Christmas Chemistry!

Here’s a random assortment of holiday cheer, with just a hint a big dollop of chemistry nerdiness.

Greetings from the periodic table. . .

Christmas ChemistryIf Santa were a chemist. . .

chemistry christmas

This Christmas tree “ornament” started as an accidental etching of a round bottom flask during my first semester of research as an undergrad (oops).  But then my advisor let me turn it into an ornament; we intensified the frosted look by filling it with aqueous KHF2 and letting it sit overnight. (It’s a 250 mL flask, so it’s really too heavy to hang on a tree, unfortunately.)

Chemistry Christmas Ornament

Lastly, if you want some tips on how to keep your Christmas tree looking fresh, NPR had a story earlier this month – you can read the transcript here.  To summarize the non-intuitive points:

•  Keep your tree away from fruit, especially bananas.

•  Leave the lights on for the tree, even at night.

Merry Christmas!!!

This entry was posted in Chemistry, Fun Stuff. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Christmas Chemistry!

Comments are closed.