Christmas is coming early at Bristol ChemLabS today (24 November) with the annual Christmas Chemistry Conference for school students aged 15 to 18. Owing to the popularity of this event, two simultaneous conferences are being held for the 550 students and teachers from 22 schools, spread over an area from Devon to Gloucestershire.

The main conference will feature lectures including ‘The Chemistry of Climate Change: greenhouse gas concentrations over the past 50 million years’ given by Professor Rich Pancost (Bristol), ‘The Chemistry of Chocolate’ by postgraduate chemist Andy Chapman, (Bristol), and ‘Chemistry for the Terrified’ by Dr John Kilcoyne (Sunderland University and the TV show Brainiacs). 

The ‘Overflow Conference’ will include Dr Alice Roberts (Bristol) on ‘The Chemistry of Death’, a second performance of ‘The Chemistry of Chocolate’, and a lecture demonstration, ‘A Chemical Delight’ by Tim Harrison (Bristol).

John Kilcoyne will give a second performance of ‘Chemistry for the Terrified’ during the evening on behalf of the Bristol and District branch of the Royal Society of Chemistry.