Chemist unwraps the fun in science

Friday night, students and residents of Cache Valley packed the auditorium at the Eccles Science Learning Center to watch the first Science Unwrapped lecture of the year. The topic for the night focused on patterns in science, specifically focusing on chemistry.

Science Unwrapped is a monthly lecture series put on by the College of Science. The lectures focus on a specific topic every semester. This semester, the topic for the series is “Matter of Patterns”, which will focus on how patterns are visible in every type of science.

Friday night’s lecture was hosted by Lisa Berreau, a professor in the Chemistry & Biochemistry department and the interim dean of the College of Science. During the lecture, she talked about the different kinds of patterns that are visible in everyday things that have different chemical reactions. She started off the lecture clearing up a common misconception about chemists.

“When people think about chemists they usually think about us being some sort of mad scientist,” Berreau said. “In reality, a chemist is just another person.”

She then talked about how chemists are consistently trying to find patterns and how to classify them. Berreau said all the chemical reactions that create different patterns are thanks to electrons and their sharing in different reactions. Berreau also said the Periodic Table can be classified as just a table full of these patterns.

The lecture was also meant to talk about the fun side of the science and to not talk about the more complicated matters. Autumn Slade, a sophomore majoring in chemistry, said people can easily over-complicate different aspects of science and these types of events can help change perspective.

“Chemistry is one of the most important aspects of science,” Slade said. “It can be very fun and engaging with events like this where it is much more simplified.”

Berreau spoke about the different kinds of reactions that cause changes in everything we see. She said that chemical reactions are taking place everywhere, such as the leaves changing color and the fruits and vegetables that we eat.

“Photosynthesis is one of the bigger reactions that we see in the world,” Berreau said. “It is amazing to see one of the biggest chemical reactions at work all the time.”

Berreau also talked about how these patterns and reactions are at work in the human body. Some of examples she talked about are how bruises are formed from big impacts and how iron is regulated throughout the body.

For Slade, it is due to reactions like these and her overall love of science that she wants to go into the chemistry field.

“With science overall, there is a lot of research that needs to be done,” Slade said. “There is so much to do in chemistry that it can be a lot of fun.”

Berreau ended the night by having children from the crowd help with one final chemical reaction: having them pour a solution of Iodine into flasks of water to the tune of “1812 Overture.” She said that having children being exposed to the fun side of science can go a long way toward their future.

“Children are always out there making new discoveries,” Berreau said. “And this is what chemistry and science are. They’re about making discoveries.”

Slade said children at young ages have a tremendous opportunity to explore different fields and get a taste of the fun side of science.

“Young people tend to have a strong opinion on things like these,” Slade said. “It’s important they learn these things as a child so they have the opportunity to learn something new.”

Berreau gave one final piece of advice to the audience to end the night.

“Everyone, both young and old, can continue to enjoy discovering the patterns that are alive in chemistry,” Berreau said.

The next lecture in the Science Unwrapped series will be on Oct. 10.

一connor.comeau@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @Connor_Comeau