Fracking
One of the reasons why the US appears to be emerging from the credit crunch earlier than the rest of the world is that for the past ten years it has benefited from a boom in cheap energy. This has come...
Super Li-ion batteries
The current IB chemistry syllabus includes the chemistry of buckminsterfullerene and use of nanotechnology. In keeping with recent developments in chemistry, the new programme for teaching from September...
Images of chemical bonds
Atoms can be ‘seen’ using scanning tunnelling microsopy now for the first time chemical bonds can also be ‘seen’. A team from Berkley University in Califonia have for the first time captured images of...
Atmospheric CO2 passes 400 ppm
Probably all teachers covering Option E: Environmental chemistry will refer their students to the graphs produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii....
IB Chemistry teacher in the news
Congratulations to Richard Thornley who has had an article published about his innovative teaching methods published in the Guardian Newspaper. Richard is an IB Chemistry teacher at the United Nations...
Destroying your old hard drive
I’ve just replaced my laptop and was faced with the prospect of how to destroy the hard drive in my old laptop before taking it to the civic amenity site (rubbish dump) for recycling. Sadly this does...
Problems with omega-6
Some time ago I wrote a question for an IB exam and the markscheme essentially said “If they give the answer ‘yes’ and this reason award the marks; if they give the answer ‘no’ and give this reason (a...
A dangerous stimulant?
It is not often that a drug hitting the headlines has a very simple structure. One that has been in the news recently is commonly known as 1,3-dimethylamylamine or DMAA. In fact its IUPAC name is 4-methylhexan-2-amine...
A seven subject IB Diploma?
Happy New Year for 2013 to everyone. Did you notice that last month one of the underlying paradigms of the IB shifted? The ‘Hexagon’ is no longer. After forty years of loyal service it has gone. In its...
Errors in books and websites
Did you know that if you eat meat you are likely to be a liar, a cheat and a thief and be a violent person who commits sex crimes? This is a claim made in a book written by David S Podder called New Healthway...