Chemistry is evil, malicious, nasty and malevolent?

When the word chemistry comes to our minds, automatically we make negative associations as pollution, wastes or toxicity. We believe that this vision is outdated, in modern societies, as the benefits of the chemistry surpass the potential risks that entails. Chemistry can be displayed in an enjoyable and good-humoured way, and it can transmit positive aspects.

An image is worth a thousand words?

Through short videos (3-8 minutes), we try to contribute to eradicate the chemofobia that affects great part of the society. The target of the videos is the young people: students from high school or vocational education and training. The tone and format of the videos is funny and very agile to favour dynamism.
The objective of the videos is to provide an interesting, motivating and attractive tool to promote the curiosity with a direct link with daily life aspects. The videos start with an initial anecdote that stimulates curiosity. Then, when curiosity is up and doing, we develop a short story with scientific aspects embedded that shows how chemistry contributes to the welfare and how it helps to solve problems. After the videos, and to extract the scientific knowledge that, in most occasions, is known superficially, a short guide is attached to help the teachers. The material is based in open-questions that favour critical discussion. In addition, the question-answer system is a very good approach to detect preconceptions and misunderstandings.

Wolfram, the protagonist, is eccentric, obsessive and weird

The topics covered are related with daily life in which chemistry/science/engineering facilitates our daily-day life. The objective is to succeed communicating some of the chemistry-based advantages to the society.
Here you have a short description of the videos of the first season:

1. The hard-boiled egg of the Everest -I-. Wolfram has an appointment and wants to seduce a young lady with a romantic dinner…
2. The hard-boiled egg of the Everest -II-. Wolfram is boiling the egg in the conditions of the Everest (or it is better at the sea bed…)
3. Coolbite. To improve his popularity, Wolfram decides to organize a party with the most fashionable drink and decides to prepare salty ice cubes…
4. Sauces. Wolfram has an appointment and wants to prepare a sauce to dress his romantic dinner…
5. The burnt omelette. Wolfram has sore throat, and he won’t be able to participate in the karaoke. He calls a "travel•lo" nurse (Italian?)...

In the following paragraphs, you will find a short description of the second season videos:

1. Love. Wolfram is in love and his hormones level seems to be in a roller coaster, thus…
2. Soft drinks. Wolfram is worried because he is not able to find where do bubbles come from in soda drink …
3. Fart gases. Wolfram is trying to understand how farts are produced, if all our food is liquid/solid...
4. Marathon. Wolfram is running and he notices that he must breathe deeper, that he is sweating, that his body-temperature is increasing…
5. Stiffness. Wolfram is very proud that the evolution has lead to a situation where stiffness appears once the danger is over…
6. Invisible ink. Wolfram yearns for his school-time, when he used invisible-ink to send unnoticeable message to his beloved Platonic love…
7. Tobacco. Wolfram is astonished to know this is the unique product for human consumption that is not obliged to include all its constituents…
8. Cholesterol. Wolfram is a bit worried about his cholesterol-level, and he realized that the main problem is his diet…

Diffusion in science festivals (and +)

• Official section at “On zientzia” (Vitoria, 2012):
• http://www.onzientzia.tv/bideoa-ikusi.asp?Kodea=320&lang=EU.
• http://www.onzientzia.tv/bideoa-ikusi.asp?Kodea=319&lang=EU.

• Official section at “4ª mostra de cinema e ciencia” (A Coruña, 2011):
• http://cienciaecinema.org/mcc11/wolframio-un-tipo-con-quimica/.

• 1st award and two diplomas as finalists at “Ciencia en acción” (Lérida, 2011):
• http://www.cienciaenaccion.org/news/acta-final-del-jurado-de-las-modalid...

• Official section at “¡Química es tot!” (Barcelona, 2011):
• http://www.ub.edu/audiovisuals/setmanadelaciencia/2011/.

• Official section at FECYT TV:
• www.fecyt.tv.

• Scientific cinema at Museo del Jurásico de Asturias (Colunga, 2011):
• http://www.museojurasicoasturias.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=a....

• Official section at “Certamen Internacional de Cortos Científico-Educativos ASECIC” in “II Festival Internacional de Cine Científico y Ambiental de Doñana” (Almonte, 2011):
• http://www.asecic.org/index.php?module=event&showArt=296&lang=

• “A Química a través do Cómic”, Colexio Oficial de Químicos de Galicia (A Corunya, 2011):
• http://www.colquiga.org/subido/paginas%20simples/pag20101026212008/progr....

• Official section at “Certamen Unicaja de Cine” (Málaga, 2010):
• https://www.unicaja.es/PortalServlet;jsessionid=00012LUZbrg2VvzZ7OYmyqwk....

• Program “FECYT of scientific cinema” 2010-2011:
• http://www.semanadelaciencia.es/Publico/cinecientificoPeliculas.aspx.

• ESCOLAB 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008:
• http://www.escolab.cat/index-c.php?opcio=activitats.

• “Museo Etnográfico de Castilla y León” (Zamora, 2010):
• http://www.museo-etnografico.com/actcurso.php?idu=10.

• Official section “Ciencia en acción” (Granada, 2009):
• http://www.cienciaenaccion.org/anteriores/indice.html).

• Official section “Festival internacional de televisión de Barcelona (2009):
• http://www.oeti.org/oeti.php?lang=es).

• Official section at “Goteborg Science Festival”. Selected by the “Fundació Catalana per la Recerca i la Innovació” (Generalitat de Catalunya) invited by the European Science Events Association (EUSCA):
• http://www.goteborg.com/default.aspx?id=8691.

• Official section at “1ª mostra de cinema e ciencia” (Coruña, 2008):
• http://cienciaecinema.org/?page_id=40.

• Official section at “Daejeon Science Festival“ (South Korea, 2008):
• The festival was cancelled.

Diffusion in web series

• Blog for the International year of chemistry:
• http://catquimica.cat/.

• Videos included at the “Química y Sociedad” web.
• http://www.tienesquimica.com.

• Web-serie at “El Jueves”:
• http://www.eljueves.es/2011/11/19/wolframio_tipo_con_quimica_hoy_los_ped....
• http://www.eljueves.es/2011/11/26/hoy_amor.html.
• http://www.eljueves.es/2011/12/03/hoy_tabaco.html.
• http://www.eljueves.es/2011/12/10/hoy_las_bebidas_carbonatadas.html.
• http://www.eljueves.es/2011/12/17/hoy_las_agujetas.html.
• http://www.eljueves.es/2012/01/22/hoy_la_tinta_invisible.html.
• http://www.eljueves.es/2012/01/29/hoy_el_colesterol.html.
• http://www.eljueves.es/2012/02/05/hoy_maraton.html.

The videos have over 46000 visits in youtube.

To sum-up…

The objective of the videos is to provide an interesting, motivating and attractive tool to promote the curiosity, and then, provide technical knowledge to clarify concepts that, in most occasions, are known superficially. The videos had a very enthusiastic and positive response from the different sectors where they have been shown (professors, students, festivals, science workshops, congress communications…). To the best of our knowledge, this is the best procedure to persuade the young public , as it is very reluctant to chemistry/science/engineering .
All material, in Spanish, can be downloaded at www.etseq.urv.es/wolframio. Just two of the videos are subtitled in English:

• Tobacco: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u34aSe7ZjxY&list=UUBhZS-93oUPqmV2_z1nytRw....
• Fart gases: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV2H_FIeLyo&list=UUBhZS-93oUPqmV2_z1nytRw....