SPF Forever

The summer is drawing to an end and if like me you live in a part of the country where summer happens for a week in May then you might be wondering why it is recommended that you wear a moisturiser with SPF protection all year round. Seems a bit excessive doesn't it. But don't pack any your SPF just yet!

Whitehaven harbour at sunset.
Image: Jennifer Carroll

Alchemy Tricks

I have read and reread the All Souls Trilogy, by Deborah Harkness.

1st book in the series!!!
"Discovery of Witches Cover" by Source (WP:NFCC#4). Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Discovery_of_Witches_Cover.jpg#/media/File:Discovery_of_Witches_Cover.jpg

On a trip back in time the main character, Diana Bishop, befriends the Mary Sidney, an Elizabethan woman with a passion for alchemy. As part of the story the two set out to make the tree of life... You'll have to read the book to see how the tree grows.

But as I was clicking through the internet, I stumbled upon the TheBackyardScientist's youtube channel and after watching some of his videos I found some alchemy among other exploding things.

How to grow a lead crystal tree! Watching the video you can see why some people thought this was magic.

Bun in the oven!

What gives bread it's characteristic fluffy texture? Why does it rise up? Why do you need to prove the dough before baking? What happens during the all important baking step? And most importantly, where does that all important bread smell come from? How do supermarkets make their bakery aisle smell so inviting?

It's bread week here on Chemystified and I shall be having a go at baking my own loaf.

My loaf.
Recipe courtesy of the queen of baking Mary Berry.

Like many who watch the Great British Bake Off will know some of their creations are masterpieces of art. I am a firm believer that cooking is a science and that baking is just chemistry in action that we can enjoy with our eyes as well as our taste buds.

Figgy olive oil and sesame challah
Credit: Sarah R

UV or not UV, that is the question?!

I am in love with UV gel nail varnishes at the minute. They are hard wearing and long lasting. But the real question I want to know the answer to is how do they work? 

Pink Shellac nails

Britain's Love Affair with Nuclear

The future energy mix of this country is currently up for debate; whether we as a country should invest money in developing renewables or commit future generations to a legacy of nuclear waste? With strict EU laws governing the country’s carbon dioxide output between now and 2020, at a reduction of 20% on 1990 levels, a viable solution must be found in order to keep the lights on in British homes.

Can we keep the lights on?
Image @ Bes Z via Creative Commons

Could you survive without your [insert gadget]?

Terminator: Genisys is the newest in a long line of post-apocalyptic movies illustrating the perils of mankind’s trust in technology.  After watching it I got to thinking about the parallels between what I saw in the film and what I see every day in the street and was inspired to write.

The power and presence of technology in our lives has increase exponentially, the height of sophistication is no longer a washing machine to make the day shorter for the fifties housewife.  The internet connects and brings people together; you can date, you can surf, you can tweet. All alien concepts twenty years ago that are now part of most people’s daily lives. Not only that, but we have the ability to connect all your devices: phone, tablet, pc and now your watch, into one continuous, mobile streaming platform. The distractions are there and they are all consuming.

A short synopsis of the film for those of you who haven’t seen it: Kyle Reese is sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor. When he arrives he finds the time line altered. Reese and Connor travel forward in time to 2017 with the help of an aged Arnie. In 2017 the local people are eagerly awaiting the release of the Genisys operating system, soon to be used on every computer in the world… And to cut a long story short, the world was saved and they all live happily ever after.

The hype surrounding the release of the Genisys programme is akin to that of the newest iPhone or the next up and coming gadget; the countdown to its release and the people that flock to buy it, pre-ordering online. As Genisys became more and more sentient it's reach and power became ever greater. The more our technology develops, the more people it reaches. But when an app is required to prevent you using Facebook during exam time and giving up your phone for a few hours of serious study last half an hour you know you have a problem...

Terminator isn’t the only film of its kind, Disney Pixar’s WALL.E is another variation on the theme. The film is about a little robot’s journey through space that will decide the fate of humanity.Set 700 years in the future, the humans are portrayed as huge floating blobs, having lost their ability to walk and are continuously surfing the web on personalised screens as opposed to communicating with each other face to face. Is this what we have to look forward to? Or rather down at?

          

On the flip side we have programmes like Channel 4’s ‘The Island with Bear Grylls’ where participants are deposited half way round the world on a tropical island with the necessary skills to survive. In the 2015 series we see the camp split into two on the first day, those who know what needs to be done and those who pine for their 21st century life. Needless to say those who struggled without their gadgets didn't last long on the island. For those that remained the sense of achievement was palpable. For many their first time killing and eating an animal - something many of us are out of touch with, but that's another story.

The question still remains though; are you too reliant on technology? Could you live without your iPhone?

To reinforce my point as I was writing this I tried to discuss the subject with my sister, but she was too involved with her phone and updating her Instagram to engage. 

I'm a graduate, so now what...?

Following the hubbub of exams, dissertation hand in and graduation the focus in my life has shifted from reading and writing about lots of new things to job hunting and writing predominantly about me, something that isn’t the most rewarding of pursuits… There are only so many ways to tell potential employers that they should hire me. So I would like to take the new found time previously devoted to my studies and use it to write for the first time about the science and technology that interests me and hopefully those reading.

On that note I would like to share a little more information about myself. As I have already said I am a newly capped science graduate, chemistry to be precise, from one of the oldest institutions in Scotland. Not that that seems to help much during the whole job hunt but cei la vie. I grew up in the north of England, in an area dominated by heavy industry; at the beginning of the 20^th century I would have been the daughter of a miner and not have the wealth and breadth of knowledge I do today. However I am a 21^st century girl and my dad, along with everyone else within a twenty mile radius, is slave to our nuclear legacy. At eighteen I escaped to Glasgow, only to return each summer and now indefinitely. So this blog I hope will be my own space to share with the world and remind myself that there is life after the third.

So without further ado…