Welcome to our first Ask a Scientist article, where we answer your burning questions about science! These questions were sent to us by some of the students at Trinity Catholic School in Richmond, and they were answered by Dr Romina Lessene, who is a chemist working at WEHI.
You can read more about Romina at the end of this article.
Why do things explode? – Juno, 10
The reason an explosion occurs is because certain chemicals react with each other in a very impressive way. The reaction between these chemicals releases a lot of energy in the form of light, sound and heat which is what we see as an explosion.
How do you make a giant explosion, like mentos and coke? – Nathaniel, aged 11
How do things react, like coca cola and mentos? – Melina, 10
Even more impressive is the reaction between hydrogen peroxide (used to dye hair) and potassium iodide with some dishwashing liquid thrown in! This reaction actually breaks a chemical bond in the hydrogen peroxide molecule to form oxygen and water. The reaction releases A LOT of heat and you will get a stream of bubbles from your reaction flask because the oxygen is trapped in the bubbles from the soap. The more hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodide you use the bigger the explosion of bubbles.
You can see a video of this reaction here. Because this is a very big explosion and the foam is very hot, it is also very dangerous (and very messy!). This is not a good experiment to do at home, and you will definitely want adult supervision for this one!
What are the effects of chlorine gas? – Finn, 12
You might be familiar with the smell of chlorine after you’ve been in a pool. Well, when chlorine is used in the right amount, it can be helpful because in a pool, it kills nasty bacteria that could make you sick.
However, chlorine gas can be very toxic. Just how toxic it is depends on how much you are exposed to and for how long. At low concentrations (so just a little bit), chlorine gas irritates your eyes and and the lining of your mouth. You might have noticed this when you go swimming! But at higher concentrations, chlorine will make it very hard for you to breathe. At very high concentrations (so heaps of it!), chlorine gas will kill you, and unfortunately it has been used to do this during war.
Do you on purpose make stuff blow up? – Matilda, 11
I work in a lab that makes new medicines so we really don’t want to make a medicine that will blow up! However, there are other scientists that use chemistry to make things blow up on purpose. For example, to launch a rocket into space, you need to create a HUGE explosion that will release so much energy it will propel the rocket into space.
Pyrotechnicians design fireworks and they definitely make things blow up on purpose!
Do you make explosions?
If yes, how do you make them? – Eddie, 8
The chemists that work in our lab don’t make explosions, we make medicines to help people feel better when they are sick. If we make an explosion, it was an accident and we didn’t mean to do it. I could tell you how to make them, but that wouldn’t be very safe because explosions are very dangerous!
Dr Romina Lessene is part of a team of chemists who works at WEHI. Romina designs and makes molecules that hopefully one day can be used as medicines to cure diseases. The molecules that are being made at the moment stop cells from dying, which can help in treating diseases like Alzheimer’s, where cells die when they shouldn’t. Other molecules she synthesises actually cause cells to die. These can be helpful in treating cancer, where cells grow too much, and do not die.
Romina has had a passion for science from a very young age and has always wanted to help people through science. Chemistry is her absolute favourite science because everything in our universe relies on chemistry! The best part about being a scientist is that you are doing research and finding out new things about our world that we didn’t know before, which is really exciting.
Do you have a question you would like to ask a scientist? Visit our Ask a Scientist page and leave us a message – we will do our best to answer!
Team WEHI Relay for Life 