The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has called for an e-Petition to halt the perceived decline of science exam standards in the UK. The RSC reports evidence that modern students are unprepared to answer math and science questions requiring critical thinking or calculations. The report is based on the results of an exam taken by 1,300 of the country's brightest 16-year-olds, which included several numerically-based questions selected from the past 50 years of O-Level and GCSE exams. The students scored an average of about 15% on 'hard' numerical questions from the 1960s, though they scored much better on recent 'soft' questions. If you are a British citizen or resident, you can sign the e-petition. The RSC's report, The Five Decade Challenge, is available online for viewing and download.

Have you been wanting to preserve a decoration or specimen in plastic, but weren't sure what to use? Here's an email asking a similar question:

Hi Dr. Helmenstine,

I have a flower from a funeral, and I'd like to preserve it in a clear solid block. If I remember, acrylics like lucite and polycarbonate need to be heated around an object to have it form-fitted.

What clear material is out there that starts in a liquid state, and "cure" into a clear hard solid state?

Thanks!

You can use polyester casting resin, which is also known as plastic embedding medium. I found a webpage that describes how to cast the plastic. You can find casting resin at a craft store or online (compare prices) searching under "plastic embedding medium" or "casting resin". Casting resin isn't just for embedding objects. You can use it to make three-dimensional shapes for jewelry, decorations, or containers. It's a fun project that illustrates polymerization. Although you don't have to heat the plastic to cast it, strong fumes are released once the catalyst is added, so this is a project for outdoors, a fume hood, or a well-ventilated area.

One way to get a free trip to the AAAS meeting in Chicago was to win the "Dance Your Ph.D." competition in which contestants pursuing a Ph.D. in a scientific discipline were asked to submit a YouTube video depicting their research. Sounds scary, doesn't it? Well, the winners of the contest have been announced so you can judge for yourself. Winners were selected from four categories: Graduate Student, Post-Doc, Professor, and Popular Choice. In addition to getting a trip to the AAAS meeting, winners are being paired with a professional choreographer who will collaborate with the researchers to develop an interpretive dance based on the science. These dances will be presented on February 13, 2009 at the conference.

Antibubbles are globules of liquid that are surrounded by a thin film of gas. They are a common occurrence, but you may not have noticed them. Antibubbles can either skitter across the surface of a liquid or they can be submerged under liquid. Antibubbles appear bright because they refract light back toward its source, similar to how water droplets in a rainbow refract light.

There are a couple of ways you can make and observe antibubbles yourself. One method is to drip water from a faucet into a container of water to which a couple of drops of soap have been added. The soap lowers the surface tension of the water so the film of air surrounding the dripping water can persist long enough to see the antibubbles.

You can make antibubbles that last longer by using the following procedure:

1. Pour a couple of teaspoons of sugar into a glass of soapy water. Do not stir the sugar. Give it a few minutes to dissolve. You want a dense layer of sugar at the bottom of the glass.

2. Use a drinking straw to drip a sugar solution into this glass. The droplets will form antibubbles that will sink toward the bottom of the glass. Though the antibubbles will pop if they touch the sides of the container, they will rest on top of the sugar layer at the bottom of the glass and may last for several minutes.

There is a technique to this. I was able to get a couple of antibubbles to sink toward the sugar layer, but I had much greater success forming antibubbles (as well as normal bubbles) on the surface of the liquid in the glass. I got the most antibubbles by pouring a thin turbulent stream of sugar water into the glass, not adding the liquid dropwise. Post a comment if you have any tips for success.