Event: Microheterotopias – Chemistry Meets Glassblowing

Wednesday, October 19, 2022
6:30pm-7pm – Pizza Reception
7pm – Lecture
UW-Madison Chemistry Building, North Tower, Room S-429

Desperate to solve chemistry’s greatest problem, Justus Liebig made the first Kaliapparat in 1830. That small piece of glassware started something big. The Kaliapparat made Liebig’s name, but lampworked glassware transformed chemistry.

Chemists use other worlds in glass-the Microheterotopias of my title to manage matter. Making Microhetertopias relies on skilled scientific glassblowers. This talk explains what happened when chemistry met glassblowing and why that link remains vital today.

Catherine Jackson will be joined by Scientific Glassblower Tracy Drier of the UW Madison Chemistry Department. Together they will present a recreation of discovery through the manipulation of glass in fire.

Catherine Jackson
Associate Professor of the History of Science, University of Oxford and Director of
Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology Peck Fellow in the History, Harris Manchester College
Tracy Drier
Scientific Glassblower
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chemistry Department

This talk is part of the WN@TL Lecture Series and co-sponsored by the ACS WI Local Section.

Posted in Event.