As we get ready to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, please note that the timings of our weekday afternoon classes will change. We are still waiting for a few schools to confirm their timings, but these classes will be earlier. Once times are finalised, we will communicate them directly to enrolled students.
COOKING UP SCIENCE
Milk, our favourite culinary emulsion, is also great at demonstrating why the states of matter are so important in cooking. Blend cream, its richer byproduct, with sugar, your favourite flavours, and a generous dash of liquid nitrogen to speed things up, and you’ve got the creamy solid we love called ice cream. Add the same cream to molten chocolate, and turn it into a syrup that will stay liquid when drizzled onto our ice cream. Finally, trap loads of tiny bubbles of gas into the remaining cream, and top off your dessert with a light, airy whipped cream.
PLANET EARTH, ANIMATED
As far as we know, water is the real stuff of life. It is the one thing that all life on this planet needs, so much so that scientists believe that the best place to look for extraterrestrial life is on other worlds with water. But what is it about water that brings life to our planet? By exploring the solubility of various chemicals in water, we will discover why it is the “universal solvent”, and one that is particularly great at dissolving the chemicals we depend on. Then, once dissolved, we will see how water allows these chemicals to take part in the chemistry of life, just as it allows us to react up expanding balloons of gas and liquids that change colour at will!
RAMPANT REACTIONS
For a chemical to take away electrons, another one has to be willing to give them up. And to lose electrons, we need a chemical to accept them. So most reactions are really a mixture of reduction & oxidation, and these redox reactions can be downright magical. By carefully adjusting the recipe for the Iodine Clock reaction to control the rate of redox, our chemists will concoct a clear potion that will turn pitch black on their command!
