By Samantha Adams
Staff Writer
It began with some skits and ended with a fire show.
Union’s chemistry department celebrated National Chemistry Week with a string of nine events from Oct. 22-26, and the most anticipated event took place Friday night, when glowing, neon-green liquid and bursts of flame illuminated a darkened room during the “Fire and Light” demonstrations.
Though weather forced the event to be held indoors instead of at the amphitheater where the new library will be built, a crowd still packed room 312 in White Hall.
Chemistry and physics students performed more than a dozen physics and chemistry demonstrations, including “Never-dying Glowing Flowers,” which are wires in the shape of flowers coated with chemicals and illuminated with power from a Tesla coil; a handheld power source that produces high-frequency alternating currents; and a stack of two glowing and smoking blocks of dry ice, illuminated with ultraviolet light produced by burning magnesium.
Freshman chemistry major Evan Lewoczko performed the largest fire demonstration of the night. By combusting nitrocellulose, a highly volatile substance that looks like stretched-out cotton balls, he created a large burst of flame that caused people lean back in their seats.
The week’s events were designed to help chemistry majors and non-majors better appreciate chemistry, said Randy Johnston, professor of chemistry and department chairman.
“We celebrate NCW because of how chemistry has transformed our lives,” Johnston said. “Just think about the medicines, plastics, electronics, knowledge of the chemistry of the cell; they have all improved man’s life.”
Union’s observation of the 25th anniversary of the American Chemical Society’s Chemistry Week began this year for the first time with community service-oriented events.
A team of chemistry students performed interactive skits about electricity and electrolytes.
Oct. 22 in the Bowld Gymnasium for about 30 home-schooled children.
The same day, Union student members of the American Chemical Society raised approximately $150 for Jackson’s Regional Inter-Faith Association by selling tickets for club sandwiches, chips and a drink, said SMACS president and senior chemistry major Kathy Shelnutt.
Shelnutt said they chose RIFA because they wanted their efforts to be locally focused.
Free cookies decorated and arranged to represent the periodic table, along with free ice cream that included nitrogen gas, caught students’ attention Oct. 24 and 26 as they entered the Brewer Dining Hall.
Chemistry students who conducted research at Union over the past summer gave presentations about their research on Oct. 24 and 25 to students in chemistry classes.
At the presentations last year, James Clary, sophomore biochemistry major and co-chairman for Union’s National Chemistry Week celebrations, sat in the crowd intrigued by the students’ lectures.
This year, Clary gave a lecture about his own research, regarding calculations of benzine and water molecules.
“I wanted to give my presentation because I want to create that interest in chemistry (in other students),” Clary said.
Students who are interested in conducting summer research projects at Union should attend a research interest meeting in the spring, where chemistry professors talk about their research passions, Clary said.
Other of the week’s activities included a party in honor of Mole Day, an unofficial holiday observed Oct. 23 for Avogadro’s Number, the number of atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12. On Oct. 25, SMACS members traveled to University of Tennessee-Martin, where they and students from other universities presented chemistry demonstrations.
This year, the Union team created completely new demonstrations, including creating red, white and blue colors with magnetic fluid in honor of national elections, Shelnutt said.
The celebrations concluded Oct. 29, with a semi-formal dinner during which Dr. Jimmy Davis, Hammons professor of chemistry, spoke about “Ethical Challenges in Global Science.”
