Periodic Videos

A few days ago I went to a fun lecture 'From test tube to YouTube', given by Professor Martyn Poliakoff from the University of Nottingham. He has a YouTube channel, and a website with a short video for every element in the periodic table. If you were interested in my post on Carbon, I definitely recommend his video for carbon. He and his team have also made videos relating to topical events like the olympic games, Nobel Prizes, and the nuclear accident in Japan. One of his most recent videos, and apparently one of his favourites, is this one where he cuddles a koala and talks about the chemistry of eucalyptus oil. He is also very well known for his chemistry themed ties, and his hair! He is now in the Guinness Book of World Records for the world's smallest periodic table, etched on one of his hairs.

The physicists at the University of Nottingham have also got in on the act and also have a series of videos about some of the symbols used in physics. 

All very geeky and fun and I've just wasted a lot of time watching!

Green Desire

I recently came across a brilliant store called Mio, which has a range of beautiful, functional, sustainable products ranging from furniture, through lighting and accessories, and including some fascinating paper forms for surface coverings. And I want most of what they sell!

When I clicked my way through their website, I found their philosophy page, where they explain their principle of Green Desire. They define this as 'when consumers actually crave products that are sustainable and responsible'. And their way of contributing to that cultural shift is by creating 'responsible products that are both beautiful and affordable'.

This notion of Green Desire is one to which I can strongly relate. At times I think that we have stuffed up our planet to such a degree that we're on a one way path to complete self destruction. But I also think that if we have any hope of limiting this self destruction, we need major cultural shifts. These shifts include in our energy use, and in our resource consumption. Consumerism seems such a huge part of the culture of today, and eliminating that desire for more and more goods seems unlikely at best. But maybe changing the type of goods craved is a more reasonable step.

New store!

Young Republic is an online marketplace for Australian designers, and includes categories for women, men, kids, jewellery, and home + life. There is some fabulous stuff on there, and I'm really excited to be part of it too. And today I'm particularly excited to be featured on the front page, featuring hot new arrivals. To go directly to my store, click on the badge on the right.

Carbon

Carbon is a bit of a hot topic at the moment, so I thought it might be a good day to talk about this piece:

The picture is of a necklace featuring a wood pendant with the element carbon as it is on a periodic table. Trees incorporate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into biomass, and by making objects from this wood the carbon remains stored (in a particularly geeky memento).

Carbon is a pretty amazing element. To me one of the most intriguing things about it is how many different forms it can take - from graphite (soft enough to use for writing) to diamond (one of the hardest materials known, and a fair bit more valuable than graphite!). My favourite of its allotropes are the fullerenes, particularly buckminsterfullerene (not least because they make fantastic modular origami pieces using PHiZZ units). Buckminsterfullerene is made of 60 carbon atoms, and is shaped like a soccer ball. One of its claims to fame is that it is the largest matter to have been shown to exhibit wave-particle duality.

I'm hoping to take this carbon on/ in wood idea a bit further with coasters, and maybe even some form of table.

Business cards

Introducing the new IdeaLiza business cards...

Each card is also a seed packet, containing sunflower seeds. The paper I've used is acid free 100% recycled light brown paper, and I think goes really well with the seed packet design.

Hopefully people will grow their own sunflowers, and see the cool patterns in the flower head.