EYCN Contests

Last updated 26/02/2022

Chemistry Rediscovered

2022

We are proud to present the winners of the 3rd edition of our video competition: Chemistry Rediscovered – the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Video Competition. Firstly, we want to thank all participants, supporters, and judges and especially the Wilkinson Charitable Foundation for their generous support. Young chemists of 12-35 years old were invited to send in videos on the theme “Safety in Chemistry”. The winners were selected from an international jury and will be awarded with prizes ranging from books to a trip to the EuChemS Chemistry Congress in in Lisbon in 2022.

Pupils:

1st Place: Hiskia Barthel, Jette Götz and Sophia Müller – Topic: The Story of a Glowing Destiny

Safety in chemistry is really important. Whether this is keeping oneself safe and away from harm or keeping the environment safe by being careful when disposing of potentially toxic chemicals. Safety measures are relevant during every step of any chemical experiment.

To show this, we chose to record the popular science experiment “The Humming Gummy Bear” that demonstrates the massive amount of energy stored inside of sugar with the help of melted potassium chlorate. To make our video more engaging, a brave gummy bear volunteered to sacrifice himself while explaining the whole experiment and the various safety measures that have to be observed at different stages of the experiment.

While our focus was on the importance of safety when experimenting, we did not want to neglect the excitement chemistry experiments can generate. This is why we wanted to present this specific experiment, as it is, undoubtedly, very impressive in its reaction.

2nd Place: Annalena Wallner, Paula Walz and Sophia Lieby – Topic: Safety in an Entertaining Way

Our video tries to present safety rules necessary for experimenting in an entertaining and understandable way. The first scene shows a group of students in their chemistry classroom. While the teacher is explaining something, the narrator talks about how boring security briefings in school can be. He introduces the student Max, who is daydreaming about possible consequences of disobeying the safety rules. Now the view changes, we are inside his thought bubble. After hearing the first rule from the teacher, “Wearing a laboratory coat during the experiments is obligatory.”, we hear Max explain the situation we see: One of his classmates could refuse to wear a lab coat. But if she accidentally poured acid over her, she would maybe overthink this refusal, as chemical burns are not funny. The next rule which is introduced is “All chemicals produced while experimenting have to be disposed as special waste”. Max thinks about how much easier normal disposal would be, knowing that his teacher always insists on this rule. But he also thinks about his aquarium and that he wouldn’t want any chemicals inside of it either. Now he starts to understand the rule as he imagines chemicals in a lake as well. The third rule which is explained is “It is also highly important to wear safety glasses during experiments.” This rule immediately makes him think of an incident he once experienced himself during a chemistry lesson, which we can see vividly. Another student managed to make his test tube explode. Pieces of glass flew all around, and even though nobody got hurt, Max was spooked. He admits that he was glad about the safety glasses at that moment. After all this, he comes to the conclusion that safety rules are not as useless as he thought before.

3rd Place: Woolyn Cho – Topic: White Phosphorous

My video “White Phosphorus – Dangerous Doppelganger” is about the danger posed by white phosphorus. Because it is so dangerous, you need to be more careful and know the safety rules. A few months ago, I read an article about the visual similarity between amber and white phosphorus. Many tourists come to the Baltic Sea in Germany and collect amber there. However, they need to be careful as they can then collect white phosphorus, which can ignite. There were also many accidents with white phosphorus in the past because in earlier matchsticks phosphorus and the oxidizer were not separated and ignited. If I hadn’t read this article on the Internet, as a tourist I would not have been so attentive to the dangers of collecting amber. Plus, not everyone reads what is written on the signs. So, the main purpose of the submitted video is to show the dangers of white phosphorus visually and how to avoid and act in case of an accident. Of course, there are many other harmful chemicals (but there are also essential chemicals since everything is chemistry!), however, I wanted to visualize which danger we encounter although we do not work in laboratories. In my opinion, it is important to explain to people that we and chemistry coexist and that we have to know how to maintain coexistence peacefully.

Student:

1st Place: Sophia Marie Castillo, Aira Dacasin, Jeff Howell Hernandez and Danielle May Lozanes – Topic: General Laboratory Safety

Here in the video, we introduce some common laboratory safety techniques, including wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment, not eating or drinking inside the laboratory, keeping everything clean and organized, knowing the emergency procedures, and reporting the accidents to the laboratory supervisors. Accidents are inevitable when experimentors are careless and ignorant in the laboratory. In order to prevent these kinds of unfortunate events, conducting appropriate safety measures are necessary. Furthermore, practicing these general safety techniques would lessen the risk of exposure to the potential hazards that may harm the laboratory personnel and the environment. In summary, we wanted to emphasize through this video the basic rules and preventive measures that one is expected to practice to avoid any contamination and accidents within the laboratory.

2nd Place: Wouter Van Hoey, Sander Bossier and Radu-George Ciocarlan – Topic: General Lab Safety Rules

As beautiful as the chemical industry is, a lot of risks are involved, forcing all participating parties to be extremely cautious. Hence, safety is paramount. This is perfectly captured by Benjamin Franklin’s quote “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, which signifies that safety should be the number one priority all over the world.

Being a general target, safety is everyone’s personal responsibility. Therefore, for us chemists, safety already starts before entering a laboratory. With this video we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight, in a unique way, the appropriate wardrobe for working in a laboratory. Moreover, in order to inspire young chemists we decided to play into the strengths and interests of their generations, namely smartphones and social media, by making a TikTok inspired video.

When performing research on TikTok, one of the latest trends is to perform a change of clothes when the beat drops in the song ‘All The Way Up’ from Fat Joe, Remy Ma and French Montana. Therefore, we decided to be creative with this trend and visualize the fact that one is only allowed in a laboratory when appropriately dressed. More specifically, if an inappropriately dressed person tries to enter the laboratory, a red light flickers and the door will not open. Only after a specific adjustment to the clothing this person will receive a green light granting access to the laboratory.

In order to be consistent with the smartphone idea we pasted our own video on the website of EuChemS, as can be seen at the start of the video, and we tried to mimic an up-swiping motion on a smartphone when one scene transitions to another.

Finally, by making our video non-spoken we hope to achieve that our video can serve for educational purposes in different countries, allowing us to contribute to worldwide Safety in Chemistry.

3rd Place: Romel Paul B. Hilario, Alyssa Reina P. Moneda, Joanna C. Rivero and Joseph Michael G. Sioson – Topic: Often Overlooked Safety Aspects

In the animation we created, we chose seven most important practices in a chemistry laboratory. These things are the most common practices that are being taken for granted. As Biochemistry students, we have chemistry laboratory classes, and the things we mentioned in the video are the practices we as a group observed that tend to be overlooked.

First is learning the experiment before doing it makes the work more efficient and lessens the potential accidents in an experiment. The next most important and always skipped part while doing chemistry experiments is wearing PPE. Some students only wear one out of the three mentioned PPE for chemistry laboratory when they work, which can contribute to severe accidents, such as chemical spills or splashes, when not followed. As for doing horseplay inside the laboratory, it is common for students to do this when they get bored doing tedious experiments, which can also lead to accidents. Another practice that some students do when working in the laboratory is wearing makeup and eating inside. Makeup has components that may react with some chemicals we usually use in the lab, which can be dangerous for the person wearing it and their lab mates. Food can also affect one’s work as it may contaminate their work and vice versa. And lastly, for chemical handling, students tend to forget the two most important factors; the concept of acid to water to prevent unwanted reactions and proper chemical waste disposal as this can damage the laboratory’s sewage system and can also affect the environment. These are just some of the most important factors that needed to be taken note of as a chemistry or biochemistry student. This can prevent students and their surroundings from being harmed as they carry on with their work.

2021

We are happy to announce the launch of the 3rd edition of our video competition Chemistry Rediscovered, which is supported by the Wilkinson Charitable Foundation. All young chemists and interested people of 12-35 years old are invited to send in videos on the theme “Safety in Chemistry”. The best videos will be awarded wonderful prizes and the main prize will be a trip to the EuChemS Chemistry Congress in Lisbon in 2022! Read more in our info sheet!

All details about the competition and how to participate can be found in the Rules and Regulations. For any further questions you may have, please contact Sebastian Balser. Make sure to send us your video (and the filled out submission form) before 30th of September 2021!

2019

2019 marked the 150th anniversary of Dimitri Mendeleev’s development of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. That is why, the United Nations has proclaimed 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT 2019). Being the best “friend” of a scientist for predicting the appearance and properties of the matter, the Periodic Table of the Elements represents one of the most significant achievements in science.
To join in this special celebration, EYCN organized the second edition of its video competition Chemistry Rediscovered in honour of the IYPT. We are proud to present you the winners below!

1st Place over 18 – Marco Carlotti

Chemistry is all around us. At any moment, wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we are always surrounded by atoms from all over the periodic table combined in countless ways to make the molecules.
On our daily basis, we are more likely to interact with molecules rather than single elements: this is because our needs – from smartphones, to food, to the very processes that happen in our cells – require a level complexity that elements alone cannot provide.
Their rarity is the reason why everyone always feels a spark of curiosity when interacting with a pure element. It is true that nowadays, thanks to chemical technologies, we have an easy access to many pure elements – like the aluminum foil in your kitchen or copper in electric wires –, yet one cannot but feel amazement when seeing a new pure element for the first time.
Maybe for this reason, finding pure elements in nature can be extremely fascinating. Unfortunately, only a handful of them can exist in such ‘native’ state, and the chances of finding one decrease as we move away, in terms of periodic table, from the noble metals like gold, platinum, and silver. But there are exceptions!
In this video I traveled to a geothermal spot among the hills of central Italy, to show how and where you can find your own elemental Sulfur, one of the few non-metals that can be found pure and not bound to any other element. But beware – as often in chemistry – it won’t smell nice! https://www.youtube.com/embed/wzZoeDHdhEo

2nd Place over 18 – Louis Godeffroy, Auriane Perrin and My-An Tran

This video aims at familiarizing the general public to the lesser known, still very useful element that is gallium. In fact, gallium was found in many electronic devices we use every day as a semiconductor dopant or as a semiconductor itself when it is bound to nitrogen to form gallium nitride. The latter is likely to replace silicon-based semiconductors in the near future due to its exceptional properties. This video also emphasizes on the impact of Mendeleev’s theory of the periodic table in the sense that most of the gallium’s properties, such as its low melting point, and even its existence (eka-aluminium) had been predicted by Mendeleev himself thanks to the periodic table. Gallium was discovered in 1875, a few years after Mendeleev’s predictions, by French chemist Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran. As mentioned before, it has a remarkably low melting point of 29.7 °C. This enables one to mold metallic objects without being burnt. In the video, a variant of the famous mercury beating heart using the non-toxic gallium is shown. Gallium also has a few academic applications such as in Focused Ion Beam or to synthesize oxide thin films on the surface of gallium droplets. https://www.youtube.com/embed/avN67waafLY

3rd Place over 18 – Jana Čimžar, Domen Otorepec and Mark Selan

The purpose of the submitted video is to broaden horizons about the importance of chemical element carbon and to present its impacts on mankind.
Carbon nucleus 12C is formed during nuclear fusion process which occurs in stars, where enormous temperature and pressure are assured. During the fusion process two helium nuclei 4He combine to form a beryllium nucleus 8Be. Due to instability of the latter one another fusion process with helium nucleus 4He follows. Since three alpha particles are included in fusion process to form carbon nucleus 12C, the process is named triple alpha process. During fusion processes gamma rays are emitted.
Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium and oxygen. It is a structural important element of essential molecules of life as it is presented in proteins, carbohydrates, lipids as also in nucleic acids, e.g. DNA.
In 1869 Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev designed the first periodic table, in which he classified chemical elements and predicted accurately the properties of in that time yet unknown chemical elements. Among other elements also carbon appeared in the first periodic table.
Carbon in various forms caused an enormous impact on human life in history, e.g. black gunpowder was partly composed of it, as a principal source of energy it played an important role in industrial revolution, usage for writing with graphite pencils, carbon paper was used for making copies, carbon was also included in wars because of diamond mining, discovery of fullerenes and ground breaking 2D material graphene were awarded with Nobel prizes in 1996 and 2010, discovery of
nanotubes, etc.
In the end, a practical use of carbon is demonstrated through the experiment where with dehydration of sugar (sucrose), H2SO4 and followed activation with CaCl2 activated carbon was prepared. The latter was then used as a filtration agent as it was added to a stirring yellow coloured solution KI/I2 that was afterwards filtered. Due to adsorption of iodine on activated carbon, the filtered solution resulted as purified water. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_fE4LTr2Fks

1st Place under 18 – Daniel Estrada Ramírez, Petronela Oltita Ghitoaica, Emma Juanpere Colomina and Jhasmin Edith Suarez Santalla

The main purpose of this video was to show you how to tackle with Chemistry in a different way instead of using the traditional approach. We tried to find a didactic and creative way to convey a visual and entertaining idea in order to get closer to the viewer.
Have you ever wondered about what would the elements of the periodic table be like if they were human?
We have moved thus into our High School scenario experimenting with the periodic table trying to explore how it could be like if the elements behaved like real teenagers. We have represented the most known elements and we have personified them by assigning each one a personality, taking into account their intrinsic chemical characteristics. Then, we have created a storyline for them to live together, as they do in nature, but adapted to their school background. All this was done in order to show people unconventional ways of how the elements work, because new methods to transmit the passion for chemistry can be found while innovating and using one’s imagination. https://www.youtube.com/embed/edd_LmWN7QQ

2nd Place (shared) under 18 – Emmanouil Dimitroulakis, Evangelia Galanaki, Georgios Grammatikakis, Theodoros Papatzanakis and Teacher: Ioannis Chatzidakis

The video “In your element: iodine” features physical, chemical and biological properties of the iodine element. In the first part, we demonstrate the transitions between solid and gaseous states of iodine. The purple iodine fumes as well as the shiny iodine crystals formed make this demonstration experiment really impressive.
Next, we perform a variant of “the iodine clock” reaction(s). It is a classical chemistry experiment in which the abrupt color changes make it suitable both for teaching reaction kinetics and chemistry demonstrations. We timed the color development with pouring making it more spectacular and then we decolorized the solution just to bring the color back after a few seconds!
Digging in biochemistry, we show under the microscope the characteristic coloration, shape and patterns of potato starch granules as stained with iodine/iodide solution (Lugol). Then we highlight the importance of iodine as a micronutrient in human diet and we show a small part of a titration method for determining supplemented potassium iodide in table salt.
Finally, a tiny amount of the contact explosive nitrogen triiodide is detonated (NI3). (Note: Nitrogen triiodide was synthesized and let dry by the supervisor.)
Music is excerpts from “1812 Overture” by P. I. Tchaikovsky. It was chosen because of its vibrance and rhythm and some notable parallelisms with our video: “1812 overture” was synthesized in commemoration of important Napoleonic war battles. At the same time, in 1811, iodine was serendipitously discovered during saltpeter preparation which was in need during Napoleonic wars! Moreover, NI3 was first synthesized in 1812! https://www.youtube.com/embed/PWQbvRiGfns

2nd Place (shared) under 18 – Laura Gili Camino and Tessa Forns Carrera

Life is quite complex and a living organism is composed of many different cells, which work together through a perfect regulation of multiple molecular pathways. This video shows us which chemical elements are most important for the composition of our bodies and explains their main purpose and abundance. https://www.youtube.com/embed/XdN83ESfz-8

2018/2019

To join in the special celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT 2019), EYCN organizes the second edition of its video competition Chemistry Rediscovered in honor of the IYPT. All young chemists and interested people of 12-35 years old are invited to send in videos on the theme “In Your Element”. The best videos will be awarded wonderful Periodic Table related prizes and the main prize will be a trip to Paris! Read more in our Info sheet CR2018!

All details about the competition and how to participate can be found in the Rules and Regulations. For any further questions you may have, please contact the EYCN Science Team at . Make sure to send us your video before the 31st of January 2019!

2017

Chemistry Rediscovered – Playing with chemical reactions

On behalf of the European Young Chemists’ Network (EYCN), the younger members division of the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuChemS), we are very thankful for your participation in this first edition of the European video contest – Chemistry Rediscovered. This contest intended to promote chemistry among the young high-school students from all Europe. This was achieved with the help of teachers who developed scientific projects together with their students and encouraged them to present their findings in a form of a video-experiment, together with an accurate experimental protocol. We received a total of 15 amazing videos and experimental protocols from 8 participant countries and the quality and originality of the projects exceeded all expectations for this inaugural edition. It was a pleasure to watch every single one of them!

Please find below the overall classification of this competition and the videos that won the first three places.

Chemistry Rediscovered – Final results

1st Place2nd Place2nd Place2nd Place3rd Place
PortugalPortugalGreeceItalyBelgium
Watch VideoWatch VideoWatch VideoWatch VideoWatch Video

Here are some photos of the winners in 2016 from Portugal, enjoying their victory trip to London!
Thank you once again for your participation, we definitely hope to have you as participants in our upcoming events!

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After a very successful project, the EYCN wants to thank our partner EVONIK and our sponsors BASF Romania and Brenntag Romania for all the help and support they contributed and an amazing cooperation.

Poster ChemRediscovered
CHEM RED SPONS
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You can read previous Rules and Regulations and Project Application for Chemistry Rediscovered 2016.

2020

On earth day (April 22nd) the EYCN and RSC’s Photochimica 2020 competition came to an end.
The best photo winner is Philipp Gotico and is entitled Out of the Wasteland.

Did you know that it already takes more than one planet to absorb all our current solid wastes? There are existing efforts to reduce and recycle them, but they are often faced with the limitation of weakened material properties. Inspired by how plant roots can reinforce soil, we imagine that combining both plastic and agricultural wastes would result to better recycled materials. The scanning electron microscopy image shows how coconut fibers interact with blends of plastic and styrofoam wastes, raw from the dumpsite! These fiber-reinforced plastic composites can act as brick road alternatives, paving the way to sustainable future.

 
Best photo runner-up is Melanie Nutter with Glow and behold.

Could sunlight be the answer to our energy demands? Highly fluorescent organic compounds can have the potential to act as photocatalysts – using light to initiate and drive a chemical reaction. With interest in chemical processes shifting towards environmental sustainability, photochemistry is an attractive option as there is no need to heat the reaction and many organophotocatalysts absorb solar irradiation, a resource that is abundantly available in nature!

 
Most popular photo winner is Kyangzi Calderon Cerquera with Green lantern.

Here, Kyangzi Calderon Cerquera shows a Bodipy derivative solution under UV radiation. These derivatives have high fluorescent quantum yields around 1. Bodipy compounds could work as an antenna fragment in materials for solar cells.

2017

Radioactivity!

This was the theme of the previous (2017) edition of Photochimica, the European photography competition for scientific photography. The submission of photographs has ended and we received 35 photos from participants from 11 countries.

Take a look at the photos from the Photography in Chemistry (PC) section of Photochimica 2017:

Take a look at the photos from the Measurement Arts (MA) section of Photochimica 2017:

The first Photochimica 2017 exhibition took place during the Medicina-Scientia-Culturae – International Conference devoted to the achievements of Maria Skłodowska-Curie in Warsaw, University of Technology, Medical University of Warsaw, University of Warsaw (Poland) on November 6-8, 2017.

For the rules and regulations, please visit this link.

2016

Under the slogan “Chemistry is everywhere!” the EYCN wanted to promote chemistry through visual arts and to show presence of chemistry in our daily life and situations.The competition was aimed at people under 35 years who are passionate in photography and chemistry.

Take a look at the photos from the Photography in Chemistry (PC) section of Photochimica 2016:

Take a look at the photos form the Measurement Arts (MA) section of Photochimica 2016:

All the photographs are the property of the authors. Copyrights without the author’s consent are forbidden and will be treated as a criminal act. The participants gave the organizers (EYCN) the right to reproduce their photographs s for promotional purposes of Photochimica 2016.

The aim of the European Young Chemist Award (EYCA) is to showcase and recognize the excellent research being carried out by young scientists working in the chemical sciences. In particular the award is intended to honor and encourage younger chemists whose current research displays a high level of excellence and distinction. It seeks to recognize and reward younger chemists of exceptional ability who show promise for substantial future achievements in chemistry-related research fields.
Find detailed information here