The�MoleIn this issue

... FOR ANYONE INSPIRED TO DIG DEEPER INTO CHEMISTRY

Registered Charity Number 207890

Vancomycin The antibiotic fighting bacterial

resistance

Mechanical light

How can

sticky tape

and sugar

glow?

From art to science

The glassblower that makes

chemistry research possible

Chemical camouflage How some fish can smell like

they're not there

Plus… Book reviews and Dr Careers

EditorKaren J Ogilvie

Deputy editorPaul MacLellan

Assistant editorDavid Sait

ChemNet contentFrancine Atkinson

Production Dale Dawson, Scott Ollington, Emma Sargent and Lizzy Brown

PublisherAdam Brownsell

The Mole is published six times a year by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Thomas Graham House, Cambridge, CB4 0WF.01223 420066; eic@rsc.org www.rsc.org/TheMole

© The Royal Society of Chemistry,

2015. ISSN: 2049-2634

Copying is permitted within

schools and colleges.

ISSUE 02 | MARCH 2015

Comics are a significant part of our culture. They’ve

long since broken out of their paper medium and

onto our screens, with blockbuster movies and

television franchises mining the rich history of

comics for new characters and stories. Take Marvel’s

Avengers, for example. Its characters have recently

featured in 10 blockbuster movies and two television

series, with more on the way. The Marvel Cinematic

Universe, which includes all of the Avengers outings

alongside Guardians of the Galaxy and hotly

anticipated films such as Ant-Man, is now the highest

grossing film franchise in US history, having taken

nearly $3 billion (£2 billion) in the US box office.

Only the Harry Potter franchise comes close, with a

box office take of $2.4 billion. Third place in the list

belongs to another comic franchise, this time for

Detective Comics (DC), whose Batman films have

taken $1.9 billion in the US box office so far.

Chemistry has played a role in western comics

since their inception, with several characters from

the ‘Golden age’ of comics (1930s-1950s) having

chemistry in their origin stories. During this period,

chemistry was used as a crude narrative device, often

as a pseudo-scientific justification for the existence

of special powers or abilities. Jay Garrick, the first

incarnation of DC’s The Flash, apparently gained the

ability to run at super speeds by inhaling vapours

of hard water. Although this was later altered to be

heavy water, it still reveals a naivety – or perhaps

indifference – towards the realities of chemistry.

But should we expect comics to be chemically

accurate? After all, comic readers are happy to accept

that an alien orphan, ejected from his dying home

planet in a kind of cosmic life raft, acquires incredible

powers just from being near Earth’s yellow sun. But

the depiction of science and technology in comics

often mirrors public understanding and concerns

about scientific developments. As our understanding

of the world around us increases, so must the

complexity of our comic book chemistry.

My super-strength solution is almost

complete!

For some it’s the source of their powers, for others their only weakness. Ben Valsler explores the chemical story at the heart of many comic book characters

Comic chemistry

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Peter Parker's skills as a chemist help him formulate his own spider silk

The Flash acquires his superhuman speed when lightning strikes a crate of chemicals next to him

Days of future pastThe fictional comic book universe has a great way of

getting around these issues – if a back story no longer

fits, it is simply changed, updated for a new audience

with a different understanding of the world. This is known

as ‘retconning’, or a retroactive continuity change. This

technique has allowed comic characters to reflect

cultural scientific concerns, and there’s probably no

better example than the ‘silver age’ (mid-1950s to 1970)

character Spider-man.

Spider-man first appeared in 1962, and marked a significant

shift in comic book heroes. For the first time, the hero was

roughly the same age as the readers (although modern

audiences are much more diverse, superhero comics in

the 60s were mostly read by adolescent boys). Peter Parker

was a high school student who excelled in the sciences,

and was bitten by a radioactive spider at a science exhibit.

The bite transferred the spider’s abilities to Parker, who

develops superhuman strength and senses, as well as the

ability to climb walls. A gifted chemist, he develops new

materials for his costume and formulates the compound

required to spin his own webs. In the 1960s, America was

at the height of the cold war and there was

significant paranoia and fear of nuclear attack.

Radiation was poorly understood but seen

as powerful, terrifying and transformative:

exposure to radiation was also at the heart

of the origin stories of the Hulk and the

Fantastic Four.

Modern-day Spider-man demonstrates a

different set of cultural concerns. In the 2002

movie, Peter Parker once again visits a science

exhibit, but one about the ‘new’ science of

genetic engineering. This time, the bite comes

from a genetically modified spider, evoking

and reflecting current concerns about the

transformative power of genetic modification.

By rewriting Spider-man’s history, comic

authors continue to tap into our collective

scientific subconscious.

Health & safety in the workplaceJust as with Peter Parker, scientific accidents

account for a number of well-known comic

origin stories. Although the first incarnation

of The Flash gained his skills through poor

working practice around heavy water, the

second incarnation, Barry Allen, was subject to

an accident out of his control. Allen was a forensic scientist

with a reputation for tardiness, but developed superhuman

speed and reflexes when a bolt of lightning struck a crate

of chemicals he was working with. He adopts the identity

of The Flash, with significant help from his materials-

science minded father, who uses his scientific knowledge

to make a costume that shrinks down to fit inside a ring

(it’s not just superheroes that show scientific genius in the

comic world).

Perhaps the best known chemical origin story is that of

Batman’s arch nemesis, the Joker. First appearing in print in

Batman #1 in 1940, the Joker has seen a number of origin

stories and is known as one of the best comic book villains

of all time. Eleven years after that first appearance, writer

Bill Finger created the Joker’s original backstory, which

was then built on by Alan Moore in his 1988 series Batman:

the killing joke. The Joker was a failing stand-up comic

who had quit his job at a chemical plant and became

desperate to support his pregnant wife. Under pressure

from local criminals, he breaks into his old workplace

where he encounters Batman and ultimately falls into a vat

of unidentified chemicals. The exposure bleaches his skin,

pulls his face into a tight rictus

grin, and drives him insane – in

this way, chemistry created one of

the finest villains ever written.

My chemical romanceAlthough chemical accidents

are common origin stories, there

are a number of characters who

are skilled chemists. The Joker

himself, presumably drawing on

his experience as a chemical plant

worker prior to his descent into

crime and madness, develops

a number of compounds for

devious purposes.

Joker Venom is an aerosol or gas

that sends victims into hysterical

Inspired by Batman’s ‘shark

repellent bat spray’, you

can actually buy a spray

can of compounds derived

from rotting shark tissue

– it claims to repel sharks

or reduce their feeding

activity

Did you

know?

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Dennis the menace was

used in the 1960s to

educate children about

poisons in the home, in the

1961 public information

comic ‘Dennis the menace

takes a poke at poison’

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Captain America's powers are caused by an experimental drug

bouts of laughter – often resulting in paralysis or death.

It’s never hinted what this compound might be, but

the Joker has been shown creating it from household

chemicals, proving himself to be a skilled practitioner.

Like many historical chemists, he tests many of his

concoctions on himself, leading to a kind of immunity to

his own chemical attacks.

Bane, the super-strong villain of the latest Batman movies,

is entirely dependent on a different kind of venom – an

experimental drug designed to enhance his physical

abilities. While this does give Bane incredible strength

(enough to nearly kill Batman by breaking his spine), he is

dependent on a dose delivered directly to his brain every

12 hours.

The flipside of the experimental drug story can be found

in Captain America, who was transformed from a weedy

comic book illustrator into patriotic super-soldier by a

government-developed experimental drug.

With great power …There’s no doubt that comics are a rich source of

characters and stories, but it’s the format itself that allows

them to deliver such a powerful punch.

Compared to a novel or movie, comics

have a special hold and influence over their

audience. By portraying action and narrative

as a series of images, with or without text,

a reader can progress through the story at

their own pace, giving as much or as little

attention to the detail as they want. In a

novel, skim-reading in this way would cause

you to miss important facts, whereas a movie

forces you to move at the director’s chosen

rate. Because of this, comic readers can

invest more of themselves in the story.

Pictures are a static medium, so a comic

forces the action to take place in your own

mind. Movement, time and even violence

all take place in the thin space between

the comic frames, a gap known as the

‘gutter’. A reader relies on his or her own imagination

to fill the gutter, making comic reading a very personal

experience. It’s no coincidence that flat-pack furniture

instructions resemble simple comics – it’s an extremely

good way to communicate.

In the 1950s, public concern arose about the influence

of comics on their audience (still largely teen boys at

this point). In his 1954 book Seduction of the innocent,

psychiatrist Fredric Wertham argued that comics were

a negative influence, a cause of juvenile delinquency,

encouraging sex, drug use and violence. Some of

Wertham’s more progressive arguments are still relevant

today, including the over-sexualisation of female

characters and the promotion of violent toys.

... comes great responsibilityThe comic book industry, fearful of public backlash and the

threat of regulation, created the Comics Code Authority

(CCA) – a set of guidelines that became a form of self-

regulation. DC writers played down the Joker’s murderous

tendencies, Captain America’s drugs were delivered orally

rather than intravenously, depictions of extreme violence

were essentially banned. As drug use was subject to CCA

guidelines, certain forms of chemistry in comics more or

less disappeared.

The power of comics, along with their newfound social

responsibility, saw them being used in educational and

public awareness materials. Superman fought Nick-o-Teen

in a series of anti-tobacco comics, Captain America fought

a war against drugs and new comics were developed to

promote public health campaigns.

Comics are used today to educate and inspire in chemistry.

The rise of the internet saw online comic strips such

as xkcd and PhD comics communicating science and

the daily life of a researcher. The Chemedian, a comic

that supports high school chemistry lessons, has been

developed by science communicators at the University of

West England in Bristol, UK, and Veronica Berns, a recent

graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received

over $14,000 in crowd-funded donations to make a comic

book version of her own solid-state chemistry doctoral

thesis. Far from their naive origins, comics are now seen

as an acceptable and effective way to communicate

cutting-edge chemistry.

A Japanese professor of

biochemistry discovered

that students who were

shown frames of Manga in

biochemistry lectures

performed significantly

better in tests that those

who weren’t

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www.rsc.org/TheMole4 | The Mole | March 2015

We’ve become complacent, as far as disease

and infection is concerned. We expect to be

able to go along to the doctor and be given a

tablet that will be an instant cure. Less than

a century ago, minor infections

were often fatal. Then along

came penicillin and other

antibiotics, and the world of

medicine changed.

Mass production of

penicillin began in

1943, in time to treat

Allied casualties in the invasion of

Normandy, and in 1945 Fleming,

Florey and Chain shared a Nobel Prize for discovering and

developing the drug. It was the era of the ‘magic bullet’.

A new golden age beckoned, when disease would be

conquered forever, or so it seemed.

But Fleming, for one, saw danger clearly. Almost at the end

of his Nobel lecture in 1945, he said this:

‘There is the danger that ignorant man may easily

underdose himself and, by exposing his microbes to

non-lethal quantities of the drug, make them resistant.’

Within a few years of penicillin coming into use, bacterial

resistance to penicillin was a fact of life. Some people

didn’t complete their course of treatment, so that the more

resistant bacteria didn’t get killed off. And some people still

misuse antibiotics – they expect them to treat things they

are not designed for, like viral infections. Penicillin won’t

help you if you’ve got a cold. Even worse, antibiotics are

often given to farm animals for non-medical reasons, as a

growth promoter.

Racing resistanceDespite developing new types of penicillin, hospitals and

doctors were faced with untreatable infections. In 1953,

a new antibiotic, vancomycin, was discovered in a soil

sample from Borneo. Vancomycin is a big molecule,

containing over one hundred and fifty atoms and with

a formula mass of nearly 1500. It was found to be

effective against resistant strains of bacteria, and came

to be regarded as the last resort, reserved for infections

resulting from bacteria that are resistant to all other

antibiotics. Until the 1980s, vancomycin was rarely

used, except for cases like the drug-resistant bacterium

MRSA, a major cause of hospital-acquired infections.

Like penicillin, vancomycin stops bacterial

growth. It does this by preventing them

from building their cell walls. These have to

be strong, so the sugar molecules that make

up the cell walls have to be crosslinked by

short peptide chains. Vancomycin works

by attaching itself to end of the peptide

chains, which stops the crosslinks from forming.

Penicillin works differently, binding to the enzyme

that controls the crosslinking reaction. Someone once

said that penicillin is a saboteur of the cell wall-building

machine, while vancomycin is a protester that sits in

its way.

Bothersome bacteriaSadly, there are now some bacteria that are resistant

to vancomycin, including some forms of MRSA. These

have slightly different crosslinking peptides. Vancomycin

still binds to these, but the interaction is a thousand

times weaker – the antibiotic is now ineffective against

these bacteria.

If vancomycin can’t be used, the drugs cupboard is bare –

unless new antibiotics can be found.

One answer may lie in modifying the structure of the

vancomycin molecule. A team of researchers in California

has altered the structure of vancomycin, by replacing a

carbonyl group with an imine. In vitro tests show that the

modified molecule binds strongly to both normal and

resistant bacteria and is effective against both forms. We

now need to wait and see if this modification can become

a real medicine.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. We can’t run the risk

of returning to a time before antibiotics, when minor

infections could kill. Antibiotic resistance is a problem the

whole world needs to have solved – and only scientists

can solve it.

Simon Cotton explains how one molecule has helped in the fight against antibiotic resistance

Magnificent moleculesVancomycin

Researchers have found

a potential new class of

antibiotics that might not

suffer from the problems of

resistance:

http://rsc.li/1yinwZMe

more

Find out

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Mechanical light

Avogadro's lab

2015 is the International Year of Light, so we are going

to be looking at some of light’s interesting properties.

All kinds of light is used and produced in chemistry. It

can be used to analyse materials, to create materials and

materials can be used to create light.

Chemical reactions may give out both visible and invisible

light (usually heat). Burning a match emits both light and

heat, whereas the reaction in glow sticks, for example,

gives out mostly visible light. There are even materials

that give out light when they are stretched, scratched

or crushed.

Light given out when materials are mechanically

deformed in these ways is known as

mechanoluminescence. If light is produced from striking

or rubbing a material it is known as triboluminescence.

If it is produced by pulling or pushing the material out of

shape it’s called fractoluminescence.

Light workWhen pieces of quartz hit one another they may emit

flashes of light. The earliest example of this is thought to

be when the Ute tribe of Colorado placed quartz pebbles

in rawhide rattles. These were probably used by the tribe

hundreds of years before contact with European settlers.

The rawhide was thin enough that the rattles lit up when

vigorously shaken. Similarly, fracture of quartz-containing

rock is thought to have been responsible for reports of

flashes of red and white light during an earthquake in

Kobe, Japan, in 1995.

Other materials are triboluminescent – sugar, for example.

In the past, sugar was supplied in cone shaped blocks

known as ‘loaves’ that had to be broken up before use. If

the room where this took place was sufficiently dark, faint

flashes of light could be seen as pieces were

chipped off the block.

Some boiled sweets will also produce flashes

of light when crunched between your teeth –

but be quick, only dry sweets work.

A mechanoluminescent material does not have to

be rigid though. Sticky tape and self-stick envelopes

show the same effect. Pulling adhesive tape from the reel

produces a range of wavelengths of light. Measurements

have shown that the light is not just visible, but it can even

extend into the X-ray region. Peeling apart the seal of a

self-stick envelope has a similar effect.

A sweet experimentTo observe any of these effects it is best to be in a darkened

environment as the light produced tends to be quite weak.

Also, remember that our eyes can take quite a while to

adjust to the dark. To see the effect with sugar it’s best to

use a sugar lump, although you should also be able to see

tiny flashes with individual crystals – especially large ones

such as in demerara sugar.

Place your sugar (cube or crystals) on a plate or other hard

surface. Then with the bottom of a glass or jar (be careful)

watch carefully as you quickly crush the sugar.

How light is being produced in this process is still not

completely understood. It is thought to be the result of

positive and negative charges recombining after they have

been suddenly separated. Interestingly, measurements of

the light produced from crushing boiled sweets shows that

some of the light comes from atmospheric nitrogen, which

in turn produces light (fluorescence) from flavour molecules

in the sweet.

Stephen Ashworth explores the surprisingly enlightening effects of crushing up sugar

Try it at home: crushing sugar cubes produces triboluminescence

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http://bbc.in/16KzwK6

Web page on triboluminescence

http://bit.ly/1KI20l0

Wikipedia page ontriboluminescence

http://bit.ly/1KI1TWx

more

Find out

6 | The Mole | March 2015 www.rsc.org/TheMole

Cutting-edge chemistry

Find out more

Read about another

renewable resource for

energy-storing devices:

human hair! In 2013, Chinese

researchers turned hair into

supercapacitor electrodes:

http://rsc.li/1c6Xs64

Splitting shellsSo, why use peanut shells as the precursor? David

says they are easy to source, cheap and have

limited commercial use, mostly ending up in landfill

sites. However, they hardly chose the material at

random – the team recognised important structural

characteristics of both the inner and outer peanut

shells to give desirable anode and cathode materials,

respectively. The smooth inner portion of the shell,

primarily consisting of the highly cross-linked polymer

lignin, lent itself to the fabrication of graphene layers,

perfect as an efficient anode. The cathode, a high

surface area graphene-like material, was synthesised

from the rough cellulose-rich outer peanut casing.

The optimised supercapattery system performed

extremely well, giving the best combination of high

energy (ie amount of energy stored) and high power (ie

speed of energy release and charging) ever reported for

this type of device. The team found that separating the

peanut shell parts was essential; using whole peanut

shells to make both electrodes lead to significantly

poorer performance.

Superior sodiumThe peanut shell supercapatteries use sodium ions

instead of the commonly used lithium ions. Sodium

has proven to be notoriously difficult to incorporate

into such energy storage devices, due to its larger

ionic radius relative to lithium. Sodium, however, is

cheaper and easier to obtain. David admits there were

difficulties along the way: ‘few people have actually

done it, but this was also a challenge as there was

limited literature to refer back to.’

Materials experts Yuping Wu from the University of

Fudan in China was impressed by the excellent cycling

lifetime of the electrodes: ‘This data shows that this

device can be a promising choice for applications.’

Chengdu Liang, of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in

the US, admires the project but recognises that more

investigation is necessary: ‘This research exemplifies

the versatility of using biomaterials as the feedstock

for energy storage devices. However every aspect is

still under scrutiny, so from laboratory discoveries to

real-world applications there is a long way to go.’

Scientists in Canada have created an energy-storing

device, called a supercapattery, out of peanut shells.

A supercapattery combines the qualities of a battery

(storing a large amount of energy but slow to charge)

with those of a supercapacitor (very fast to charge but

only a small amount of energy is stored).

To develop supercapatteries, researchers have been

looking into improving cathodes of traditional batteries.

‘In conventional batteries the cathode often limits

performance and so what people are starting to do is

swap regular cathodes for supercapacitor cathodes,’

explains David Mitlin, from the University of Alberta,

who led the research. These cathodes can charge

and release the stored energy almost as fast as a

supercapacitor. ‘Ions are adsorbed onto the surface

of the cathode, which avoids the degradation seen

in batteries due to ion absorption into the bulk,’ adds

David. This drastically improves the device’s cycle life,

meaning it can be charged and discharged many more

times before its performance starts degrading. Regular

batteries can only be cycled around 500 times while

supercapacitors last for up to 1 million cycles.

Dannielle Whittaker looks at energy storage that literally only costs peanuts

Better energy storage in a nutshell

Supercapacitors store

energy as an electrostatic

charge – the same thing

you create by rubbing a

balloon on a jumper. They

are often used in

electric cars.

know?

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it makes sense to be chemically camouflaged but

there’s very little evidence for it,’ says study author

Rohan Brooker, formerly from James Cook University,

Australia. He goes on to explain that until now

caterpillars were the only creature discovered that hid

themselves from predators in this way. The caterpillars

eat their plant habitat, assume their smell by absorbing

certain chemicals in the plant, and become invisible to

predatory ants. ‘A [coral-eating fish and coral] system

is analogous to the chemical system of the caterpillar,’

explains Rohan. ‘So we thought maybe they were doing

a similar sort of thing.’

Confused crabsRohan and his colleagues looked at the harlequin

filefish, a 5 inch reef-dweller that looks like a coral

branch. They wanted to find out if the fish could

replicate a reef’s smell through its coral-based diet and

whether predators could sniff them out.

The team placed a piece of coral and the filefish

at opposite ends of a water tank. A coral-dwelling

crab was then put in the centre of the tank and

‘blind-folded’ so it was unable to see which end the

coral was at and had to rely on other senses such as

smell. The team found that the crab was just as likely

to move towards the fish as the coral. ‘[It] suggests that

the smell was a pretty good match,’ says Rohan. ‘A lot

of them did get confused.’

Conned codThe group carried out a similar test but replaced the

crab with cod, a filefish predator, to see if the coral fish

could fool the cod’s acute sense of smell. They found

that the cod were less interested in the filefish if they

were close to coral they had fed on. If the filefish was

close to a coral that was a different species to the one

it had eaten or if there was no coral in the tank, the cod

became much more active. The team state this is the

first evidence of chemical camouflage in a vertebrate

but they do not yet know how it achieves this.

Martin Stevens, an ecologist at the University of Exeter,

UK, believes the study could have a wide impact on the

wildlife community. ‘I think it could be very important in

stimulating work looking at chemical camouflage,’ he

says. But Martin adds that more research will need to be

carried out on this system before it can be translated to

other vertebrates and mammals. ‘It’s potentially a really

exciting and important study,’ he says. ‘The question, I

think next, is how does [this chemical camouflage] work

and how widespread is it.’

A tiny reef fish can hide from predators by adopting

the smell of the coral it eats, according to researchers

in Australia. This is the first time that diet-matching

chemical crypsis – the ability to avoid detection by

using odour-based camouflage obtained through the

animal’s food – has been observed in vertebrates.

It has been known for centuries that animals can

visually blend into their environment to hide from

predators. But given that animals rely on more than just

their sight to find prey, researchers have questioned

whether other types of camouflage exist.

‘With the importance of smell for a lot of animals,

Matthew Gunther discovers that ‘you are what you eat’ also applies to fish

Chemical camouflage helps fish hide from predators

Salmon use their strong

sense of smell to find their

way back to the rivers

where they were born

after years travelling large

distances in the open seas.

know?

Did you

Find out more

No one knows exactly how

smell works. Josh Howgego

explains the chemistry behind

the puzzle in the November

2012 issue of The Mole:

http://rsc.li/1AjcNSn

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relationship, which is important because no matter

how strong the bond, a change of environment can

change everything; both the HI and the HCl couples

will immediately separate when mixed with water.

Love is in the … environmentBoth romantic and atomic bonds are affected by their

environment. The bond enthalpy of HCl is higher than

all of the bonds in the hardest substance known to

man – diamond. A single carbon carbon bond has

a bond enthalpy of 347 kJ mol-1. While diamond is a

fitting substance in an article about dating, it is not

much use in this analogy. The strength of diamond

comes from the fact that every single carbon atom is

bonded to four neighbouring carbon atoms in a giant

covalent lattice. With its highly ordered structure, it is

more like an army than a couple.

There is another gem favoured by lovers – ruby. It

is chemically similar to aluminium oxide, but some

of the aluminium atoms are replaced by chromium

ions, which give the stone its red colour. This is a

better choice to describe enduring love, with enough

different elements to show how romantic couples can

be incorporated into their wider communities. Like

molecules, any relationship will experience turbulence,

and if the atoms are shaken vigorously enough, any

bond can be undone. In isolation, as in HCl, even a

strong bond can easily snap, but when couples become

embedded in a lattice of their friends and families, all

their bonds can weather storms for longer.

Chemistry is not just the pursuit of scientific

knowledge, it’s also the butterflies that we feel

when we meet someone special. Attraction brings

together both people and particles, and when the

conditions are right, bonds form.

A good place to start our analogy would be with

diatomic molecules. We could say the diatomic

elements, N2, O2, H2, F2, Cl2, Br2 and I2, represent

relationships with our best friends. As we outgrow

the stage of our lives when the opposite sex appears

to be universally infected with ‘the lurgy’, we may

progress to diatomic compounds. For example, two

pairs of friends go bowling and leave later as double

dates. Similarly, H2 and Cl2 molecules come together

and depart as two love-struck HCl molecules.

How strong is the bond?How long could we expect these HCl molecules to

last compared to HI molecules who met at the same

party? Let’s look at the bond enthalpies. Using HCl

as an example, the bond dissociation enthalpy is

the energy required to break every bond in a mole of

gaseous HCl molecules. HCl has a bond enthalpy of

431 kJ mol-1, whereas HI’s is just 297 kJ mol-1. It takes

more energy to separate the atoms in HCl – those

must be the high school sweethearts destined to

stay together.

But what if the H and Cl atoms suffocate each

other? They might like to go back and spend some

time with their friends, as H2 and Cl2 molecules

again, but with such a strong bond, this might not

be realistic. That is something the HI molecules are

more able to do. Their lower bond enthalpy alters the

relationship’s dynamic,

or thermodynamics.

Once entropy is involved,

science’s measure of

chaos, the situation looks

a bit different. Unlike the

formation of HCl, the

reaction between H2 and I2

is reversible, meaning that

once the reactants have

combined to produce HI,

some of the products will

go back to H2 and I2. In

other words, the newly

formed couples can

immediately revert back

to their original friendship

pairings. This space

might be good for their

Tom Husband thinks about how chemical bonding might be similar to personal relationships

Dating

Chemistry is like…

Oxytocin is known as the

'love hormone', responsible

for developing trust and

social connections in

humans.

know?

Did you

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Rubies are made up of a stable and enduring lattice of different elements

March 2015 The Mole | 9www.rsc.org/TheMole

2012–present

Scientific glassblower,

University of York

2008–2012

Trainee scientific glassblower,

University of York

2006–2008

Milliner, Rose Belinda, Scotland

2003–2006

BA (Hons) in glass, architectural

glass and ceramics, Sunderland

University

2001–2003

Foundation diploma in art and

design (part time), Beverley

College

1999–2001

A-levels in biology, sociology

and graphics

glassblowing involves creating and repairing the

specialised glass equipment that is an integral part of

many lab scientists’ daily work. ‘But it is also much more

than that,’ says Abigail. ‘It’s the satisfaction of taking bits

of rod, tubing and components and creating something

not only useful, but often highly specialised.’

She landed the job and started training under the

mentorship of retired York glassblower Steve Moehr.

Even though being a trainee glassblower was tough at

times, Abigail was determined not to give up, and after

four and a half years she passed her final exam with

distinction, taking over the full running of the University

of York's glassblowing workshop.

A love of glassAbigail enjoys the constant challenges of her job –

every piece of glassware is unique and even simple

looking items can be complex to manufacture. While

large manufacturing companies sell a range of standard

glassware, like round-bottom flasks and beakers,

researchers often encounter problems that can only

be solved with specially made equipment. ‘Sometimes

it’s not the glassware itself that is interesting but the

research that it’s used for,’ says Abigail. ‘Knowing that

you have created and designed something that has not

only overcome a problem, but will enable research to

develop and continue is a brilliant feeling, and probably

the best thing about my job.’

Not the usual pathAbigail’s journey through different jobs and education

was anything but straightforward, but led her to

combine a hobby and work in a job she loves. ‘One of

the things that stands out is that I have always been

attracted to practical or creative jobs.’ Abigail still

enjoys crafting in her free time – at the moment she

loves sewing.

Many people have never heard of her job and are

amazed when Abigail explains what she does. ‘I think

of myself as having quite a varied path to becoming a

scientific glassblower, but then again, I’m not entirely

sure what the usual path would be.’ Abigail likes to

encourage others to be open-minded about their

career. ‘The road you are destined for could be just

around the next corner,’ she says. ‘It doesn’t matter if

you take a few wrong turns or detours along the way,

enjoy them!’

Abigail was initially interviewed by 175 Faces of

Chemistry http://rsc.li/175-faces

Some people have a job and a hobby, but for Abigail

they are the same thing. Even so, she wouldn’t have

thought this would mean becoming one of the most

important people in a laboratory chemist’s life – a

scientific glassblower.

From cooking to ceramicsAbigail’s journey into science started out in an unlikely

place – a cafe. Not ready to make a decision about

her future career, Abigail started working in a cafe and

delicatessen after finishing her A-levels.

Dedicating her free time to her hobby, Abigail created

ceramics and fired them in her own kiln, which she

kept in the shed of her family home. ‘I was lucky

enough … [my] mum and stepdad didn’t mind me

taking over the shed with my ceramic creations and

running up the electricity bill,’ she laughs. Abigail

decided to enrol into a part time art and design

course, putting together a portfolio with which she

was accepted into a BA glass and ceramics course at

Sunderland University.

After finishing her degree, Abigail’s journey took her

into millinery – designing and making hats at a small

bridal accessories company. ‘I enjoyed the job, but

started to feel like I needed a new challenge,’ says

Abigail. ‘That’s when I saw the advert for a trainee

scientific glassblower at York University.’

New challengesHaving developed a love of working with glass during

her time at university, Abigail applied for the job, despite

having very little idea of what it meant to be a scientific

glassblower. ‘As soon as I was given a demonstration,

I just knew it was what I wanted to do.’ Scientific

Katrina Krämer talks to an art school graduate with the skills that make chemistry research possible

Scientific glassblower

Abigail Storey

Abigail’s favourite piece of

glassware is the rotunda

chandelier in the entrance

of the Victoria and Albert

museum in London.

light

Inspiring

success

Pathway to

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175 Faces of Chemistry

Celebrating diversity in

science, 175 Faces of

Chemistry recognises

scientists who have achieved

excellence in their field:

http://rsc.li/1eTr4Je

10 | The Mole | March 2015 www.rsc.org/TheMole

ChemNet

Revision workshops7, 8, 9, 10 April

Newcastle University, UK

AS and A2 revision workshops.

Sessions consist of a short

summary of the key points from

each selected topic area, followed

by interactive on-screen

questions. Students are provided

with a revision booklet containing

a comprehensive set of

revision notes.

http://rsc.li/1JQLbJw

Fantastic plastics27 April 13:00, 19:00

London, UK

What's the link between false legs

and chewing gum, or between

nappies and high tech TVs?

Fantastic Plastic will take you on a

walk through the future where

plastic will change your world!

http://rsc.li/1AbxPwe

Meet the Universities20 June (London) and

27 June (Sheffield), UK

Considering a degree in

chemistry? This is a great

opportunity for you to talk directly

to staff and students from many

of the UK's universities.

http://rsc.li/mtu

Colour chemistry23 June 10:00–14:00

Preston, UK

Discover how objects become

coloured and how chemists can

manipulate these aspects to

produce both natural and

synthetic dyes. Learn about how

chemical bonding can lead to

colour and produce your own

natural and synthetic dyes.

http://rsc.li/1AbFVoQ

University taster day29 July, 1, 3 July 10:00–15:30

University of Kent, UK

Year 12 chemistry students are

invited for a taste of university

chemistry. Hear about the

courses on offer and research

into organic light emitting diodes.

Synthesise your own glowing

material and learn how to use

analytical techniques to collect

vital data.

http://rsc.li/1apFbHO

Dates for your diary

Molecules: the elements and the architecture of everythingTheodore Gray

£19.99 (hardback)

Reviewed by Katrina Krämer

http://amzn.to/1Gz1lC1

What I first thought

to be a typical coffee

table book containing

nice pictures with little

text turned out to be

a lot more. Supported

by Nick Mann’s

beautiful photographs,

Molecules is a serious

attempt to explain

the world of chemical

compounds to the reader without assuming previous

science knowledge.

The first three chapters familiarise the reader with the

notions of atoms, elements and chemical structures. The

sections ‘compounds’ and ‘molecules’ give simple but

meaningful introductions to ionic and covalent bonds,

even though the section titles might be more confusing

than helpful. The other 11 chapters focus on a variety

of compound classes that have a strong connection

to everyday life, such as oils, painkillers, sweeteners

and dyes.

Molecules also contains parts that I wouldn’t have

expected but was pleased to find in this highly visual

book: one chapter on the distinction and similarities

of ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ compounds and another one

on the mis- or underrepresentation of chemicals in

media and politics. Despite sounding a little grumpy

in the latter, Theodore Gray explains the problem with

genuine concern using examples such as thimerosal

and asbestos.

Throughout, Theodore weaves historic, scientific and

other facts into compelling little pieces of text, giving

them a personal touch by often explaining how he

obtained the sample shown. I particularly enjoyed

Theodore’s humour, for example, when he reminds us

that baby oil is indeed a perfumed mineral oil and not

actually made from babies.

Some of the descriptions are a little on the short side. For

example, some readers would possibly appreciate a more

detailed introduction to orbitals to better understand

their shapes and names shown in the image. Moreover,

I’m not sure if a whole chapter on the distinction of

‘organic’ and ‘inorganic’ compounds was necessary,

other than for the reason to have a take on the terms

‘chemical-free’ and ‘organic’.

The striking photographs of items, powders and various

samples of the compounds discussed are particularly

The Mole team take a look at some books that both entertain and educate

Book reviews

vivid on the book’s black background. They go

wonderfully alongside the chemical structures, which

Theodore chose to depict with a diffuse glow around

the atoms: a reminder that molecules aren’t little balls

connected by sticks but rather an assembly of nuclei

surrounded by fuzzy electron clouds.

At only £20, this book is fantastic value for a science

novice as well as for a well-versed chemist.

What if: serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questionsRandall Munroe

£14.99 (hardback)

Reviewed by Colin Batchelor

http://amzn.to/185LjTS

Part of the task of learning science is not so much about

memorising equations, but about learning to think like

a scientist.

There is nobody in the

public eye who thinks out

loud like a physicist quite as

much as Randall Munroe,

author of the xkcd

webcomic. What if is an

extended version of his

weekly online blog on

the topic.

The book’s cover promises

‘serious scientific answers

to absurd hypothetical

questions’ and the rest of What if more than lives up to

its billing. The questions range across the sciences from

the whimsical to the disturbing, and include whether you

can boil a cup of tea by stirring it, what would happen if

you lost all of your DNA, if you could live on a very dense

asteroid like the Little Prince and what would happen

if you made a periodic table out of large cubes of the

elements themselves.

Many of the longer answers have already been published

on Randall's website, but there is also plenty of new

material. Most importantly, the book is very funny indeed,

with the mouseover texts and popups of the website

transferring smoothly to a print world of captions and

footnotes. I was alarmed to find myself holding my finger

over some of the uncaptioned drawings and wondering

why the mouseover text wasn’t appearing.

In general, the production values are very high with

the author’s comic talents pervading all aspects of the

physical book. It is very unfortunate that some of the

equations have been mangled at typesetting. That caveat

aside, I would recommend this book for any scientist

or science-curious reader, especially as an invaluable

introduction to scientific thinking for younger readers.

March 2015 The Mole | 11www.rsc.org/TheMole

Chemistry help

Stuck on a tricky topic at

school? You can post your

problems to Dr ChemNet:

http://rsc.li/1wmzpg8

ChemNetEventsMeet the Universities 2015

Attendance is free for all 16-18 year olds

London Saturday 20 June 2015 Sheffi eld Saturday 27 June 2015

New for 2015

ChemNet’s Dr Careers is off ering

1:1 UCAS and careers advice.

Register now to book your slot.

Places are limited

Register nowhttp://rsc.li/mtu

Speak with multiple institutions and chat with current students

Registered charity number 207890

If you’re at school or college, you

probably feel like people will never stop

asking, ‘what are you going to do next?’

Some people know exactly what they

want to do, but for most this is a very

tough decision. To make the best

choice, there are a few things you

should think about.

Who are you?Think about your interests, your skills and your personality.

What do you want from a job? What motivates you?

What are your values? If you need a bit of help you

could try quizzes like the buzz test at www.icould.com,

the game at www.plotr.co.uk or the values game at

http://bit.ly/1AAqCWJ.

How do you prefer to learn?Around the age of 16, you will probably have a choice

in the type of education or training you can follow.

Spend some time thinking about how you prefer to

learn and which forms of assessment suit you. Do

you enjoy classroom learning or do you prefer to

learn through doing? Getting this right is essential to

success. Choosing between academic or vocational

qualifications, university or apprenticeships is all about

working out what is right for you.

What could you do?The next step is to consider what opportunities are out

there. Most people focus on the jobs they see around

them at home and school, or the jobs they’ve seen on TV.

But there are hundreds of options. You could use careers

websites like National Careers Service, icould.com or A

Future in Chemistry (http://rsc.li/1peqn3n) to explore

them. Also, the Profile articles in The Mole can show you

some of the careers available through chemistry. You

could even ask people around you if they know of anyone

doing a job you’re interested in.

Ask for adviceIt’s a good idea to talk any ideas through with someone

you trust, a careers adviser, a family member or

a teacher at school. Whatever your plans are and

whichever option you think is right for you, there should

be a qualification, course or training scheme to fit.

So, what next?

Dr Careers

Chemical acrostic

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Complete the grid (contributed by Simon Cotton) by answering the

eight clues to find the answer in the shaded box. This will spell out

the name of a lanthanide used to make red phosphors for displays

and TVs.

January acrostic solution and winner

The winner was Isa Wilson from Biggleswade, UK.

1 This element is added to an alloy of aluminium to make it more

resistant to corrosion.

2 A group 2 metal, less dense than aluminium, used to make

lightweight alloys. Sometimes used to make pencil sharpeners.

3 Non-metallic element essential to human life.

4 This forms the smallest atoms of all the group 3 elements.

5 Unreactive 3d metal sometimes used to make water pipes.

6 Group 17 element present in the body, particularly in the

thyroid gland.

7 Element with highest first ionisation energy in group 18.

8 Element named after the Italian discoverer of nuclear fission by

neutron bombardment of thorium and uranium

M E R C U R Y

C H R O M I U M

I R O N

G O L D

Z I N C

V A N A D I U M

P L A T I N U M

Submit your answers online athttp://bit.ly/TM215ans

by Monday 13 April.

A correct answer for each puzzle, chosen at

random, will win a £25 Amazon voucher

January wordsearch solution and winnerThe winner was Tim Scanlon from Listowel, Ireland. The word was MICROSCOPE.

WordsearchFind the 34 words/expressions associated with archaeology hidden in

this grid (contributed by Bert Neary). Words read in any direction, but

are always in a straight line. Some letters may be used more than once.

When you have found all the words, use the remaining letters to make

a 9-letter word. Find out more about how chemistry plays a central role

in revealing how our ancestors once lived in The Mole, January 2014

(http://rsc.li/TM0114).

Puzzles£50 of vouchers to be won

C A R B O N D A T I N G A E S C Y

H R S I S Y L A N A A N D X E H A

E T E E T H E N A M E L T C P I C

M S N A M U H T N E I C N A O R E

I A G Y D A I R Y F A T R V T A D

C P N R B R O S B A P G N A O L E

A S I T D H P L C A O E E T S M V

L D S S E D B M O T T C U I I O I

A I I I C I D E A O T N T O M L T

N C M M A G L M F M E E R N U E C

A A E E Y B O N E S R I O S I C A

L O C H I R A L I T Y C N K T U O

Y N A C H S A M P L E S S C N L I

S I R C A N C E S T O R S O O E D

E M S P R O T O N S A N M R R S A

S A R C H A E O L O G I S T T C R

G L I P I D R E S I D U E S S T S

ABSORB

AMINO ACIDS

ANCIENT HUMANS

ANCESTORS

ARCHAEOLOGIST

ATOMS

BONES

CARBON DATING

CHEMICAL ANALYSES

CHEMISTRY

CHIRALITY

CHIRAL MOLECULES

DAIRY FAT

DECAY

DIG

DNA ANALYSIS

EXCAVATIONS

GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY

HPLC

LIPID RESIDUES

NEUTRONS

NMR

OLD

PAST

POTTERY

PROTONS

RACEMISING

RADIOACTIVE DECAY

ROCKS

SAMPLE

SCIENCE

STRONTIUM ISOTOPES

TEETH ENAMEL

TOMB

Another clue …

For clue three: this element

is used in the manufacture

of pencils, filters in kitchen

extractor hoods and brushes

for electric motors.

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