Hello, I’m Richard Pike, chief executive of the RSC. I’ve decided that my inaugural blog post will explain our campaign to reverse the appalling decline in school science exam standards.
I’m very concerned about the disappearance of problem-solving, critical thinking and mathematical manipulation from school science examinations, and am campaigning to raise awareness of, and ultimately reverse, this unacceptable trend. (more…)
We’ve turned our attention to the examination standards in schools this week. Richard Pike, CEO of the RSC, was interviewed on the Today programme on Radio 4 – the BBC’s flagship agenda-setting news radio programme this morning about the 5-Decade Exam Challenge report that we have published, and our Downing Street web site petition. Currently we’re adding one name a minute.
Much of the UK media has taken interest – see today’s BBC News Online, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Daily Mail and Times. (more…)
In the last few days I’ve been asked a couple of times to comment on a video that’s been going round – on the Guardian and Edinburgh talk107 radio.
The miracle video shows someone soaking an onion in an energy drink, sticking the USB cable into the onion and voila! Enough charge to listen to all of Yes’s Tales from Topographic Oceans, including studio run-throughs. Or so it claims. (more…)
I’m beginning to feel a bit sorry for the Adverting Standards Authority. Everyone I meet tells me how stupid the decision was to allow a fertilizer to be described as 100% chemical free. Last week it came up on my appearance on BBC Radio Wales’ Jamie & Louise radio show. We had a good discussion about the stupidity of the decision and how it was an insult to the public. I was also able to take the opportunity to praise the quality of chemistry in the Welsh Chemistry Departments and to highlight the excellent work done by our members Jim Ballantine and Bill Williams who take a magic of chemistry show to thousands of primary schools every year. (more…)
A gratifyingly huge response to our “Save the Italian Job gold” competition has left me deluged by the crazy schemes of wannabe criminal masterminds.
One entry has made a distinct impression – not for its scientific exactitude, but its artistic skill. The image below was sent to us by Piers Mawhood, clearly a talented artist. Many thanks Piers!
Piers Mawhood's watercolour of the Italian Job cliffhanger
We asked the public to provide us with sound mathematical proof that the $4m worth of gold bullion, and Charlie Croker’s crew, can be rescued from the literal cliff-hanger of the 1969 classic The Italian Job.
Featured in the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Channel 4 News and on Have I Got News For You – not to mention the hallowed Pete’s PR Hall of Fame – the competition has sparked the keenest intellects in the country… and some less keen.
Not good news for diabetic vampires, but for non-porphyric sufferers a potential new drug to treat both diabetes types I and II has been discovered.
Garlic: the saviour for diabetics?
The new drug, based on allixin, a compound found in garlic, can be administered orally – perhaps as a tablet – and effectively lowers the blood glucose level of type 1 diabetic mice, the study has found.
Type 1 diabetics currently stick to a daily regime of self-injection with insulin, whereas type 2 diabetics are treated with oral drugs, sometimes leading to undesirable side-effects.
This is a great story from the first round of Advance Articles from our new journal, Metallomics, the first issue of which will be published next year.
The article itself, by Hiromu Sakurai and colleagues at the Suzuka University of Medical Science, Japan, is available free here.
Personally I wonder if a garlic-based drug would give you bad breath… any other opinions on this?
EDIT: We have had extreme demand for a more “accurate” recipe, including measurements of ingredients. A very fair point! Rest assured we are working on it and will provide a definitive version of the recipe shortly.
EDIT 2: The amended recipe is now included in this post.
EDIT the third!: to complete the chemistry-perfected roast dinner, you could check out chemically-perfect gravy
The RSC made the bold proclaimation today that Yorkshire puddings simply aren’t up to scratch unless they rise to four inches or higher.
With the collaboration of Dr John Emsley – chemist, RSC author, and proud Yorkshireman – the RSC established that the perfect Yorkshire stands at just over four inches, with a light, fluffy texture and crisp exterior.
An RSC-approved Yorkshire pudding, standing tall, risen and proud
It all started with a chap called Ian Lyness, who called the RSC to complain about his lack of Yorkshire success in Boulder, Colorado. “Is it the pressure difference?” he asked us. An investigation is under way.
Incisive science writer and Twitter giant David Bradley told us the American equivalent for the famous Northern stomach-filler is a “popover“. Curious.
This is just the beginning for the RSC in the kitchen. 2009 will see the RSC focus its energies on a food theme, a year-long campaign with food-related events and exhibitions to highlight the importance of chemistry in food.
If you’ve been having trouble with this savoury delight, try the experts’ recipe below.
Ingredients
85 g polysaccharide powder, kitchen grade (flour)
1 g sodium chloride, NaCl, table grade (salt)
1 egg
Solution of 230 cm3 reduced-lipid bovine lactate (milk), 20 cm3 H2O (water)
Method
Put flour in a bowl, make a well in the middle, add the egg, stir until the two are combined then start gradually adding the milk and water combining as you go.
Add the liquid until the batter is a smooth and thin consistency.
Stir in half teaspoon of salt and leave to stand for 10 minutes
Put beef dripping into Yorkshire pudding tins or into one large tin but don’t use too much fat.
Put into hot oven until the fat starts to smoke.
Give the batter a final stir and pour into the tin or tins.
Place in hot oven until well risen – should take 10 to 15 minutes.
Serve
Always serve as a separate course before the main meal and use the best gravy made from the juices of the roast joint. Yorkshire housewives served Yorkshire pudding before the meal so that they would eat less of the more expensive main course.
NB: When the batter is made it must not be placed in the fridge but be kept at room temperature.
A great paper from UK chemists in Chem Comm: when working with polymers of S2N2, Paul Kelly and colleagues at Loughborough University found that the reaction was initiated by fingerprints. When they exposed a material to the chemical, it revealed any latent (invisible) fingerprints with a very low detection limit.
Perhaps my favourite bit, though, is that they tried to initiate the reaction using starting points other than fingerprints; they found that tiny residues of inkjet ink would show up brown as they started the polymerisation. Again, the limit is so low that they could even highlight the ink residues on the envelope a document had previously been in. With a bit of Photoshopping you could actually tell what text had been printed on the document, without ever seeing the original. Nifty eh? Here’s a sample:
With a bit of Photoshop and a bit of imagination...
For more detailed info read the Chemical Technology story posted recently.
Note: this is a transcript of a column I did for Radio 4’s “Cutting Edge” on Thursday 30 October 2008.
To say it was a surprise was an understatement. As I read a set of papers at my desk in the Royal Society of Chemistry office an advert for a product that was ‘100% chemical free’ glared out from the page. This from a company that sells products to make things grow in the garden. Just what were people supposed to be buying? Or more importantly what was being sold? Was it a con? Surely not, because the adverts were in the mainstream media. And if you check now using Google or your favourite search engine, you can find the web page that proudly announces that the product has ‘100% chemical free ingredients’.
So it’s a puzzle then. Nearly everyone would know that plants need nutrients to grow but if these are not chemicals what are they? Have the laws of nature been circumvented by a company whose achievements have yet to be recognised by the Nobel Prize committee?
Digging deeper, a sadder story emerges. Somehow, and in the face of the intelligence of the UK public, the company is single handedly seeking to redefine the subject of chemistry. Just think of all of those text books that will have to be scrapped; exam certificates burned and the cost of re-educating all those teachers.
Wow! I’m now looking forward to ‘100% chemical free table salt’ – that’ll solve the heart health problem in the ‘West’. In search of sanity I turned to my 12 year old daughter, Alexa. This young member of the public told me, ‘it’s stupid ‘D’ for that is what she calls me, everyone knows materials are made of chemicals, so it can’t be 100% chemical free.’
In search of some official balance on the ‘100%’ chemical free problem, I turned to the Advertising Standards Authority. Maybe they could temper the definition so that the public are not misled, nor be sold an item on the basis of poor science or at the very least an inaccurate description? You can guess the answer – the ASA ruled that this description was fine and would not mislead the public because people would know that 100% chemical free didn’t mean that – it meant something else. It meant ‘all things are chemicals except things that are 100% chemical free which are made of 100% recycled or naturally occurring materials’.
As I checked my calendar to ensure it wasn’t the 1st of April, I consoled myself on how wrong I was to worry about this. Perhaps I should offer the ASA a million pounds to put in my hand a material that is ‘100% chemical free’: what a staff incentive scheme that would be! But what is the point if they don’t understand the science or the implications of getting it wrong. Thinking about it more, I’d be happy to give the money to the first member of the public who could bring me any material I consider 100% chemical free – but of course they won’t enter because it’s patently impossible!
Where does all this get us? Well, it looks like misleading the public is fine and the subject of chemistry is being redefined. So let the re-education in our schools begin and let’s not worry about building a knowledge based economy in the UK. Let’s stick to intangible services and exotic financial products that no one understands until it’s too late. These sit well alongside 100% chemical free fertilizers that help things grow.