so for the eighth day of Christmas we
have something which could be really sad
but is actually chemically quite
exciting this was a present from my
colleague Pete licensed who is director
of our new carbon neutral laboratories
which are being built one of the first
wooden chemical laboratories to be built
anywhere in the world and some of you
may know that the first time when it was
half built the building caught fire and
burnt the ground and what this is is a
slice from one of the beams that wasn't
completely burnt away so you can see
it's charred on the outside
it's got charcoal carbon but the middle
is okay but it's actually the carbon
that is really interesting we have
colleagues here in the School of
Chemistry who are specialists in carbon
and they have put this carbon under an
electron microscope and the structure of
the carbon is what are called nano onion
skin so you have layers and layers of
carbon and chemically these are very
interesting you can make catalysts out
of them
so they're going to use this they're
going to publish a paper on it from the
bent building and I'm really keen to see
what the experimental section is going
to look like first bell in your building
I'm pleased to say the building is up
and much further advanced than before
the fire and so you'll be seeing a video
about its opening sometime in the summer
but for now for the eighth day of
Christmas we have a piece of charred
wood a fire
the fan anthracite element six a glowing
guitar plectrum for drinking receptacles
three chemical badges two periodic table
bed covers and a piece of tartaric acid
from a Swiss wine barrel what is day
nine going to bring
which is
the last two dates after the 20 million
pound building was completely destroyed
by fire most of you by now who probably
heard that there was a huge fire
the evening of September the 12th which
completely destroyed the new chemistry
building