Christmas Cheer

Wednesday, 3rd December 2014 – “Christmas Cheer”: Christmas Menu Mulled wine ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Reindeer – by Chris Procter. How do reindeer survive and thrive in the harsh conditions of the Arctic, and why do their antlers grow so fast? Chris will have all the answers. Christmas Baking and Christmas Drinks – what is the common denominator? Yeast! Jack claims to know something about the action of yeast in baking a panettone, and Patsy has done a fair bit of fermentation – she was a chemistry teacher, after all! But what’s going on inside, and why is yeast so important? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Refreshments, including panettone, cake, biscuits, tea and coffee ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Crackers and Snowflakes – Patsy will explain how crackers crack, and Marguerita will address the question, “are all snowflakes the same?” We will be serving up a variety of science morsels: physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and domestic! Come along and sample them all.

The Science of Cleaning

Wednesday, 5th November 2014 – “It’s a dirty old world we live in” – the Science of Cleaning, by Patsy Colvin. As an ex Head of Chemistry at a local school, Patsy brought her vast experience of chemistry to bear on the problem of cleaning. Why are some stains harder to remove than others? Why do we need so many different types of cleaning solution? Why can’t there be a universal cleaner?

Well, Patsy did a very good job of enlightening us: we heard about surfactants, solvents, chelators, saponifiers and builders and how these various components of the cleaning process work on different types of stain. We learnt about soils and stains, anions and cations, hydrophilic and hydrophobic solvents, and hopefully we left with a better understanding of how to read the labels on cleaning products!