Saturday 17th March saw the department flooded with over 2000 visitors who came to see for themselves how hard-working students are pushing back the frontiers of science.
Activities ranged from creating your own lava lamp from household ingredients to exploring the properties of ferrofluids. Research groups explained and engaged with children and adults with the help of enthusiastic under-graduate helpers. And the comments received showed how much these willing band of volunteers were appreciated:
'Much better than some other departments!'
'The Chemistry Department gave the very best set of activities and demonstrations of the whole festival - great work'
'The facilities, the lectures, spot on! Great - really engaged my daughters.'
Meanwhile in the BMS lecture theatre Peter Wothers was using ingenious demonstrations to illustrate the surprising properties of the chemicals from the natural world around us. Peter lit up the lecture theatre using only compounds detected in a bean of coffee, and went on to explode some nitroglycerine prepared from mineral acids and fat!
The Open Day is made possible by the generous support of the Walters-Kundert Trust, the volunteers and the teaching technicians.