RSC Blog

Welcome to the RSC Blog. This was, once upon a time, an active place for the more off-the-wall parts of RSC activity, where we wanted to use rich media, and elicit and collect reader feedback, discussion and argument.

We haven’t been using it much recently, though, owing to the exciting new website called The Reaction.

It’s been up a few months and is a home for all things entertaining and chemical. There are plenty of news stories about the chemistry of everyday life, chemistry in the media, interesting anniversaries or things we just wanted to write about.

It’s got a great and expanding library of the best chemistry videos on the net. You can look at photos and videos of past public events at The Chemistry Centre in London. And there’s info about why the 21st century science of chemistry really matters to the future of our planet.

It allows us to write about things that have previously graced this blog, from chemically-perfect recipes for Yorkshire puddings and gravy to ridiculous packaging claims of “chemical-free” products.

The DISQUS comments make it easier than ever to discuss the stories using your existing Twitter, Facebook or other accounts, and to share the stories with your various social networks.

So head on over! This blog is staying put because there’s loads of great content, but it won’t be updated from now on. Thanks for reading.

www.thereaction.net

I had the pleasure last year to celebrate with her friends and colleagues the life and work of an inspiring British scientist: Dr Elsie Widdowson. It seems only fitting that on Ada Lovelace Day I show my admiration for a brilliant female chemist.

She was a selfless and dedicated scientist who among her many accolades in 60 years of research co-wrote the pioneering text The Composition of Foods (still the leading resource in food science), was responsible for the first compulsory food additive for health (calcium in bread) and preserved the health of the country in difficult times, overseeing the rationing of food in Britain during and after World War II.

In December last year the Royal Society of Chemistry awarded Chemical Landmark status to the Elsie Widdowson laboratory at MRC Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge. I attended the plaque unveiling, which followed a lovely talk by the Director of the facility Dr Ann Prentice, and had the chance to chat with people who knew and worked with Dr Widdowson (“oh please, call her Elsie”, I was berated). They all spoke of her passion for science, her warmth and her empathy.

Elsie was delighted to have the building named after her, and cut the first sod in 1999, but sadly passed away at the age of 93 before its completion in 2001. Her long life may have been down in part to her nutritional expertise, but is astounding considering her experimental prodcedures: she would always try experiments on herself before asking anyone else.

She said in her biography: “We did not believe that we should use human subjects in experiments that involved any pain hardship or danger, unless we had made the same experiments on ourselves.”

Elsie gained a degree in chemistry and PhD from Imperial College London in 1928, studying the carbohydrate content of apples for her thesis. When observing large-scale cooking in a hospital kitchen, she met a doctor studying cooked meat named Robert McCance. Their common interests led to an MRC research grant for both to work together, the first venture of a 60-year scientific partnership.

The pair shortly realised the need for a single authoritative source of composition data for food, so set about writing one in 1934. The first edition of  “The Composition of Foods” was published in 1940 and is more commonly now known simply as “McCance & Widdowson”. Now in its sixth edition, the book is published by the RSC and endorsed by the Food Standards Agency.

As war began in Europe in 1939, McCance and Widdowson studied the effects of rationing food, with a view to determining the bare essentials for a healthy population. As ever they began with themselves, living on a meagre diet for three months then undertaking a 36-mile walk through the Lake District in 12 hours! The two deduced that calcium supplements (delivered in bread) would be important for the wartime dairy-restricted diet, and consequently they were made responsible by the Government for national wartime and post-war rationing. It’s often said that under their rationing Britain had the healthiest diet it has ever had.

After the war they worked in Germany for a few years, after which they were both elected Fellows of the Royal Society. Moving back to England they continued their studies on malnutrition. Elsie was appointed Head of Infant Nutrition Research at the Dunn Nutrition Laboratory, and after a brief spell of retirement moved to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge in the Department of Investigative Medicine.

Elsie was made President of the Nutrition Society, Neonate Society and the British Nutrition Foundation, awarded many other medals and awards, appointed CBE in 1977 and in 1993 made a Companion of Honour, a fitting recognition of a lifetime dedicated to science. The UK owes Elsie its continued health after devastating war, and her rigour and fairness of scientific method should be an aspiration of all scientists.

[I originally wrote this on tumblr, here: jonedwards.tumblr...]

Yesterday in the House of Commons the UK’s strategy on dementia was debated, with the MP for Sutton and Cheam Paul Burstow leading the charge. He said:

Recently, after the publication of “Dementia 2010″, I was invited by the Royal Society of Chemistry to chair one of its public lectures, by Professor Chris Dobson, who is master of St. John’s college and from the department of chemistry. He lectured on some of the extraordinary work done by him and his team of young graduates on the disease mechanism behind dementia and the role of proteins in the body. It is a potential key not only to unlocking our understanding of the disease, but to identifying treatments for dementia that arrest its progression and might even cure it. The team also established a link to other neurological conditions in our understanding of dementia. That research is being done in this country. We need more such research and the ambition to fund not just a cure, but the discoveries necessary to build bridges to it. [taken from Hansard, 16 March 2010]

So in Parliament, the science community, and the world, the RSC is helping to promote the critical role of the chemical sciences in improving health for all. We’ve been delighted over the past few weeks to work with a phenomenal team of scientists, led by Professor Dobson, and showcase their work in a variety of ways including in Parliamentary debate, interviews, media coverage and a superb lecture at the Chemistry Centre here in London.

The Dobson group at the University of Cambridge conducts world-leading research into Alzheimer’s disease and other ageing diseases. Their 50-strong team from a wide variety of disciplines, from neuroscience through to theoretical physics, takes a whole new approach to neurodegenerative diseases.

As opposed to the standard tactic of targeting a small number of proteins associated with a disease, the Dobson group try to understand how proteins in general clump together to become toxic. This clumping causes many different diseases – Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, even type II diabetes – and the Dobson group is the first to link these to a common biological malfunction, the so-called “misfolding” of proteins.

The number of people with Alzheimer’s disease in the UK will more than double in the next 40 years – this “ticking timebomb”, as Professor Dobson calls it, is a problem the young and middle-aged people of today should be concerned about, as its serious impact will hit them in later lives.

The RSC discovered the Dobson group’s work at the IUPAC congress in Glasgow, hosted by the RSC, in August last year. Professor Dobson gave a brilliant plenary lecture to scientists from around the world, and the significance and visual impact of the group’s work with fruit flies appealed immensely.

Professor Dobson was invited to give a very well-received lecture at the Chemistry Centre in Burlington House, chaired, as mentioned before, by Paul Burstow MP.

We also talked in person to the group about their research and put together a short film (4 minutes) telling the vivid story of their work, its significance, and the threat to full realisation of the research should funding from the government fail to support the high-tech industries essential for the UK’s economic future.

As I cut this video together then the news media had already taken an interest: Cambridge News highlighted it with a news piece and some of the same footage (see it here), and ITV Anglia also went to the lab and reported on the research (see that here).

We hope to continue working with the Dobson group and many other groups around the UK doing world-class research, and continue to demonstrate to everyone that better health comes from better chemistry.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! While the tradition of anonymous gifts (such as those left by “St Valentine”) is waning, one thing you can’t get away from is chocolate. A dozen red roses hardly stands up to a box of red Roses these days.

So here’s a double chocolate treat from the RSC, to get you in the mood: a snippet of science info to help you get the full effect from your choccies, then a brief yet fascinating history of chocolate in Central America.

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UPDATE: now with readers’ photos of Party Seven!

Beer has been a vital part of society for almost all of civilised history. 4000 years ago the Sumerians were brewing in honour of their gods; in medieval Europe beer represented something clean to drink when the purity of water was questionable; nowadays it’s used more as a social lubricant. And which discipline of natural philosophy is responsible for this nectar of culture, health and prosperity?

Well of course I wouldn’t be writing about it if it weren’t chemistry. But therein lies the problem – who these days cracks open a can and thinks to themselves “thank goodness for the clever research chemist who invented a vinyl co-polymer/C-enamel coating for tin cans”? But chemists are the ones behind all these advances in canning technologies and the art of zymurgy (“chemistry of brewing and distilling”, dontcha know).

As we put out the call for surviving cans of “Party Seven”, a septa-pintal vessel taken to parties in the 60s and 70s containing (allegedly) decidedly ungourmet beer, I thought I’d look into the chemistry of beer cans – and would you believe it, the beer can’s 75th birthday is later this month. See the bottom of the post for more details on our Party Seven quest. (more…)

As reported already by the Sun and the Daily Mail, the RSC has once more stepped into the kitchen with a chemistry-based recipe for the perfect gravy.

This follows the success of last year’s ideal Yorkshire puddings (popovers to our American friends) – and the decree that they cannot be named so unless they rise to four inches or higher. Chemist, author and roast dinner expert John Emsley has issued a new recipe for nutrionally-balanced, chemically-perfect and extremely tasty gravy in the tradional fashion… sort of.

It combines some traditional elements with some chemistry magic – most controversial is the inclusion of soya sauce, normally associated with Eastern cuisine but here included in the quintessential Englishman’s Sunday roast.

Here’s John’s recipe:

Ingredients

The juices from a roast joint of meat, preferably beef
Flour
Vegetable water (cabbage)
Iodised salt
Teaspoon of dark soya sauce.
Pepper
Gravy browning if you prefer a darker gravy.

Method

The joint should be cooked on a bed of halved onions, carrots and celery on to which juices from the meat will slowly trickle. When the meat is cooked, remove it from the roasting tin along with the vegetables. Sprinkle a small amount of plain flour over the meat juices and fat. Stir to form a dough (roux) gradually adding the water in which vegetables have been cooked, preferably cabbage water. Ensure all the meat juices and Marmite-like deposits on the bottom of the roasting dish have dissolved. Then add iodised salt to taste and a teaspoon of dark soya sauce (rather than gravy browning) or a little red wine . Simmer to reduce the volume of liquid to the right consistency, stirring occasionally.

Chemical and nutritional composition of gravy

Protein from the collagen of the meat.
Vitamins, and especially B1, B6, folic acid, riboflavin and nicotinic acid.
Carbohydrate from the flour and gravy browning. Gravy browning is caramelised sugar and can be bought, or it can be made using the recipe in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management published in 1859. This says to heat sugar until it caramelises but does not become too dark.
Minerals such as sodium and iodine.
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) from the soya sauce which brings out the meaty (umami) flavour.

What do you think? Share your own best gravy recipes in the comments…

As a high-minded learned society and professional body, with the patronage of Her Majesty herself, we are duty- and honour-bound to promote chemistry and make it accessible to the public.

So when flooded with queries from the public and RSC staff regarding the efficacy of conkers as a spider repellent, we shook ourselves dry and led the charge on a public scientific endeavour – to prove or dismiss the old wives’ tale that spiders really do hate conkers. For the best evidence (one way or the other) we’re offering a prize of £300.

We hypothesise that if it works there must be some chemistry in it. So the call went out to the public, through the illustrious pages of the Daily Telegraph, The Times and Daily Mail, various radio stations, and BBC Breakfast – and the public have responded with eyewitness accounts, photos, videos and even scientific experiments!

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I’ve had a very productive morning. I worked out that, under reasonable conditions, an entire Association Football-approved pitch worth of lunar soil would need to be processed every 16 hours to provide enough water for one person to live relatively comfortably. Water-wise, that is.

The media has happily announced the scientific community’s plans to colonise the Moon, with the recent discovery of significant quantities of water hidden away in Moondust (or whatever it’s called).

A refuelling station, or a full-blown colony for lunar settlers, seems almost within grasp… sort of.

Mark Henderson wrote a great piece in today’s Times titled “Water, water everywhere, but the Moon is still drier than a desert.” I read this as I was putting the finishing touches to my incredibly nerdy spreadsheet, and it verified my own calculations that colonising the Moon is still further away than we’d all hope.

Given that water is contained only within the top few millimetres of soil on the Moon’s surface (source: The Times), that there is a litre or so of water in each metre cubed of soil (source: Science) and that the average colonist would need roughly 4 litres per day to survive in relative comfort (source: a Battlestar Galactica discussion forum), I came up with the following rather arresting stats:

• For each “colonist”, a football pitch’s worth of soil would need to be processed every 16 hours
• This is 12 metric tons of soil
• For a year this is 6510 metric tons, or 545 football pitches
• After this time, at maximum walking speed on the Moon and assuming you worked outwards from your initial location, it would take you 13.4 minutes to walk the two-thirds of a mile to the edge so you could brush your teeth that morning
• It would take 10 million years for that person to use all the water on the Moon
• By this time he would be very lonely and probably not smell very fresh

This is all based on many variables pulled from all over the net, and some I’ve just made up – for example it’s based on 75% extraction efficiency. Who knows if that’s entirely over- or under-estimating what would be realistic?

It also completely ignores other uses for that water, as suggested by the media, such as being electrolysed for use as rocket fuel.

The spreadsheet is on Google Docs so anyone can have a go. Please feel free to fiddle about, and let me know if any of it’s completely wrong or you have better ideas. Any better estimations of the variables would be welcome, but one thing’s for sure: we aren’t going to have self-sustaining colonies up there any time soon.

link to the Google Docs Spreadsheet

After some hilarious, some forthright, some insightful, and some ridiculous suggestions, we’ve picked a winner of our Scottish science competition. Full details can be found here, but the aim was to tweet or text us a solid reason why Scotland has produced so many eminent scientists. Thanks to all for the many entries we received.

A few of the favourites:

“It’s the water. The abundance of rain keeps people in and the best drinking water in the world keeps their minds refreshed and alert.” (via text).

“Scotland produces eminent scientists because claymores tend to discourage competition.” (via Twitter, @agoldson)

“Most came from working class. Learning was a commitment. Dedication & survival meant succeeding in ur chosen field.” (via text)

Praising the stoicism, intelligence or dedication of the Scottish people was a common theme. Also there were frequent references to the inclement weather – a heartfelt response from many Scots entering the competition.

So it’s only fitting that the winning entry is from a Scottish chemist, who had this to say:

“The weather keeps them in the lab during the day, whilst the whisky provides the inspiration at night.”

A poetic, succinct and quite possibly accurate submission from @littleghoti, who will soon be the proud owner of a black iPhone 3GS on O₂ Pay & Go.

O₂ is of course a chemist’s favourite mobile operator. Except maybe methyl Orange.

The first couple of days of the IUPAC congress have flown by, with some fantastic events and speakers really making this conference one to remember.

Monday afternoon’s plenary lecture was given by Prof. Dame Louise Johnson, who after her talk was awarded an honourary fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Dame Louise Johnson receives her Royal Society of Chemistry honourary fellowship from RSC President Dave Garner

In the evening Harry Kroto led a great Café Scientifique, talking about what he calls the “GooYouWiki World”, and a lot else besides! The house was full (sorry to those we had to turn away!) and everyone was up for questions and debate in the relaxed atmosphere of the Tron Theatre.

Café Scientifique at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, with Harry Kroto

We talked a lot about education, particularly in the context of getting the best teaching resources to the teachers that need them most. Harry was keen to explain the benefits of the GeoSet project, too, where students can upload videos and synchronised presentations. “I’ve revolutionised marking,” Harry proudly proclaimed. “While other teachers have a huge stack of essays or papers to mark, I’m sitting at my table with a coffee watching the students on my laptop.”

Harry Kroto at the Tron Theatre