Students from high school diploma "play the Chemistry" in the Science Weeks of the University of Navarra

Professor José Ramón Isasi, in an exercise during the current edition of 'Science Weeks'. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Dozens of students from high school diploma participate during this week and next week in the workshop'Toca la Chemistry', organized by the School of Sciences of the University of Navarra on the occasion of the Science Weeks 2010.

As explained by Professor José Ramón Isasi, who organizes the activity's experiments, many of the most common materials we find in our homes have curious properties and can be used to learn about the Chemistry of everyday things: "For example, a fluid prepared with corn flour dispersed in water flows in a very special way, depending on the force applied".

The pigments extracted from red cabbage are used to determine the pH (acidity) of any food or household substance," continues the expert, "and the diapers, in addition to cellulose, contain granules of a polymer capable of absorbing up to three hundred times its weight in water.

"Finally," adds José Ramón Isasi, "it is possible to make a black colorant by mixing the tannins of a tea with the iron from the oxidation of a scouring pad boiled in vinegar. On the contrary, with a little descaling liquid, which contains citric acid, the iron tannate is broken and the black color disappears".
This workshop will be held until November 16 at laboratory 3F of Sciences Building.