This week sees the addition of our first podcasts to Learn Chemistry! Taken from the Anecdotes for Chemistry Teachers, the 10 stories told by two RSC staff members share topics as diverse as the life of Fritz Haber to the discovery of nylon via the discovery of the electron by father and son duo, the Thomsons and making aircraft from seaweed!

Lasting between 3 and 7.5 minutes, these can be used in class as an introduction to a topic, or at home for more interested students. These podcasts cover such a range of topics on subjects that students may not even realise are chemistry related!

Let us know how you are using them with your students on Talk Chemistry.

The full lists of podcasts is:
Fritz Haber – the life and career of the creator of the Haber process;
In the Limelight - background and chemistry of burning calcium with hydrogen and oxygen to make 'limelight';
Linus Pauling – the life, work and campaigning of this award winning chemist;
Mad as a Hatter – mercury poisoning and the origins of the phrase 'mad as a hatter';
Making Aircraft from Seaweed – creating a balsa wood substitute from calcium alginate for World War 2 aircraft production;
Matches – the history and chemistry of matches;
The Discovery of Buckminsterfullerene – the discovery of buckminsterfullerene, the third allotrope of carbon;
The Discovery of Nylon – the background to the discovery, naming and production of Nylon;
The Nobel Prize – the history and background of the Nobel prizes; and
The Thomsons – Father and Son Discoverers of the Electron - the discovery of the electron and the diffraction of an electron beam.