Department of Chemistry, Maynooth University
Computational Biophysics at Maynooth University
Science Week Talks
This year for Science week, I'll be giving a talk about my love for carbohydrates.
I'll take you through a light-hearted and scientifically sound discovery of the importance of carbohydrates for our happiness, well-being, strength, and endurance. I'll also go through some of the reasons why more and more chemists and biologists nowadays dedicate their research to carbohydrates.
November 15th, 2016, 7 pm,
Iontas Lecture Theatre, Maynooth University
Science Night Open Labs
Keep checking this page for announcement about Science Night Open Labs events during this year Science Week, Nov. 13-20 2016
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During National Science Week, we at the Department of Chemistry in Maynooth University open our labs to the public for an event we call Science Night.
For Science Night during 3 hours in the evening, we run safe and fun experiments aimed at primary and secondary school children, designed to promote their curiosity towards chemical and natural sciences.
Keep visiting this page or go to the Department of Chemistry at Maynooth University website for the official announcement of our next Science Night!
The Young Chemist Curiosity Notebook
Not all experiments we demonstrate during Science Night can be reproduced safely at home, so you'll have to visit us to see chemistry in action. Nevertheless, here below are some curious facts you may find interesting.
1) The "magic" Gallium (Ga) spoon
Gallium is a chemical element with number 31 in the Periodic Table. Ga has very interesting properties and can be used to run a famous "magic" trick. At room temperature (25 degrees Celsius) Ga is a solid, silvery metal, that can be shaped in any form you like. For example, for this magic trick you may choose to make a spoon out of Ga. Ga spoons weigh and look exactly as they are stainless steel, but they are not for sale in stores though, as they are not very good for eating, so Ga spoons need to be made one at the time in a mold.
Ga melts just above room temperature, more specifically at 29.8 degrees Celsius. So look what happens (in the video on the right) when you put your Ga spoon in a hot liquid, as tea or water for example. WARNING: Do not drink and make sure that nobody drinks the tea/water with the melted Ga as it is toxic.
2) Nitinol (NiTi) wires
Nitinol wires are made of a precise mixture (alloy) of Nickel (Ni) and Titanium (Ti). Ni and Ti are metal elements with atomic numbers 28 and 22, respectively.
Nitinol wires are called Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) for their amazing property of "remembering" the original shape they were originally casted in (also called "parent" shape). This is because the Ni and Ti atoms like to arrange themselves within the material in different ways at room temperature (a solid state called martensite), while they can only have 1 shape (the parent shape) at hot temperatures (another solid phase called austensite).
For example, let's see what happens in the video on the right when a nitinol paper clip (parent shape) is twisted in knots and then dropped in a hot water bowl.... "magic"!
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These fantastic properties of SMAs materials as nitinol are very useful in robotics, aerospace engineering, and also used for every day things, such as eye glasses frames that can "remember" their correct shape, even when dropped or twisted. Maybe you are wearing a pair of those now :)