We asked you to send us an interesting, creative celebration of chemistry around the home - today we announce whose we liked the best
A little later than anticipated, I'm pleased to announce the result of our Bill Bryson iPad competition.
Up for grabs was a digital copy of Bill's excellent book "At Home", and an Apple iPad to read it on.
We had many fantastic entries, and a few weeks ago I drew up a shortlist. This got a tremendous amount of feedback in the comments section and via email.
Two entries in particular were outstanding, and we were having a really tough time deciding between the two. So tough, in fact, that we just couldn't pick between them.
We were so pleased to see such enthusiasm for chemistry, and well-crafted entries, from the entrants that we decided to award them both a joint first place, and award an iPad each. The joint winners are Aarti and Jyoti Sehdev for their "Epic Chemistry" rap, and Tim Williams for his myth-busting egg-whites video.
Of course our other shortlisted entries were also fantastic, so a huge thanks to them for sending us their fascinating insights into home chemistry.
Congratulations to both our winners! Here's a little breakdown of why we thought they were deserving winners.
Chemical creativity: Epic Chemistry
Aarti and Jyoti's chemistry rap is a rollercoaster ride through the enormous amount of chemistry we use and take for granted in our everyday lives. When they submitted the words to their rap, I asked if they could record it and they quickly obliged:
Somehow they managed to stitch some complicated chemistry into a flowing piece of lyrical genius. I particuarly like the section on E numbers at the end (we've talked about this on this site before) but they manage to cover the chemistry of heat, light, tastes, glues, indigestion, soap and so many other things!
It's smart, it rhymes and it stays in time, and it eloquently puts across just how much chemistry there is in the average day. Fantastic stuff guys - well done!
Kitchen myth-busting: Chemistry in Whisking Egg Whites
Tim's clever animation explores a question I'd wondered about myself - how do egg yolks affect whisking up egg whites? I make American-style pancakes for breakfast on a Sunday morning quite a lot, and I'm always really careful to make sure I don't get even the smallest bit of yolk in the whites before whisking. My mother told me I'd just get flat, lifeless pancakes if I didn't!
Enter Tim, who decided to find out for himself what the reality was. Nothing beats a good eggsperiment (sorry) so he learned about the chemistry involved in foaming, then put it to the test, trying different mixes of yolk and egg and observing the results.
I found the conclusion surprising, and I'm a chemist - turns out a little bit of yolk doesn't really do much harm to foaming. Of course if I'd known a bit more about the chemistry, like Tim, I would have been able to work that out, and I wouldn't spend quite so long being eggstra careful (sorry again) on Sunday mornings.
It's all laid out in a well-edited, easy-to-follow video that unfortunately I can't embed in this page. Here's a link to see the full thing: http://animoto.com/play/5wGootw8171ANrajUZzk0A.
Busting a common kitchen myth with some great chemistry knowledge made Tim a deserving award winner.
So a huge thank you and very well done to everyone, but especially Aarti, Jyoti and Tim. I've really enjoyed seeing all the creative ways you've shown us the chemistry of your homes.
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