CHEMISTRY!!

I serve on the local Royal Society of Chemistry committee and each year we organise a Christmas demonstration lecture aimed at local 6th form students. It's partly for fun entertainment purposes, but we hope it will inspire some to explore the chemical sciences further and also gives the students a chance to see experiments which can no longer be performed in school laboratories..!

Today's lecture was "Thunder and Lightning" and it certainly went off with a bang :D The lecture is partly a tribute to Colonel B.D. Shaw who did an explosives demonstration lecture for 62 years, only retiring at the ripe old age of 92!

Despite all the chemicals and kit having travelled approx 200 miles to Newcastle this morning, everything worked just fine, the audience went "WOW!", applauded and cheered in all the appropriate places and left suitably deafened and impressed :-)

The collage (from left to right) shows 1) The reaction of Phosphorus IV in a pure oxygen atmosphere 2) The reaction of Nitrogen Dioxide (laughing gas) with Carbon Disulphide 3) Liquid-oxygen soaked cotton wool burning and 4) The combustion of Ammonium Dichromate.

I was also able to exploit my complimentary campus-parking spot by meeting my sister for a cuppa in town and a spot of late night shopping - a good day all round!