Cambridge Chemist Dr Peter Wothers took an explosive look at gases in a lecture to mark National Chemistry Week.

Cambridge Chemist Dr Peter Wothers took an explosive look at gases in a lecture to mark National Chemistry Week.

Dr Peter Wothers producing spectacular effects with exploding gases.

The lecture, All About Air,took the form of a series of experiments designed to show how the different gases which make up the air we all breathe can combine and react with each other.

Hundreds of excited school children crowded into the lecture theatre to watch Dr Wothers' presentation, which included setting fire to a hydrogen balloon and a demonstration of how nitrogen is used to inflate a car airbag.

Other experiments included taking a look at the strange effects that helium can have on the voice and showing how the hydrogen and oxygen which make up water molecules can be separated and explosively recombined.

Dr Wothers repeated the presentation in the evening for the general public.


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