________

CA(1 co?>
onsalves: Ascience
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2011
th t' .. t ht
The story Of G'Ol(UMckS, of a SJUS. fIg .
course, was first published
in 1837 when people still . "In an unscientific poll I con-
walked through the woods ducted with college students
and enjoyed eating majoring in chemistry, I found
It ends with Goldi runnIng . thatmost ofthem said they got
away from bears, screaming into it because of their high
for help. school chemistry teacher," Jack
Goldilocks
and the
But the tale of Jack and Jen . : told me, explaining how
is a contemporary story with tant it is to have good teachers
. bear of an ending yet to be written. sparkstudents' imaginations.
And if turns out just right, "The ultimate goal," Jen

.it will end not with score,s added, "is to get more mentor-
of students running away. ing in science at all the schools
SCIence
screaming in fear - but WIth on the Cape."
shouts of"oooos" and "ahh?h
s
," Jen, who has spearheaded
facing up to the bear of SCI- the Cape Cod Science Cafes,
.education
scary thing is that this created a real buzz in the
ilocks at the very .
ence education. said she's excited because the'
In this real-world story, the last event at Cape Cod Beer' i
ou can find Gold
doesn't have enough sClen-. ,. munity. 'Ii
center of science. tists. 56, as members of the "We already have 55 people i
And that's'. because , Ameriqan Chemical Society, who have RSVP'd for this . !
of her porridge preferences ..:.
this father-daughter team (healthy kids) one," she said.
not too hot, not too Gold, but have made it their mission to . 'Sandwich children's librar,
"juuuust right." promote science education. ,ian Stu Parsons shares Jack .
As it turns out, that's how
1 . Last year, ACS launched Jen's enthusiasm. Ii
allUfe on Earth likes it. If our
1'[" "international Year of Chem- : "This has .stimulated a l.ot
planet was too hot or too cold, . . . energy and mterest. And It's
we wouldn't be here. Now that istry 2011."Jack and Jen ran really nice to have a committed
may seem ridiculously obvi- . idea and organized business (PID Analyzers) con
ous ulltil you learn aboutthe a series of Cape Cod Science necting with a public institu
sublime scientific parameters Cafes. tion like the library. I'm hopeful
. bf"just right"-ness, or how The year is broken into we can do more," Parsons told
primordial porridge ,\ four quarters, with a different me.
came to eventually aspect of chemistry highlighted , "These kind of 'hard sciences'
produce people and iri. each. The first quarter t.end to push people away. So
all that matter(s). focused on the environment, this is a real opportunity to
I'm no.scien which Maclachian used as an counter that. It's really amazing .'
tist, but I did find . opportunity to hold a forum we have people like Jack and .
evidence of the on the chemistry of the Cape's Jennifer in our community."
Goldilocks prin . water systems. The theme of . That's true, especially given
ciple at work the second quarter was energy, all the anecdotes floating
in Sand- . I which brought the esteemed \ around out there about peo-
GONSALVES
wich.Not MIT scientist Dan Nocera ., pIe's fear of anything scientific,
ion-ically . the Hyannis Golf Club to gIve a chemistry in particular.
tho:llgh,the
sta.r of this story isn't Gold
ilocks. Rather, it's the tale of.
two covalent bonds named
Jack and Jen, who not only
share a father-daughter rela
tionship but also a passion for.
chemistry, .
Jack priscollis a physical
chemist who invented the
first photoioniza
tion detectOr, or PID(basi
cally aUVlamp attachedtb a
chambeI' that
detects harmful contaminants
and volatile organic
pounds). With his daughter,
Jennifer Maclachian, they
founded PID Analyzers, which
manufactures and sells PIDs
in the service of "industrial
hy[iene."
talk on alternative energ-j. The
third-quarter focus was recy
<:ling, hosted at Cape Cod Beer..
; The fourth-qualier zeroes in
t.the youngsters with a free
1 to 3 p.m. today at
tlSandwich Public Library.
. ':F:'theme is "Healthy Kids"
ruwill feature six different
experiments led by a
of local chemists.
. TneexptfHU!t>U,6 ..k.do.",
han!1s-on demonstration of
can make your own
. hand sanitizer and experiments
sintuiating blood chemistry. The
litter highlights the work of the
legendary Dr. Charles Drew-
an African-American chemist
who didn't allow segregation to
. . stop him from figuring out how
to separate plasma from whole
blood and invent the 'llOrld's
Still, how do you get kids
interested in science?You
don't,. Jack said. You just turn
up the Bunsen burner under
children's natural curiosity.

'l':.: ...tb
d
. oesn't hU. rt to draw. ... h,' and it i.
chemistry's alchemist \
wilts. . \
. '!lfhere's something about
nilidng chemicals and watch
, ing them transform into some
thing completely unexpected.
Or as Jen put it: "Kids see
this stuff arid say, 'Is it m.agic?'
No, it's chemistry."
Sean Gonsalves at
sgonsalveS@capecodonline,com
fi ..". hr"._""'J''- -!.
1