• Question: whats your favourite chemical

    Asked by katie to Gavin, Karen, Mark, Michel, Roisin on 8 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Michel Destrade

      Michel Destrade answered on 8 Nov 2016:


      Oxygen I guess, since we’re in the Oxygen zone! But Nitrogen has to come close second (80% of the atmosphere!).
      And then ethanol can’t be far behind in my book; look up what that is 😉

    • Photo: Mark Kennedy

      Mark Kennedy answered on 9 Nov 2016:


      Hydrogen! Everything that ever was, is or will be was once just a hydrogen atom. It’s what powers the sun, and is a main component of water. It’s pure class!

    • Photo: Karen

      Karen answered on 9 Nov 2016:


      To be fair it’s not something I’ve ever thought about ??…I always liked the inert gases when I’d did chemistry like neon and helium and I do love to sucking the helium out of balloons to make funny voices so whilst I appreciate the importance of other elements and chemicals , I’ll go for helium…it’s given me some laughs over the years?

    • Photo: Roisin Jones

      Roisin Jones answered on 13 Nov 2016:


      My favourite chemical is something called mercury (II) thiocyanate: while I wouldn’t like to work with it (it’s fatally toxic if inhaled, consumed, or in contact with skin, among some other pretty nasty properties) it does have one incredibly cool feature: when burned, it produces something known as the ‘Pharaoh’s Serpent’, which looks like tentacles growing out of a pile of fire! If you want to have a peek for yourself, I recommend this video: https://youtu.be/oRngPHRj0vA or any number of others floating around YouTube!

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