What are atoms made of?

Image created using Canva by me
Atom image from openclipart.org

The atom is the most quintessential symbol in science.  It is commonly drawn as a circle with smaller circles orbiting it. What do those circles represent? And what are those circles made of?

Atoms may make up the world around us, but let's be curious and ask, 'what are atoms made of?'

What is Rosetta Doing?

Image created using Canva by Matthew Bird
"Rosetta - comet fly-by" by DLR - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlr_de/11962922525/.
Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The spacecraft, Rosetta, has been in the news a lot recently. It has recently been woken up after a 31-month hibernation in January this year. Launched in 2004, this mission has had a lot of coverage.

You likely know it has something to do with a comet, so let's be curious and ask, 'what is Rosetta doing?'

What do bonds look like?

Image created by Matthew Bird using Canva.
"Glass ochem dof2" by Purpy Pupple - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

From secondary school onwards we are taught that the world around us in made from atoms and those atoms are held together by bonds. As we get older we are introduced to the different types of bond: covalent, ionic, and metallic. We are also told about hydrogen-bonds, though these don't join atoms together as the other types do.

We are all used to the diagrams we see for bonding, but is that what an actual bond looks like? Until recently the answer was a decisive, 'we don't know'. No one, not even scientists, had ever seen a bond. No one had ever seen an atom. We had calculations and theories saying they were there, but no actual visual of them until recently.

In the first 'Images on Monday' post, let's be curious and ask 'what does a bond look like?'

Who were Marie and Pierre Curie?

Recipient of 2 Nobel Prizes, discoverer of 2 new elements, saviour of countless lives; Marie Curie is perhaps the most famous of all female scientists. Her scientific successes are interesting in themselves, but a look into the life and times of Marie Curie provides a fascinating lens through which to view them. Her personal life involves courage, tragedy and even a duel—more fitting for a Hollywood romance film than a scientist.

But as wonderful as Marie Curie was, she didn't work alone. In one of the great scientific partnerships, her husband, Pierre Curie, did research alongside her. Together they shared, alongside Antoine Henri Becquerel, the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Today (26 July 2014) is the 119th anniversary of Pierre Curie and Maria Sklodowska's (Marie Curie) marriage. So, to celebrate this special day let's be curious and find out who the Curies were.