Saturday, December 20, 2008

Once Upon a Christmas Cherry in the Lab of Shakashiri

A couple of weeks ago we went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison to watch UW Chemistry Professor, Bassam Shakashiri, put on his annual "Once Upon a Christmas Cherry in the Lab of Shakashiri" Christmas presentation.

It was a lot of fun! The kids got to sit in the same lecture hall where I had Chemistry...I started to get panicky about taking exams.

We had front row seats for Bassam Shakashiri's (don't you just LOVE his name) 39th Christmas Presentation...you might be able to see it on your local PBS station. Here is the link to his website. We've seen it on TV, so it was really something to be in the front row and see it live.

Bassam likes to use a lot of color, explosions, and fire in his demonstrations...

All the balloons had different gasses in them and they each did something different when he set them on fire.

This one made a huge popping sound:

Reeve and Kyle were in awe...theire faces looked like this throughout the whole show...

Since it was the 39th Presentation Bassam's lecture focussed on the 39th Element in the Periodic table...Yttrium

It was discovered in Ytterby, Sweeden in 1794 and has been used to make the red color in color tv's (not the new flat screen kind...but the old color tv's with tubes), the crystal garnet used in radars, and other uses in lasers, camera lenses and fireproof bricks.
This is a bubble floating on carbon dioxide:

Bucky Badger came to visit and help...check out is science goggles...

After he was done helping he got Kyle to sit on his lap!

Santa came to help too!

After the show we went and picked out some VOCfree paint and floor tiles for the bathroom...I would like to get this project done before the baby comes in April...I'm actually hoping to finish the bathroom and paint/tile the adjoining bedroom. I was under the false assumption that Tom would have more time to work on the house when he went into business for himself, but he's still working 6-7 days a week! When he's not working he's been shoveling snow and chopping firewood. We've had the 6th snowiest December sincd 1881!
I recently had a visit with my midwife and all is well with baby and me. The baby has been very active...especially around 3-4am. I have a feeling I'll have another early morning baby...it seems they know that's a good time because I'm not doing anything important...only sleeping :-).
While we were at the midwife's house we got to see her calf that was born 2 weeks ago...so precious!