Born near Mallow, Co. Cork in 1907, Murphy went on to become an award winning sculptor and stone carver, crafting some of Ireland's most important public art - including the O'Donovan Rossa plaque and Countess Markievicz bust at St. Stephan's Green, Dublin; the bust of Michael Collins at Fitzgerald Park, Cork.

From top to bottom, the Crawford panels are:
CEIMHIOCHT A FISIC, bearing the symbols of chemistry and physics.
INNEALTÓIREACHT, bearing the symbols of engineering.
FOIRGNÍOCHT, bearing the symbols of building and construction.

The work is located at the Crawford College of Art and Design on Sharman Crawford Street, Cork and is a reminder of the former use of the building - as the Crawford Technical School (built as the then Cork Municipal Technical Institute in 1909).

The institute was built on a site donated by Mr. AF Sharman Crawford (whose grandfather was William Crawford of Lakelands who had already proven himself a great benefactor of science and art on Cork), Chairman of the Cork Technical Instruction Committee and a managing director of Beamish and Crawford, brewers.

The old Arnotts brewery that previously occupied the site was partially demolished and a new building of Little Island limestone, brick from Ballinphelic, Co. Cork, Galway granite, as well as marble from Connemara, Cork, Mitchelstown and Beaumont Quarry in Ballintemple was erected.

From November 1911, the Institute taught electrical and mechanical engineering, building construction, typography, painting and decorating, chemistry, domestic science, carpentry, plumbing, botany, tailors’ cutting, cooking, laundry, shirtmaking, dressmaking, millinery and needlework.

Seamus Murphy's stonework was installed in  1967 and now serves as a permanant link between the Crawford Technical School and the Crawford College of Art and as a tribute to the philantrophic activities of several generations of the Crawford family in art and science.

Unfortunately, while the artwork has survived well, despite being exposed to the elements for over 40 years it is now almost obscured from view by an unsympathetically positioned metal smoking  shelter. Surely such a fine piece of craftsmanship should be worthy of a little bit more respect?

As we begin Science Week 2011, the theme of which is 'Chemistry of Life' we could do worse than reflect of Murphy's interpretation of the science in stone.

Marie Curie on Google

As well as the death of Alfred Russel Wallace, today is also noteworthy as being the the brithday of Marie Curie- an event celebrated with a Google Doodle. 

A Polish-born French chemist and physicist, she is famous for here work on radioactivity. Amongst her notable achievements:

• Being the first female professor at the University of Paris.

• The first person to recieve two Nobel Prizes - Physics and Chemistry.

• The first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

• Only woman to win in two fields.

• Only person to win in multiple sciences.

Curie coined the term radioactivity, discovered two elements (polonium and radium) and founded the Curie Institute at Paris and Warsaw. She was born on this day in 1867 and died in 1934.

Robert Boyle Website Launched

Last September we brought you news of the Robert Boyle Science Festival, taking place in Lismore, Co. Waterford from 17th-20th of November.

The organisers have now launched a new website (www.robertboyle.ie) to promote and accompany the festival.

The festival is particularly timely given that 2011 marks the 350th anniversary of the publication of Robert Boyle’s famous scientific paper entitled, “The Sceptical Chymist”. This document set the scene for the establishment of the academic topic we now call the Chemical Sciences.  2011 is also the International Year of Chemistry.

More details on the programme of events for the festival can be found in our earlier post and at the festival website.

Lifetime Lab “Chemistry It’s Elementary” Show

Cork primary school pupils will help celebrate 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry with Lifetime Lab as “Chemistry Its Elementary” comes to Cork Institute of Technology on Thursday October 20th and Friday 21^st October.

Over 1200 school children from across the city will  journey from alchemy to chemistry on a whistle stop tour of gases and the states of matter, density, acids and bases, chromatography, crystals, metals, fireworks and much more over.

 

“Chemistry Its Elementary” introduces primary school pupils to the elements, the building blocks of our universe, beginning with Hydrogen and finishing with Calcium. It’s Elementary showcases chemistry through lots of activity and interaction, offering an introduction to the periodic table and the first twenty elements; where they are found and the  quirky things they do. There will be lots of experiments and information about the elements, their properties, their occurrence and their uses with many of the experiments suitable for teachers to recreate in class.

Mervyn Horgan, manager of Lifetime Lab said “We were looking for an event to mark the international year of chemistry and received fantastic support from MSD, CIT and PharmaChemical Ireland when the idea was discussed; through close collaboration and synergy Lifetime Lab is able to bring a marquee science event to a large Cork audience, we also included transport to and from the venue making the event more accessible and attractive for schools to participate”.

“Chemistry – It’s Elementary “will be at Cork Institute of Technology on October 20^th and 21^st with three shows per day 9.30am,11.00am and 12.30pm.Further information is available from Lifetime Lab at 021 4941500 or lifeetimelab@corkcity.ie

Robert Boyle Science Festival

2011 represents the 350th anniversary of the publication of Robert Boyle’s famous scientific paper entitled, “The Sceptical Chymist”. This document set the scene for the establishment of the academic topic we now call the Chemical Sciences. 

2011 is also the year that has been designated the International Year of Chemistry (or more simply, IYC) and so it is appropriate that Robert Boyle’s enormous... contribution to the subject will be celebrated in a Science Festival to be hosted at his birthplace in Lismore Castle, Co. Waterford. 

The Festival will take place between Thursday 17th November and Sunday 20th November 2011 to coincide with Science Week. Events will be mounted by Eoin Gill (WIT) and Dr Declan Kennedy (UCC) suitable for both children and adults including lectures, demonstrations and “hands-on” experiences. Talks by Professor Duncan Thorburn Burns (QUB) and Dr Allan Chapman (of Channel 4 TV fame) will emphasise material on Boyle himself and also his scientific partnership with the equally famous Robert Hooke. 

Due to the universal importance of Boyle’s law of gases, two further lectures will be devoted to Earth’s atmosphere. The first is to be presented by the Chief Scientific Officer to DEFRA in the UK, Professor Bob Watson, and will provide a political perspective relevant to human activities on air pollution, climate change and agriculture. The second, by Professor Richard Wayne from Oxford University, will attempt to put the evolution of our atmosphere in proper perspective with our neighbouring planets in the Solar System and answer the question: Why Life on Earth? 

The celebration ends with a spectacular Firework Display at the Castle to point at the essential “Air” that covers our planet and allows all forms of life to exist. The Robert Boyle Science Festival is organised by the Lismore Heritage Centre along with representatives from Lismore Castle, University College Cork, Waterford Institute of Technology and local chemical industry. It is sponsored currently by the RIA and UCC. 

You can keep up to date on the festival using their Facebook page.

See our earlier post on Robert Boyle and his science here.

Boyle's Wishlist

Boyle's wishlist

The Irishman known as the Father of Modern Chemistry left behind him a wishlist, the boxes of which have been well and truly ticked. Is it time to write a new one?


During a visit to the Glucksman Gallery recently to visit the wonderful Book of Lismore, I was reminded of the work of Robert Boyle, a man who shares a common history with the tome.


Boyle was born on 25th January 1627 in Lismore Castle in County Waterford, the son of Richard Boyle, the 1st Earl of Cork. After being tutored locally and in England, his father sent him on a grand tour of Europe at the age of 12, visiting Dieppe, Paris, Lyon and Geneva.

He went on to visit Florence in 1641, the year of Galileo's death in the same city. Boyle became greatly interested in Galileo's work and in science in general.

Boyle was a founder of the Royal Society of London in 1660 after being associated with its precursor, the "Invisible College" for many years and his work looked at using mathematics to explain chemistry. The Royal Society elected Boyle president of the the Society in 1680, a post he declined due to his religious beliefs.

Robert Boyle is best know perhaps for Boyle's Law - that, at a constant temperature, the pressure of a gas varies inversely with its volume. This law explains such events as a balloon popping and your ears popping at high altitude as well as how pneumatic tools and systems work.

Perhaps less well known than his eponymous law, Boyle also outlined a 'wishlist' of 24 of the most pressing problems to scientists to solve, as he founded the Royal Society. All but a few, have now become a reality. Boyle's wishlist in the 1660's read as follows:

"The Prolongation of life" - there is no doubt we are all, on average, living much longer than our ancestors.

"The recovery of youth, or at least some of the marks of it, as new teeth, new hair" - plastic surgery or botox anyone?

"The art of flying" - a regular occurrence for many onboard planes and helicopters.

"The art of continuing long under water" - submarines (invented by an Irishman).

"Potent Druggs to alter or Exalt Imagination, Waking, Memory, and other functions, and appease pain, procure innocent sleep, harmless dreams, etc" - antibiotics, painkillers.

"The cure of diseases at a distance or at least by transplantion"  - Organ transplant now a common procedure. Even virtual surgery carried out by robots led by remote doctors are now possible.

"Pleasing Dreams and physicall Exercises exemplify’d by the Egyptian Electuary and by the Fungus mentioned by the French Author" - hallucenogenic drugs.

"The emulating of fish without engines by custome and education" - scuba diving?

"Strength and agility..exemplified by ...hystericall persons" - Steroids perhaps?

"The Attaining Gigantick Dimensions" - synthetic growth hormones?

"The acceleration of the production of things out of seed" -Advances in plant breeding, including GM technology.

"The making of parabolical and Hyperbolical glasses" - advances in eyeglasses, microscopes and telescopes.

"Making armor light and extremely hard" - Kevlar

"The practicable and certain way of finding longitudes" - GPS technology is now in cars and phones.

"A ship to sail with all winds" - Engines have greatly reduced the reliance on sailing.

"Freedom from Necessity of much Sleeping exemplify’d by the Operations of Tea and what happens in Mad-Men" - stimulant drugs

"Perpetuall light" Lightbulbs, LEDs, etc. all ensure that darkness, at least in urban areas, is very hard to find.

"Varnishes perfumable by rubbing" - possibly one of Boyle's weirdest wished, but you know those scratch and sniff things that fall out of magazines? Boyle would be proud!

"The use of Pendulums at Sea and in Journeys, and the Application of it to watches" - Quartz and digital watches.

"Transmutation of species in mineralls, animals and vegetables" - GM, synthetic biology explain at least the biological components of this wish.

Boyle died in London on 31st December 1691 leaving his wishlist to be fulfilled in the centuries after his death. It begs the question, if we were to write such a list today, what would be on it?


Leave your science wishlist ideas as a comment to this post or tweet, using the hashtag #sciwish

Robert Bunsen - 200 years of science

 "As an investigator he was great, as a teacher he was greater, as a man and friend he was greatest."

- so said Sir Henry Roscoe about his colleague Robert Bunsen, the 200th anniversary of whose birthday we celebrate this Thursday 31st March.

Bunsen was one of the most influential chemistry teachers of his time - some of his students included the noted Irish scientist John Tyndall and Dmitri Mendeleev, the creator of the Periodic Table.

Bunsen was born in Germany in 1811 and is probably best remembered for inventing (or at least refining the design of) the Bunsen Burner. His father was a professor of modern languages at Gottingen and he received his doctorate from that university at the age of 19.

Bunsen-Kirchoff spectroscope

As well as being a noted chemist, Bunsen had a lifelong interest in geology and took a trip to Iceland, sponsored by the Danish government to study the eruption of Mount Hekla in 1845.

The chemist collected gases from the erupting volcano and analysed the volcanic rock. He also investigated the theory of geyser action and showed that the water from geysers was not volcanic in origin and that the boiling of water below the surface caused the water above to move upwards:

"To confirm his theory, Bunsen made an artificial geyser, consisting of a basin of water having a long tube extending below it. He heated the tube at the bottom and at about the middlepoint. As the water at the middle reached its boiling point, all of the phenomena of geyser action were beautifully shown, including the preliminary thundering. That was in 1846. From that day to this Bunsen's theory of geyser action has been generally accepted by geologists." (Darrow, 1923)

Bunsen's statue in Heidelberg faces the building where he and Kirchoff worked.

Kirchoff (left) and Bunsen (right)

He also discovered the elements cesium and rubidium with his colleague Gustav Kirchhoff.

Announcing their discovery of cesium (Latin caesium, "sky blue"), the scientists wrote:

"Supported by unambiguous results of the spectral-analytical method, we believe we can state right now that there is a fourth metal in the alkali group besides potassium, sodium, and lithium, and it has a simple characteristic spectrum like lithium; a metal that shows only two lines in our apparatus: a faint blue one, almost coinciding with Sr, and another blue one a little further to the violet end of the spectrum and as strong and as clearly defined as the lithium line."

The apparatus referred to here is the Bunsen-Kirchoff spectroscope, developed around 1865, which had its origins  in a "prism, a cigar box and two ends of otherwise unusable old telescopes". The pair discovered rubidium (Latin rubidus, "darkest red") a few after cesium using the same apparatus.

Bunsen never married and devoted much of his time to his work in the laboratory and his teaching. he received many honours for his work but once remarked: "Such things had value for me only because they pleased my mother; she is now dead." He died in 1899 after a ten-year retirement which he spent indulging his first love of geology.

Google are celebrating Bunsen's 200th birthday with a specially comissioned logo on their homepage:

The results are in: Spider vs Conker myth debunked

One of the first blog posts I ever posted on here was about a challenge set by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) to discover the truth about that old wives' tale that spiders are repelled by horse chestnuts.

Now, Year 5 and 6 pupils at Roselyon School in Cornwall have won the challenge and demonstrated conclusively that the theory is false and they've bagged a £300 prize into the bargain.

RSC spokesman Jon Edwards said: "When we consulted a spider expert at the Natural History Museum he was highly sceptical about the spider theory. We even tried it ourselves but couldn't reach a scientific conclusion. The Roselyon entry stood out from the crowd because of the balanced, scientific methods and well designed experiments. They should be proud of their fair mindedness, scientific rigour and logical thinking."

Andrew Ferguson, science teacher at the school, said: "Many people are scared of spiders - but our children are not among them and were not worried abut handling them. The children are thrilled that their efforts have won this prize. Apart from being good fun, the project provided an invaluable learning experience. Many people are terrified of spiders, but one other thing our video also demonstrated is that Roselyon children are not among them."

A video detailing the work of the school on the project can be viewed below.