public understanding

The Density Bottle experiment has inspired many colorful variations over the years.^1-6 I recently came across yet another colorful variation that I’d like to discuss.

Dean J. Campbell* *Mund-Lagowski Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois 61625, United States

There’s some recently published research on climate change¹ that you can easily incorporate into your next lesson on metric conversions and unit analysis. The article gives a report on ocean heat content (OHC) measurements.

Would you like to take a walk with me through the chemical winter wonderland of snowflakes? Well, we chemists know that the stunning six-sided symmetry of snowflakes (Figure 1) results from repeated arrangement of water molecules into a hexagonal crystal structure (Figure 2).

Josh Kenney, Melissa Hemling, and I just published an article in the October 2024 Journal of Chemical Education. The article describes inquiry-based activities that highlight the chemistry behind “No-Mess” picture-coloring books.¹ Well, it turns out that our timing is impeccable.

Galinstan is the tradename for a liquid metal alloy that is comprised of three elements: gallium (68.5%), indium (21.5%), and tin (10%).¹ It behaves a lot like mercury but has significantly lower toxicity. Because of this, Galinstan is used as a replacement for mercury in a variety of applications.

A variety of interesting coloring books are available on the market that use water as a coloring agent.¹ When water is applied to the pages of these books, colors seem to appear like magic. When the water evaporates, the colors disappear. This allows the pages of these books to be colored over and over again.

The “Pharaoh’s Serpent” chemical reaction involves the thermal decomposition of mercury (II) thiocyanate:^1,2