Articles on Popular science

This is a movie that shows diagrammatically how simple polar molecules in a fluid phase might respond to an electric field. In real instances each molecule would also have substantial translational velocities.

You can apply a field by clicking on the switch symbol. More information is available about the molecule when you move your mouse over the top left hand instance.

Yesterday I managed a day out to get to the Polymer IRC’s UK Polymer Showcase at York. As you’d expect, most of the presentations were about polymers and plastics research, but the Material World’s Quentin Cooper also gave a very entertaining guest presentation entitled Plastic and Past Stuck – Why Science Changes the World but Scientists’ Image Stays the Same. In this Quentin explored perceptions of science.

One of the most engaging parts of this was a look at the images children produce when asked to draw a scientist; inevitably the clichés of lab coat and glassware were overwhelming. The image here is my own effort from a number of years ago (but not, sadly, as a child in response to a scientifically conducted pole!). I guess the general premise is that people build stereotypes that overlook the essential humanity of the scientist. Science is a job that you can do, but it is also a way of looking at things? Getting answers to questions?

I had a great day out, so thanks and congratulations to Helen and the Polymer IRC team for organising this event…

The Material World

The Polymer IRC

Kinlochbervie is close to the most North Westerly part of the British mainland, and quite a long drive from anywhere! The scenery is spectacular, however, particularly the drive north of Ullapool, so it was a great privilege to get the chance to work there for a few weeks in 2002.

While I did do a bit of web work on the journey North,* my primary task was to provide scientific support for the Kinlochbervie wrecksite project. At this point it is perhaps germane to state that I was trained as a chemist, and had been researching new methods for conserving underwater archaeological finds at the University of St Andrews for the last decade. My interest in the web started with writing web pages for this project in 1997 (when the web was still quite young)…

By coincidence, the shipwreck at Kinlochbervie was also found in 1997, by members of RAF Lossiemouth Sub Aqua Club (SAC). Roy Hemmings from the club took the lead role in developing a project to study the wreck, and ensure it was properly protected. The previous year had seen a very high profile investigation from Channel 4’s Time Team (Kinlochbervie NW Scotland), during the course of which the finest collection of renaisance Majollica ever to be found in Scotland was recorded. This brief investigation raised questions about the stability of the site, and how well protected the remains were…

So, 2002 finds us on board Gemini Storm with a team of very experienced archaeological divers under the direction of Phil Robertson (now at Historic Scoltland).

* CookandKaye had started earlier that same year; as I recall I designed the banner for the Centre for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering on a storm tossed boat beating its way North from Kyle – Jo says I was very inconveniently wedged in the loo for the duration of the storm!

Catalysis in supercritical fluids offers potential operational and environmental benefits over conventional catalytic processes. This demonstration system developed by scientists at the University of St Andrews shows the hydrocarbonylation (addition of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) to pentene to produce an aldehyde (hexanal).

The reactants are passed into the reaction chamber in supercritical (SC) carbon dioxide solution, where they dissolve in an ionic solvent containing the rhodium catalyst. The reactants bind to the catalyst and are converted to the product, which is released back into solution. The SC carbon dioxide dissolves the aldehyde, and is passed into a low pressure separator, where the aldehyde drops out of SC solution. The carbon dioxide and any unreacted starting materials are re-compressed back into the reactor.

This is a movie designed to teach one of the oldest laws in thermodynamics – and fundamental to science as a whole! Boyle’s Law describes mathematically the relationship between the pressure and volume of a fixed mass of gas. The movie includes an interactive animation that describes the law pictorially, examining the law’s predictions and compares them to the behaviour of a real gas (argon). The movie then goes on to evaluate the law in words and an equation, and finally a small number of questions are asked to check understanding.

The Kidney: This feature displays the mammalian kidney at a range of levels, from its location within the body cavity, down to the cellular level to demonstrate the ultra-filtration mechanism. Arterial blood enters the kidney carrying a range of waste products from around the body, it leaves the kidneys with these products removed. The process involves physical filtration, when blood fluids and dissolved wastes are forced through porous capillary walls in the capsules, followed by an active re-absorption of water, salts and sugars from the waste stream in the tubules and loop of Henle.