Wildfires are in the news with increasing frequency – accompanied by pictures of planes dumping large amounts of red powder. The latest edition of Periodic Graphics in Chemical & Engineering News looks at what’s in the powder, its safety, and how it helps halt forest fires. See the full graphic on the C&EN site.
Here’s something a little different for the Christmas period! It might be a little late, given Christmas was yesterday, but I did take the opportunity to play around with some chemistry at the Christmas table, and this is the result. Though it certainly doesn’t match the production values of the ACS Reactions or Chemistry in Context videos, hopefully it’s still a bit of entertaining festive chemistry whilst you’re recovering from your Christmas Day exertions!
After fielding questions from students about what chemicals are in matches this week, it seemed like a good topic for a post looking at the question in more detail. When using matches on a day-to-day basis, you probably don’t think much of the chemical composition, or the reactions that are being set off; this graphic takes a look at some of the chemicals you can find in your average safety match, and the role they play.
