How much do you know about chocolate? A question most people wandering around the University of Edinburgh's Old College on the 4th of October were probably not expecting to be asked. But as part of the UK wide - Fun Palaces - weekend the school of chemistry added a small stall to over 140 other events in the Fun Palaces calendar.
On the 5th December a team of scientists and an award winning science ceilidh band collaborated to deliver a fantastic, light themed science ceilidh.
Diligent work behind the scenes was evident in the glittering transformation of the hall and the adventurous new dances. We put our guests through their paces with challenging routines to explain some complex scientific principles - yet each dance looked fantastic!
Staff and students from the School of Chemistry joined with scientists from across Scotland to illuminate and entertain over 3000 this weekend at Edinburgh Mela, Scotland???s biggest festival of world music and dance.
The Science of Spice stall was funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry as part of their work to engage more people with chemistry. On the stall thousands of adults and hundreds of children enjoyed colourful chromatography, playing with pigments and guessing the smells of some of our favourite flavours.
On the 2nd of September members of the Spectroscopy in a Suitcase (SIAS) team took part in the BioCity event at the Perth High School, which involved delivering workshops on the IR and UV-Vis to 360+ pupils from 12 to 17 years of age.
We had a fantastic day opening our doors to the public on Saturday 26th of September as part of the Cockburn Association Doors Open Day event across Edinburgh. The theme was food and drink for 2015, so we happily provided some chemistry-related food and drink activities!
Last week saw post-graduate students from the School of Chemistry hit the road to take Chemistry on Tour to remote and rural schools in Dumfries and Galloway. Funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry, 7 PhD students ran activities with high school and primary classes at Wallace Hall Academy and Wallace Hall Primary in Thornhill, and at Kirkcudbright Academy and Kirkcudbright Primary School.
We had two sold-out workshops at the Midlothian Science Festival last week. Lots and lots of fun was had dancing with ???photons??? and learning about what makes up white light. The ribbons were a hit and we had some wonderful ribbon dances! What is there not to love about ribbons!? At the end we played the parachute game with a true and false quiz to find out what we had learned about light.
Thanks to our volunteers and the Midlothian Science Festival organisers for such a great event.
Our Chemists were busy across the city for Explorathon 2015! From Edinburgh Zoo to the National Museums of Scotland they were found to be engaging with the public about chemistry! Giuditta Perversi talked about the symmetry and asymmetry found in the world, and her team had a selection of interactive crystallography activities beside the Rhino enclosure!
A team eight of enthusiastic PhD students from the School of Chemistry recently had an early start as they joined scientists from the Roslin Institute, Queen Margaret University, Waterways in Scotland and Midlothian Council at the Glencorse Science Gala day, part of the Midlothian Science festival.
Rachel Fisher, a 2nd year PhD student in the Jones group, tells us about her experience working on the International Year of Light ceilidh project:
