Jean Balchin • Mar 06, 2018 •
Recently, there has been a great deal of hullabaloo on my Facebook timeline as people squabble over whether so-called ”hard” subjects like calculus and physics are inherently better and more difficult than the alternative, ”soft” subjects like English, drama and photography. Filip Vachuda, Onehunga High School’s academic runner-up for 2017, began ”DuxGate” when he wrote he missed out on dux … Read More
Guest Work • Feb 19, 2018 •
Jenny Fisher, University of Wollongong and Kathryn Emmerson, CSIRO This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Picture the causes of air pollution in a major city and you are likely to visualise pollutants spewing out of cars, trucks and buses. For some types of air pollutants, however, transportation is … Read More
Guest Work • Jul 24, 2017 •
Colin Hall, University of South Australia and Eric Charrault, University of South Australia For tens of thousands of years, humans have created colours through simple chemistry. At first we used dyes found in nature such as berries and charcoal. Later, new pigments were synthesised in the lab. By now, you might think scientists would have … Read More
Ken Perrott • Sep 03, 2016 •
Many anti-fluoride campaigners and their sympathisers use “filters” to remove fluoride from their tap water. Despite this, they will often claim the procedure is “too expensive” for the ordinary person – or that it is ineffective. Fluoride Free Nelson (FFN) combined both reasons in this exchange on their Facebook page. But she is wrong on both counts. Suitable … Read More
Ken Perrott • Mar 24, 2016 •
Here’s a thought – what if natural products came with a list of ingredients in the same way processed food does? James Kennedy, an Australian chemistry teacher, has put together some images to illustrate what this would be like. And the article What if natural products came with a list of ingredients? reproduces the detailed infographics which show even the … Read More
Ken Perrott • Jan 24, 2016 •
I often get comments about the chemistry of community water fluoridation which make clear the need for a simple explanation of some of the chemical concepts involved. Here is an article I wrote some time ago on this but, for the life of me, I cannot remember where I put it on-line. So, I might be repeating myself – but, at … Read More
Ken Perrott • Sep 10, 2015 •
Here are some of chemists’ pet peeves about discussion on social media and the internet in general. The list is from the article 5 simple chemistry facts that everyone should understand before talking about science posted on the blog The Logic of Science. Everyone who has attempted to discuss issues like vaccination or fluoridation with opponents will have come across these … Read More
Michael Edmonds • Jan 13, 2015 •
Although this clip is apparently 6 years old, I hadn’t seen it before today when someone put it on Facebook. Read More
Ken Perrott • Dec 16, 2014 •
I had to select this video on the element rutherfordium because of the New Zealand link of the scientist the element is named after. It’s an interesting short lesson on rutherfordium and there is more where it came from – … Continue reading → … Read More
Ken Perrott • Jul 24, 2014 •
Click image to enlarge. The chemical website Compound Interest, is producing a series of infograms to communicate some chemistry. Here is an excellent one they produced on fluoride. I think it would make a great poster. It is accompanied by … Continue reading → … Read More