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Last Friday I found myself at John o'Groats.



The coastal village is famed as the northern tip of mainland Great Britain (though this is not technically the case).



I was there with a team from The University of Nottingham, including the vice-chancellor David Greenaway (he's the university's top boss, standing next to me in this pic).



The team of 11 cyclists (and four support crew) are journeying from John o'Groats to Britain's other famous geographical extreme, Land's End.



They're doing it for the challenge - and to raise money for palliative care.



So why not do a good deed and sponsor the ride. It's for a very good cause.



More details at this link... And my video below.



Yes, thankfully I was filming and not riding!!!

Some of you ma be aware we have been collecting pictures of our viewers.



They can be emailed to periodicvideos@gmail.com



I also promised some prizes.



A random draw selected three viewers and their prizes will be posted this week.



They'll receive the full set of "periodicvideos collector cards"... well, okay, promotional URL cards.



But these cards have been signed by the team.



The winners already know who they are and the cards are on their way!







Click here for viewer pictures on Flickr. And send your own if you'd like to be included (though you are too late for the prizes!)

Last night I uploaded the 8th video of my little foray into philosophy, Philosophy File.



The video was about metacognition and the ancient story of Gilgamesh.



That is the final video in the series, at least for now.



We may expand the idea after further consideration... so stay subscribed on YouTube.



Here are all the videos, created with the philosophers at The University of Nottingham:

The latest film on the Periodic Table of Videos is tinged with sadness.



Professor Martyn Poliakoff reports the recent passing of his first PhD student, Stephen Church.



He also recalls Stephen's pioneering work with the molecule Manganese Pentacarbonyl.







The Professor has since contacted some of the journals which published Stephen's papers in the 1980s.



One has already they have kindly agreed, for a limited time, to make the paper available without charge.



You can find it at the following link:



The molecule in solution



We will add any other links if they become available.

The Periodic Table of Videos made its name by covering the elements!



But we also do a series all about molecules.



Yesterday I asked our Facebook followers what molecules we should be covering.



Here are some of their answers so far:



- The contraceptive pill. Something that radically changed the lives of women for the better, but also whether it's true the hormones getting into waterways are changing the sex of aquatic life.



- Serotonin!



- Mercury(II) thiocyanate decomposition, I've seen it on YT already, but some explainations of the molecular video experts would be cool.



- Something on other classic molecules, but pharma-oriented are my favourites!



- Nitric acid!



- Perhaps something that's got to do with the oxidation states of actinides, they never really taught me that at school.



- Noble gases compounds?



- How about DNA?



- Ethene (most produced chemical product in the world) or steam (for industrial boilers etc).



- Something pretty like Carborane.



- H2O... come on now.



- What about the chemistry of brewing and fermentation processes of beer and wine?



- And something about Glass, PVC, how they're produced.. it would be cool.



- Maybe sodium chloride?



- Mercury Fulminate ! ! ! :D Or thermite :)



- Yes mercury fulminate. As featured in the tv show Breaking Bad.



- Potassium Nitrate. So much history there!!



- How about something like chlorophyll



- I don't believe I have seen CFCs yet.



- Ochratoxin



- Hm...Urea or Chloroform.



- Piranha solution, potassium permanganate or potassium dichromate



- Dissect the lucrative world of toxins, preferably toxic compound used by different intelligence agencies. Scopolamine, ricin, abrin and in general tropanes would be of great interest. But I guess such "lethal" knowledge may not be pertinent for the univeristy to publish now in our turbulent times with all the terrorism.

You may have seen recent reports about the future of the James Webb Space Telescope.



US politicians are debating funding for the project, which has been touted as the successor to Hubble.



One of the videos I created for Backstage Science was about an instrument built for the telescope.



The instrument's called MIRI and has been put together at the RAL Space facility, just outside Oxford.



It's one of four "cameras" which would be bolted to the telescope, utilising light caught by the giant mirror.



In the video Paul Eccleston speaks of his passion for the project and excitement about eventually seeing MIRI launched into space.



Whatever you think about the politics and cost, it would certainly be sad if MIRI never does the job it was made for.

I don't usually feature films on this blog that I didn't create.



But have been wanting to share this one for ages...



Partly because I love mountains and the Eiger's one of my favourites.



And also because of the brilliant song they've used (from about the 1'15" mark).



It's become one of my favourite tracks and I often listen to it while running (as opposed to climbing the Eiger!)



A great example of a song and amazing footage combining to make something special.







The climber is Ueli Steck and the song is Welcome Home by Radical Face.



It's all from a film called Swiss Machine which I've not seen - but would like to!