The Environmental Scientist (Chromatography)
What is an environmental scientist?
Environmental scientists study the environment, and particularly the effects of human activity on it. By conducting tests and analysing data, they try to work out how to prevent and solve environmental problems.
They’ll gather samples and observational data in the field, and conduct tests in the lab. They analyse soil or air samples to find the type, concentration and source of pollution, which might be caused by industry or agriculture. The environmental scientist will identify whether the contamination could harm wildlife, plants or people. They’ll then identify ways to manage, minimise or eliminate negative impacts of the pollution.
Attributes: passionate, creative, committed
Chromatography
How does chromatography work?
Chromatography is a way of separating out a mixture into its different parts. We see objects because they reflect light into our eyes. Some molecules only reflect particular colours; when that light reaches our eyes, we see the object it reflected off as being a particular colour.
You’re probably used to the idea of ‘primary’ colours – colours which can be mixed together to make other colours. You’ve maybe mixed red, yellow and blue paints in different combinations to make greens, purples and oranges. The dyes in felt-tip pens might look like a single colour (‘dark blue’ or ‘light green’), but to achieve those colours a scientist might have mixed several pigments together.
Liquid chromatography – in the case of felt-tips, dabbing some dye on the end of a piece of tissue paper, then letting water soak up the paper, carrying the dye with it – can let you discover the hidden colours in the pen dyes. The solvent (water) is absorbed up the paper, taking the mixture with it. But larger, heavier molecules are dragged along more slowly than smaller, lighter ones, so the blob of dye gets spread out. Different parts of the smeared-out dye will be made of different pigments, which you’ll see as different colours.
Add all those colours up and you get the colour of the pen you started with.
How do environmental scientists use chromatography?
The paper chromatography you can do with felt-tip pens looks pretty, but it turns out not to be terribly useful for working scientists. However, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is the same idea, and it’s used very widely in chemistry. Just like paper chromatography, you use water (or another liquid) as a solvent to separate the components of the material you’re trying to investigate, like a dye. Rather than using tissue paper, you let the liquid flow along a ‘column’ – a thin tube – which is perhaps 10 or 20 cm long. You then investigate the substances which emerge from the end of the column, and how they change over time.
So with pen dye, the smaller pigment molecules would emerge first, with the larger ones making their way out later. Chemists, including environmental scientists, can use HPLC to investigate a wide range of samples.
Gas Chromatography is similar, but the solvent isn’t a liquid, it’s a gas. Because gasses flow more freely than liquids, the columns (tubes) need to be longer to achieve the separation of components – they might be dozens of metres long. Gas Chromatography is also used widely in chemistry.
Thin-layer chromatography is another technique, and it’s like an advanced version of the paper chromatography. It’s used for detecting pesticides or insecticides in food.
All of these methods work by separating out the individual components or parts of mixtures and solutions.
Do try this at home…
Chromatography with sweets
More investigations with water and colour
Plants take up water and nutrients from the soil, and this experiment gives you a glimpse of what’s going on. You could use celery instead of flowers, but remember to leave the leaves on!
Transpiration is where water travels from the soil, up tubes in plant stems to all parts of the plant, and eventually evaporates from the leaves. That constant flow of water gives the plant a way of moving food around itself, including moving nutrients from the soil, through the roots, up the stem, to the rest of the plant.
If food colouring is added to the water in the soil it travels up the stem and into the leaves and – with a flower – the petals. This illustrates how nutrients are delivered to all parts of the plant.
In a way, the food colouring you’ve added to the soil is a pollutant – the sort of substance environmental scientists might investigate. It’s not a particularly harmful material, but other pollutants might be. What would happen to the plant if a harmful pollutant was released into the soil?
Saiful Islam
Attributes
Creative – having original ideas and making new things.
Imaginative – thinking of interesting ideas.
Organised – being tidy and planning into order to complete tasks.
About Saiful
Saiful Islam is a British materials chemist who is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bath. His research and teaching is about finding new ways to make electricity. Alongside his expertise in the field, his imagination has allowed him to help develop new types of batteries and solar cells. Saiful works in a team of researchers to carry out tests on the new technology. His planning and organisation skills help the team complete their work on time.
Saiful recently presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, a series of demonstration-based lectures every year. These allowed him to show his creative side.
Twitter: @SaifulChemistry
Science for Families: Light
Congratulations on making it to the Light page of Science for Families! You’re probably here because your curious about light and want to know what to do next with your spectroscope. We’ll you’ve come to the right place!
Big question number 1: how does this cardboard tube and CD thing (spectroscope) actually work?
Your spectroscope works through a process called diffraction; when light is passed through a very narrow slit it is spread out into different wavelengths. The CD contains lots of tiny slits which cause the light to split up into various different colours. The small cardboard slit helps to create a narrower beam of light and makes things clearer (if you take away the slit the pattern becomes less clear – try it!). The different bands of colour you can see are light at different wavelengths. Light with a short wavelength sits towards the blue/purple end of the spectrum; light with a longer wavelength sits towards the red/orange end.
Cool, huh!
Big question number 2: what to do next?
Take a look at the three sections below to find out what you can do with your spectroscope and how you can experiment further with light.
Investigating light with your spectroscope
Investigation time! You’ll need your spectroscope, a source of light and a camera for this. The camera on your mobile phone will work perfectly.
Choose a light source, maybe the screen of your computer, and point the spectroscope at it. Then carefully take a photo through the spectroscope using your camera. This can get a bit awkward, don’t drop your phone!
Now try again with a different light source. Once you have a few photos, compare them and try to spot similarities and differences. Here are the photos we took…
CAUTION!
Don’t use your spectroscope to look directly at the sun. We’d prefer everyone doing this course to finish with just as much eyesight as they started. Thanks.
So… what’s going on?
The colours you see depend upon the type of light source you’re looking at. To be super-accurate, the colours depend on the chemical elements that are involved in giving off the light. You’ll have heard of some elements before: oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, aluminium, and gold are all examples of elements.
Different elements produce different patterns of colour – different spectra. Typically, a light source that’s trying to represent white will use several elements, and hence several spectra, to produce a good enough blend to fool your eye into seeing pure white.
The pictures below show some images of common spectra. If you compare these with your photos you might be able to work out what elements are in use in your light sources.
More experiments to try at home
There’s lots of different ways you can explore the fascinating world of light. Here are three things you can do in your kitchen this weekend!
- Experiment 1: Red skies and blue skies
- Experiment 2: A water prism
- Experiment 3: Vanishing money
Think Week 2015
Think Week 2015
Monday & Tuesday
Monday began as all good Mondays should: with a newspaper tower building competition. Our twenty-one Think Weekers met their group for the first time and came up with some inventive group names: The Botanists, The Test Monkeys, Team Lightning and The Physics Thinkers.
The tallest towers stood over 2m high and were able to support the mass of our daring plastic pig!
During the afternoon, we met our pet Spheros. These robotic spheres are controlled using iPads, and we built four intricate mazes which we then expertly navigated them around.
We delved further into the world of robotics on Tuesday and used Arduinos, servos, musical instruments and a mountain of glue to create a robotic orchestra.
In the afternoon, we explored the world of 3D design using TinkerCad. You can see our designs at our TinkerCad page.
Wednesday
I can think of nothing better to do on a Wednesday in July than visit the Centre for Life – so that’s just what we did.
We explored Life from top to bottom: we played on retro computer games and struggled with exactly how to hold the N64 controller in the Game On 2.0 exhibition. We watched the stars turn above our heads in the Planetarium. We discovered the wonderful world of spinning physics in the Science Show. We also learned how to use microscopes and pipettes in the Experiment Zone.
All in all, it was a fantastic day – we all marched back to Think Lab with huge smiles on our faces.
Thursday
On Thursday morning we explored the world of optics, using lenses to create camera obscuras and mirrors to make periscopes.
Our camera obscuras allowed us project an image onto a small screen inside a cardboard box. We also tried out some big camera obscuras too. By lunchtime we were able to look above, behind and all around with our adjustable periscopes.
During the afternoon we left the world of physics behind and headed into Exhibition Park for a spot of minibeast hunting. We used pooters and quadrats to search for and collect a wonderful variety of different minibeasts. Take a look at the gallery to see what we found. We also used USB microscopes to get up close and personal with the various bugs, beetles, worms and spiders we found.
Friday
Our last day!
Our morning was filled with Bubble Science. In the lab, we learned all about surface tension by dropping water onto pennies and creating milk fireworks. We blew some huge bubbles inside bubbles (inside bubbles inside bubbles…). We discovered antibubbles and made some of our own. Finally we went outside to blow some gigantic bubbles using our super-secret bubble mixture (recipe to the right) and bubble wands.
Forces and friction filled our afternoon and we designed and tested plasticine submarines. We learned the difference between static and kinetic friction and now know all about the Bloodhound Land Speed Record car.
We finished Think Week with some brilliant presentations to parents. Think Week was a fantastic success and the children were brilliant. Keep your eyes on the Think Physics website for more exciting opportunities.
Our not-top-secret-because-we-got-it-from-somewhere-else giant bubble recipe
5g Guar Gum
200ml Fairy Liquid (Original)
16g Baking Powder
4 litres of cold water
Mix the Guar Gum and the Fairy Liquid in a large bucket then gently add 4 litres of cold water. Stir the solution and add the baking powder. Next, go outside and blow some huge bubbles. Then tweet pictures of your bubbles to @thinkphysicsne
This recipe comes from NightHawkInLight. You can find his bubbles videos on YouTube here.
Giant Bubbles
Everyone loves soap bubbles. Most of us really love them. Particularly when they’re huge hovering things, hanging in the air or floating gently away.
Making large bubbles is easier than you might think. People argue endlessly over different soap mixtures (they’re a classic subject of after-dinner arguments conversation for science communicators), but standard household washing-up liquid is almost as good as even the finest formulations. The real trick is in the way you blow bubbles, as this film will show you.
This is another film from the Royal Institution’s ExpeRimental series, all of which are worth checking out.
We’ve written up an entire page about bubbles, including a beautiful way of viewing soap film colours.
Homemade lava lamp
You’ll find this activity all over the internet and in loads of science activity books, and this is a particularly nice film both illustrating it and exploring how you might use it as a family project. There’s plenty to discuss around around why some things float and others sink, and hence the concept of density.
This is another film from the Royal Institution’s excellent ExpeRimental series.
Employers
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline
What do Aquafresh toothpaste, Horlicks and Amoxil antibiotic all have in common? They’re all products created and manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). GSK is a global pharmaceutical company which has been formed through the merger of lots of different companies. There are three main areas of healthcare that GSK are involved in: GSK have offices in more than 150 countries, a network of 86 manufacturing sites in 36 countries and large R&D centres in the UK, USA, Spain, Belgium and China. In the UK GSK employ around 16,000 people across 18 sites. One of their Research and Development sites is based in Barnard Castle in the north east of England. With such a wide range of different products and brands, GSK have a wide range of careers available. Some examples of possible roles: Topics in science and maths that link to GSK and what the company does:Who Are They?
Careers
Science and Maths links
Sectors
Business, Chemical, Digital, Finance, Mechanical, Technology
Employer Size
Huge multinational
Focus/reach
Global
Worksheets
Employer Links
Palintest
Palintest
Knowing whether water is safe to drink or to use is very important. We can see when water contains large impurities like dirt and leaves, we can’t see microbes or chemicals that are lurking in there. Palintest develop and sell products that can be used to test and analyse water quality. That could be water that has been processed in a water-treatment works (sewage works) and that will be returned to the environment, or it could be water in swimming pools, hydrotherapy pools or spas. They also sell products to test soil quality through analysing the water in the soil. Palintest have a wide range of different jobs to allow them to manufacture and sell their products, and to support the customers who buy them. Topics in science and maths that link to Palintest and its products:Who Are They?
Careers
Science and Maths links
Procter and Gamble
Procter and Gamble
What do having a shower, washing the pots after dinner and changing a baby’s nappy have in common? They all involve making things cleaner. And Procter and Gamble have products which are used for all three. Procter and Gamble is a company which develops and manufactures lots of different products which help people to make their world a little bit more pleasant. The company started out making soap and candles, but now produces a wide range of home and personal care products from Fairy liquid, Pampers, Gillette, Tampax and Ariel. But not candles nowadays! The company has offices across the world. The Innovation Centre in Longbenton, Newcastle is one of the sites where new products are developed. Jobs that people working at Procter and Gamble have include: You can read about some of the people who work at P&G, and watch some short films on the company’s careers website. Topics in science and maths that link to Procter and Gamble:Who Are They?
Careers
Science and Maths links
Syngenta
Employer: Syngenta
The Challenge
The population of the world is growing. To make sure everyone has enough food to eat, we need to be able to grow nutritious food and make sure it gets to where it’s needed. However, factors such as climate change, environmental damage and the increase in the number and size of cities mean it’s getting harder for farmers to grow sufficient food.
Who are Syngenta?
Syngenta is a biotechnology company based in Switzerland, with sites across the UK, including in Grangemouth, Manchester and Huddersfield. They sell seeds, and also develop pesticides – chemical compounds which protect crops from weeds, insects and disease, which hence help to improve crop yields and reduce the proportion of crops which are destroyed. They also use selective breeding to create varieties of plants and seeds that are naturally resistant to disease and insects, or that are better at coping with the effects of heat or cold.
“One third of all pansies in the world are Syngenta pansies”
They also sell turf, ornamental plants and flowers. Flowering plants aren’t just pretty to look at: they can help promote biodiversity by sustaining pollinating insects.
Syngenta researcher Dr Melloney Morris was filmed for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faces of Chemistry project. Three short films were produced:
Sectors
Agriculture, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Logistics
Employer Size
Huge multinational
Focus/reach
Global
Worksheets
Employer Links
This resource was produced as part of the FutureMe project.
Careers
Syngenta is a very large company, with a wide range of different career routes:
- environmental scientists
- ecotoxicologists
- bioscientists
- biologists
- toxicologists
- plant pathologists
- microbiologists
- chemists
- formulation chemists
- process engineers
- chemical engineers
- construction and maintenance staff
- civil and infrastructure engineers
- data analysts
- mathematical modellers
- Accountants and financial planners
- IT specialists including software engineers
- Sales and customer support
- quality assurance managers
Science and Maths links
Topics in science and maths that link to Syngenta and what the company does:
- plant reproduction
- biodiversity
- ecosystems
- photosynthesis
- respiration
- plant cells
- eutrophication
- nutrition
- genetics
Northumbrian Water
Employer: Northumbrian Water
Who Are They?
Northumbrian Water supply water and sewerage services to over 1.3 million homes across the North-East of England. We use a lot of water – enough that Northumbrian Water measure in hundreds of megalitres. Every day. Bear in mind that just one megalitre of water weighs a thousand tonnes, and you’ll realise they move and process vast amounts of the stuff. It’s a good job they do, though, or we’d all soon (a) smell, and (b) be really thirsty. Very smelly and thirsty indeed.
To move that much water, Northumbrian Water operates a vast of network reservoirs, treatment works, pumping stations, more than 25,000 km of water mains and over 29,000 km of sewer pipes.
The company also operates Kielder Water and Forest Park in Northumberland, the largest artificial lake in the UK and host to more than 250,000 visitors a year.
High-Tech
Northumbrian Water are a higher-tech business than you might imagine, with substantial research and development efforts around reclaiming energy from waste sludge. It’s not the sort of thing that sounds glamorous, but harvesting burnable methane from decomposing sewage is the sort of technology that could have an impact on renewable energy use. It also helps sewage smell less.
Careers
With around 3,000 staff, Northumbrian Water offers a wide range of opportunities across business, science, engineering and digital fields.
Among the different roles at Northumbrian Water are:
- Microbiologist
- Water Quality Scientist
- Highways Technician
- Mechanical Engineer
- Service Desk Analyst
- Civil Engineer
- Cost Estimator
- Operational Research Engineer
- Conservation Advisor
Science and maths links
- Health and disease
- Ecosystems – material cycling
- Biodiversity
- Chemical analysis – assessing purity and separating mixtures
- Water resources and obtaining potable water
- Renewable energy sources
- Particle model of matter
Careers Worksheets
Antacid Tablets Year 9
Pharmaceutical companies develop medicines to help people. Antacid tablets are used to neutralise excess acid in the human stomach. This worksheet builds on students’ knowledge of acids and indicator colours to plot a graph of a neutralisation reaction and to describe the trend of the data.
Download
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