Latest News
Chemistry in Action Trip
Melissa in Austen 2 sent this report:
On Monday, 2 March 10 students and I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Chemistry in Action event held at the Emmanuel Centre in London. We started our day with an interesting talk about personalised cancer treatments from Belle Taylor. She talked about the use of artificial intelligence in reading the quanta of energy given off when DNA, taken from the blood, was synthesized. The work done at Cambridge Cancer Genomics is truly inspiring. A lecture from Saiful Islam about green energy materials then followed. He highlighted, using 3D glasses, the use of atomic-scale modelling and structural techniques to understand new crystalline materials for lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells.
‘Do you smell almonds?’ Presented by Jamie Gallagher came next. He detailed how chemistry lets us understand our favourite flavours. He talked about how Coca Cola once contained a mixture of cocaine and wine and when consumed by its creator, John Pemberton, gave a more favourable alternative to his morphine addiction. After lunch we enjoyed an interactive speech from Rachel Bolton-King who specialises in the investigation of shooting incidents. She discussed what shotgun cartridges are made from as well as the invisible evidence present at a crime scene, such as gunshot residue. She really made the invisible visible. Finally, Mark Miodownik an engineer, gave a very forward-thinking lecture on Materials in the 21st Century. He talked about self-healing bridges using concrete consuming bacteria. When exposed to air they start to eat away at the concrete in order to replicate and deposit a residue to rebuild cracks in infrastructure. All in all, the day was a great success. Every lecturer brought very relevant and inspirational ideas to the table, they really made us all think about the applications of chemistry in everyday life.