Chemistry is exciting! Chemistry is vital in our lives!

Those are the messages Dr. Geoff Rayner-Canham, and Amy Snook, both of Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, took to some schools on the Labrador and Quebec coasts earlier this month.

Since the early 1990s, Dr. Rayner-Canham has been performing in Corner Brook a show geared toward high school students which illustrates the crucial role chemistry plays in everyday lives. “Chemistry is all around us and yet the chemistry that students learn in high school is strictly stuff that goes on in the science lab,” he explains. “I wanted students to appreciate the importance of chemistry, as well as the fact that chemistry is interesting.”

Encouraged by student, and teacher, response, Dr. Rayner-Canham began exploring the possibility of taking the Chemistry is Everywhere! show further afield. Three years ago, he obtained a grant from the Promo Science program of the National Science and Engineering Research Council to bring the show to schools in Labrador.

In May, 2005, Dr. Rayner-Canham returned to Labrador with an improved version of the show; this one including demonstrations, slides and video. Chemistry is Everywhere! is divided into segments, the first of which looks at the new materials chemists are synthesizing and which will improve life in this century. Among other props, a diaper is used to demonstrate the role of water-hating and water-loving compounds, and there is an explanation of how cosmetics are a part of the chemical industry.

“The carmine red in some lipsticks comes from a most unexpected source. It's a chemical compound found only in the female cochineal beetle that lives on cacti in Mexico,” Dr. Rayner-Canham explains. “The tiny beetles are killed, dried, ground up, and the cochineal pigment extracted from their remains. This intense red chemical compound makes one of the favorite lipstick colors.

“The compound is also used as a food coloring,” he adds. “For example, it is sometimes used to provide a pleasant pink tint to cooked shrimp. Though it would be possible to syntheze this safe dye in the chemical lab, it is much cheaper to let the cochineal beetle do the synthesis for us. Besides, the harvesting of the female beetle provides employment in a poor part of Mexico.”

The show's next segment includes demonstrations of chemical reactions that have unusual applications. They show how chemists make a harmless compound that is used in stomach X-rays and the compound that provides the intense yellow lines on highways.

Consumer chemistry is the next topic. “The students find this part of the show the most relevant to their lives,” the chemistry professor says. Dr. Rayner-Canham explains how fresh pineapple was once placed on pork or ham to soften the tough meat. “Pineapple juice contains an enzyme that seeps into the meat, breaking down the fibres,” he explains. “Today, we put tinned pineapple on these meats. When the pineapple is canned, it is heat treated, killing the enzyme so that the pineapple juice no longer works as a tenderizer. Thus, we have long forgotten the reason for the link between the meat and the fruit.”

Dr. Rayner-Canham also explains why lemon is served with fish. “This is all to do with acids and bases. Fish contain a class of compounds called bases which give fish the characteristic fishy odor. To neutralize a base, we use acids. Lemon juice contains ascorbic and citric acids, so by squeezing droplets of lemon juice over the fish, we neutralize the fishy smell.”

Very strong acids and bases are used in household cleaners. Dr. Rayner-Canham performs a convincing demonstration that proves how corrosive these cleaners are. He tells students that just as they must use eye protection when handling dangerous materials in the lab, so should they (and their parents) protect their eyes and hands when using corrosive cleaning chemicals.

The importance of reading labels on consumer products is also brought home during the show. Dr. Rayner-Canham highlights this by showing the difference between regular and low-fat margarine. While the former is mostly fat, the latter is up to 70 percent water. He argues that consumers spend the same amount of money, or more, for a product that is mostly water and which makes toast “soggy and inedible. Consumers don't need to do the experiment,” he adds. “The label on low-fat margarine identifies water as the major constituent.”

All this demonstrates the importance of chemistry in every aspect of our lives. “Even in the jungles, the depths of the oceans and on other planets and moons, fascinating chemistry is occurring,” Dr. Rayner-Canham says. The show closes with a description of the crucial role of environmental chemistry. Dr. Rayner-Canham also notes that Sir Wilfred Grenfell College has a full degree program specializing in environmental chemistry.

On the earlier visits to Labrador, Dr. Rayner-Canham was accompanied by former environmental chemistry student Christina Smeaton, a 2004 graduate now doing environmental biogeochemical research at the University of Windsor. His new assistant was Amy Snook, a third-year environmental chemistry student. “There is no way the show could be put on without the help of such dynamic and enthusiastic young colleagues,” Dr. Rayner-Canham says.

The duo visited D.C. Young Academy in Port Hope Simpson; St. Mary's All-Grade, Mary's Harbour; Our Lady of Labrador, West St. Modeste; St. Theresa's School, Blanc Sablon; and St. Paul's School, St. Paul's Inlet. The principal of the latter arranged for students from Mountain Ridge School in Old Fort to be bused in for the show.

“The high point for me was the looks on the faces of the really young kids. They were totally fascinated,” Snook says.

“The schools in Labrador invite Kindergarten to Level 3 students to attend,” Dr. Rayner-Canham explains. “The little kids don't understand the principles of chemistry but they are mind boggled by seeing the properties of novel materials, such as memory metal, and by the chemical changes, particularly making a rubber ball. The reception we get is wonderful. You come away fired up with adrenaline.

“We need to make students aware of the many job opportunities that await them if they have a scientific background,” he adds. “Even if they don't have the opportunity to do chemistry at their grade school, they can come to Grenfell where we offer a beginning course in the subject. In fact, my current student-colleague Amy Snook didn't study chemistry until she came to the college. She is now the recipient of the third year silver medal for excellence in environmental chemistry.”

Dr. Rayner-Canham will apply to have the grant renewed for another three years. “These national awards are intensely competitive, but I think it's absolutely crucial that we continue to visit Labrador and coastal Quebec schools to show the students the excitement of science, and chemistry in particular,” he says. “If successful, I hope to add remote schools on Newfoundland's south coast to my itinerary.”