January 2008
Vol 45, No 1. Selected articles, reviews and InfoChem available online to all. Full issue available online to subscribers.
Column
Do maths grades add up?
Findings from recent research lead to recommendations for the maths provision in UK chemistry departments
Bologna update
Do the UK four-year integrated masters or one-year masters courses in the sciences and engineering align with masters qualifications across Europe?
Nobel chemistry rises to the surface
Gerhard Ertl of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, Germany, received the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his pioneering studies of chemical processes ...
What content has changed in A-level chemistry?
Colin Osborne, RSC education manager schools and colleges, introduces the changes in the new GCE A-level chemistry specifications for 2008
Chemistry giant INEOS supports Olympiad
INEOS, the world's third-largest producer of chemicals, donates £250,000 to the RSC to support the UK Chemistry Olympiad competition for UK sixthform students
Hollywood science - call for film and TV clips
Dr Jonathan Hare, star of BBC TV's Hollywood science series, wants to investigate the truth behind the science in your favourite film clips
Rolls-Royce Science Prize
Science teachers working in schools and colleges in the UK and Ireland are invited to enter the Rolls-Royce Science Prize 2008/09
A trip through Chemistry Week '07
Highlighting to the public the important role the chemical sciences and the work of chemists play in our everyday lives
Fuelling the future - on tour
Following the success of its Chemistry Week UK roadshow in 2005 the Royal Society of Chemistry this year ran a national tour
ChemNet goes nanotech
ChemNet members do nanoscale science at a series of Chemistry Week workshops held in the SchoolsLab at the University of Liverpool
Chemistry in the limelight
Blundell's School chemistry demonstration spectacular wows pupils from local primary school
Redox chemistry on a giant scale
Students from John Leggott Sixth Form College in Scunthorpe see redox chemistry on a giant scale at Corus steelworks during Chemistry Week
Chemical connections
A humble pot of hair gel provided a useful prop for a chemistry lesson with a difference at Glasgow Science Centre during Chemistry Week
ChemNet's first year
2007 saw some 2000 students join ChemNet, the RSC's network for students aged 16-18 studying chemistry in school and further education
In brief
Items: Various short items
Soundbite molecules - vanillin
Simon Cotton takes a look at those compounds that find themselves in the news or relate to our everyday lives. In this issue: vanillin
Chemistry trails
Peter Borrows brings us another excursion into local chemistry. In this issue: marsh gas, or hydrocarbons on the heath
Web watch
Tony Tooth takes a look at some websites that may be of interest to chemistry teachers In this issue: more video resources, the RSC and CLEAPSS
Letters
Letters
Education in Chemistry Letters, January 2008
Exhibition Chemistry
Explosive nitrated carbon compounds
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination, by Adrian Guy of Blundell's School. In this issue: explosive nitrated carbon compounds
The Elements
Features
Belladonna, broomsticks and brain chemistry
Poisonous plants such as deadly nightshade produce toxic tropane alkaloids. These chemicals have been exploited in magic, murder and the design of a host of useful therapeutic drug...
CF3SF5 - a 'super' greenhouse gas
Trifluoromethyl sulfur pentafluoride - a byproduct of the electronics industry - has been named a 'super' greenhouse gas by physical chemists
Biosensors based on DNA
Chemists are developing new medical and environmental sensors based on DNA sequences which have been selected to bind certain targets such as cancer markers in blood
Halogenating enzymes in organic syntheses
The use of haloperoxidases, from seaweed, in organic syntheses is simple and cost-effective and offers more environmentally-friendly routes to a host of compounds
Reviews
Better looking, better living, better loving: how chemistry can help you achieve life's goals
John Emsley
Forensic science (2nd edn)
Andrew R. W. Jackson and Julie M. Jackson
Science education for gifted learners
Keith Taber (ed)
Heterocyclic chemistry at a glance
John Joule and Keith Mills
Techniques in organic chemistry (2nd edn)
Jerry R. Mohrig, Christina Noring Hammond and Paul F. Schatz
Distillates
Using the internet in science teaching
Research shows that student teachers in the UK remain sceptical about the value added to students' learning by using the Internet in science lessons
Higher-order thinking
According to researchers in Israel, teachers who encourage higher-order thinking skills with their classes are likely to improve students' attitudes to learning
Spring into group action
Researchers report that a new approach to group work can improve students' learning and understanding of scientific principles
Infochem
