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Wine, origami and liquid latex

Photography: Natalie Pestana, Faculty of
Science, the University of Melbourne.

For the Free Radical Centre, National Science Week 2009 was all of those things and more.

This year it has been a pleasure to work with both new comers to outreach and old hands, and what fun we have had sharing our passion for free radical chemistry with the community.

As the Community Awareness Programme Manager for the Centre my motivation comes not from seeing the profit margin but the excitement on the faces of children during a chemistry demonstration, the delight of a VCE student who has found their future career after hearing a Centre researcher talk, and the satisfaction of an adult who has for the first time understood Chemistry at a Centre public lecture.

This year alone over 2000 Australians have participated in a Centre outreach activity, and hundreds more in Centre sponsored activities. From the ‘Science in the City’ event in Sydney to ‘Hypothesis’ in Melbourne, the Centre has brought the chemistry behind bouncy balls, scratch and sniff stickers, and wine to a broad cross section of the community.

We have taught the community about free radicals and antioxidants using wine, liquid latex and the nitroxides and cigarette smoking demonstration.

At Science in the City, a three day event at Australia museum in Sydney, NSW secondary school students enthusiastically made hundreds of latex bouncy balls and scratch and sniff stickers, learnt about esters, played with model kits and made icecream with dry ice. It seemed that Centre staff had also taken on cult status for some students who were recording them and the bouncy ball experiment to post on Facebook. Science teachers walked away with our classroom notes for the nitroxides and cigarette smoking demonstration and a radical oscillating clock reaction, presumably to educate yet more students who could not make the event. I was heartened to receive very positive feedback from teachers, confiding that the chemistry activities and demonstrations were educational and fun. A number also mentioned that their students would not even be able to take senior chemistry as their school didn’t offer it - another reason that Centre participation in such events is essential for chemistry education in the general community.

It was exciting to meet the Governor of NSW, Professor Marie Bashir, NSW Assistant Minister for Health, Jodi McKay, and the Chief Scientist for Australia, Professor Penny Sackett at Science in the City, each of whom spent time discussing outreach activities with Centre staff - particularly popular was the dry ice icecream!

Radical Wine at Hypothesis provided participants with the opportunity to conduct their own experiments on wine, including testing the sugar content and pH of different wines. Perhaps the most engaging aspect of Radical Wine was linking various wine aromas with the actual chemicals that create them. People found the challenge of sniffing the spiked wine and matching the aroma to a particular chemical both fun and informative. Local wineries, Bellbrae Estate and Darling Park Winery were also on hand for participants to put into practice the chemistry they had learnt. “I really enjoyed the testing of sugar levels and the identifying of substances by smell. However, my absolute favourite was the wine tasting just because it gave an insight to the connection between the local wineries and basic chemistry; and of course the wine itself. Having a background in science, I thought the event was a great opportunity to demystify the roles that scientists sometimes are given by media”, commented Tommy Hoglund, a participant at Hypothesis.

The Inspiring Scientist event was a chance for Centre researchers to educate younger children and their parents about free radical chemistry. These keen young scientists relished the opportunity to don lab coats, gloves and safety glasses to make silly putty and bouncy balls. For many it was the first time that they had observed a real chemical reaction and were amazed at the radical oscillating clock reaction - move over Harry Potter, I want to be a chemist!

It is always satisfying to give knowledge back to the people who ultimately fund us - the taxpayer, and who knows just maybe we might see some of these students doing PhDs in the Centre one day!

The Centre outreach program thanks Australia museum and the NSW government for in-kind support at Science in the City; Scienceworks for in-kind support at the Inspiring Scientist event; and the National Science Week of Victoria for in-kind support at Hypothesis.

The outreach program also thanks the Centre Management Committee, Chief Investigators and the following volunteers for their assistance: Dr Michelle Taylor, Dr George Khairallah, Dr Chris Donner, Dr Joerg Taubitz, Mick Moylan, Dr Greg Sandala, Dr Bun Chan, Ruth Amos, Robert O’Reilly, Amber Hancock, Dr Martin Rees, Marilena Giarrusso, Melina Glasson, Maree Staples, and Farrah Wang.