Volcanoes

I will be studying a volcano.

I chose Mount Fuji in Honshu, Japan. It's an active composite volcano, meaning it's a cone-shaped volcano with sills and pikes branching from the main conduit. Some of the rocks found include andesite and basalt.


I didn't do the experiment involved in this research, however, many groups chose to use a chemical reaction known as elephant's toothpaste - a reaction involving hydrogen peroxide and potassium (most people use potassium iodide, but we used potassium permanganate) - to erupt the model volcanoes they had built. Most of the volcanoes built were cinder cones, similar to composites but without the sills and pikes. One group tried to use the coke and mentos reaction (a physical reaction caused by mentos creating nucleation sites for the bubbles of carbon), but the coke turned flat before the experiment could take place.

Chemistry: Cobalt

If I were a metal element I’d like to be Cobalt and my symbol is Co.
My atomic number is 27 which means I have 27 protons in my nucleus and 27 electrons around my nucleus.
At room temperature (20 °C) I will be a solid

My melting point (the temperature when I turn from solid to liquid) is 1495 °C.
My boiling point (the temperature when I change from liquid to gas) is 2927 °C
I was first discovered by Swedish chemist Georg Brandit in 1735, in Sweden.
I am found in nature as a metal.
My uses to humans are:

• Colouring things such as glass and china, blue.
• Helping make Alnico, an alloy used in jet engines and gas turbine engines.
• Use in magnets and stainless steel.
• Being part of vitamin B12.

Some interesting things about me are:

• Despite being blue, my chloride counterpart (Cobalt Chloride - CoCl2) is actually pink.
• When put in Sodium Hydroxide, CoCl2 starts as blue and floats, before turning pink and sinking.
• Even though I'm in a vitamin, I can be very toxic!

Cobaltite

Cobalt metal

Cobalt powder

Cobalt Chloride

A vase dyed using cobalt.

The Human Heart

Extracting Kiwifruit DNA

Today in Science, we studied how to extract DNA from a living cell.

We crushed a section of kiwifruit in a mortar and pestle, before adding salt and water. We mixed it in a plastic bag, before filtering it through a cloth and adding dishwashing liquid and putting the mixture in a test tube. We warmed some water in a large beaker before warming the mixture in the water bath. Once it was warm, we added cold ethanol. Our mixture didn't quite work, we suspect it was because we didn't add enough salt.

Heating the mixure

The final product (Not ours!)