The nanoworld and recreational science this month in “De Copas con Ciencia”
The nanoworld and recreational science this month in “De Copas con Ciencia”
On Thursday 25 April a new session of “De Copas con Ciencia” will take place, this time focusing on the nanoworld, with an experimental part, where we can all play with science.
De copas con ciencia is an initiative that aims to satisfy the scientific curiosity of the population in a relaxed, entertaining and fun way, in leisure time, bringing it to the bars. The activity is aimed at anyone with a scientific curiosity, without the need for specific training in science, and aims to be a meeting point for science lovers, in order to facilitate the creation of scientific debates between experts and the general public.
The activity is organised by the research institutes, ISQCH (Institute of Chemical Synthesis and Homogeneous Catalysis) and INMA (Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute), both joint centres of the CSIC and the University of Zaragoza, and will be repeated periodically on the last Thursday of each month. During these sessions, topics related to chemistry, nanotechnology and materials science will be discussed.
During these sessions, topics related to chemistry, nanotechnology and materials science will be discussed.
The next session, with free admission, will take place on 25 April at 20:00 at El Sótano Mágico, Calle San Pablo 43, Zaragoza http://elsotanomagico.com/ and will feature Santiago Sarasa, researcher at INMA, and a special guest, Fernando Rived, teacher at the Colegio Santo Domingo de Silos.
- Recreational Science: experiments for under 100s – Fernando Rived
Science is often seen as something distant, complicated, and that can only be learned with books and theoretical classes… but this is not so, since, through simple experiments, which can be performed from very young children to the elderly, we can bring concepts as diverse as non-Newtonian fluids, chemical reactions and fluid dynamics.
We have been implementing this science teaching methodology for many years at the Santo Domingo de Silos School, through the Science Club, in which ESO and Bachillerato students teach science to the youngest students, being an example of a Learning and Service project.
Fernando Rived is a chemist, teacher and science populariser as well as a climate activist and nature enthusiast. After working in the pharmaceutical industry, Fernando Rived has been working since 2009 at the Colegio Santo Domingo de Silos where he is a teacher of ESO-Bachillerato, Head of the Natural Sciences Department, coordinator of the Science Club and coordinator of the environmental education project “EcoSilos”.
- The molecule of life in the nanoworld – Santiago Sarasa
The specific bonding of DNA base pairs provides the chemical basis of genetics. This powerful molecular recognition system can be used in nanotechnology to direct the assembly of highly structured materials with specific characteristics at the nanoscale (1 to 100 nm). The exploitation of DNA for material purposes presents a new chapter in the history of the molecule, in a rather young field called “DNA nanotechnology”.
Santiago Sarasa graduated in Chemistry (Unizar) and did his master’s degree in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (University of Valencia) before joining the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon (INMA) as a pre-doctoral student. I am currently working on my thesis at INMA, under the supervision of Silvia Hernández-Ainsa and Jesús del Barrio, working on DNA-polymer assemblies for their possible use in biomedicine.
The session will be complemented by a face-to-face Hi Score Science competition aimed at the general public, which will reward the scientific knowledge acquired by those attending the session.
Hi Score Science is a game of questions and answers about science, in Spanish and English, with versions in French and Basque, for mobile devices, iOS and Android and for Linux, Windows and iOS, which is developed between the two research institutes, the ISQCH and INMA, which allows to include explanations of the scientific reality behind each of the answers. The game can be downloaded free of charge and without advertising at Apple Store https://goo.gl/q1NjKyand Play Store: https://goo.gl/GgWq6N and for Windows, iOS and Linux at www.HiScoreScience.org. In addition, the app allows users to participate in the project by submitting their own questions via a dedicated website www.hiscorescience.org.
