Chimia
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To celebrate the International Year of Crystallography among the general public, a consortium of chemists, physicists and crystallographers of the University of Geneva organised in Spring 2014 an incentive crystal growth contest for Geneva scholars aged 4 to 19. Starting from a kit containing a salt and user instructions, classes had to prepare a crystal that met specific criteria according to their category of age. The composition of the salt - potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) - was only disclosed to the participants during the final Awards Ceremony. This contest positively exceeded our expectations with almost 100 participating classes (ca. 1800 participants) and 54 specimens received over all categories.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Validation of the simplified UVB model to assess the pharmacodynamics of analgesics in healthy human volunteers.
A pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic, randomized, crossover, placebo-controlled study was conducted in healthy human volunteers with the primary objective of exploring the existence of a positive interaction between paracetamol 1 g and ketorolac 20 mg intravenously on experimental pain models. Further, the simplified UVB model was validated as a screening tool for analgesics or a combination of analgesics in clinical drug development. It was observed that the UVB irradiation induced primary hyperalgesia, evidenced by significant decreases of the heat pain threshold from (mean ± SD) 46.9 ± 1.1 °C to 40.1 ± 1.7 °C (p <0.001) and of the mechanical pain threshold (62% decrease). ⋯ The UVB irradiation also resulted in the development of an area of secondary hyperalgesia of 21.3 ± 11.3 cm(2). The mechanical pain threshold and area of secondary hyperalgesia showed small intra-individual variability and consistent intra-day stability. However, a greater variability was observed between subjects, which suggests that a crossover design would allow limiting the number of subjects.
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The Novartis School Lab (http://www.novartis.ch/schullabor) is an institution with an old tradition. The School Lab reaches about 5000 students through internal courses and an additional 5000 children at public science events where they can enjoy hands-on science in disciplines of biomedical research. ⋯ Innovation and adaptation to changes of current needs are essential aspects for the Novartis School Lab. Ongoing activities to shape the Novartis Biomedical Learning Lab include design of new teaching experiments, exploration into additional disciplines of biomedical science and the creation of a fascinating School Lab of the future.
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At EPFL, a strategy for organising scientific outreach activities has been developed and a programme comprising various measures and actions elaborated to promote science and technology among youngsters, especially young girls. As part of this programme, workshops and chemistry camps are developed and carried out for children and youngsters aged from 7 to 16 years old. These workshops are adapted to the age of the participants and allow them to discover chemistry in a fascinating way and become familiar with this field, understand how useful it is to society and learn about the professions it opens up. Some of the workshops take place at EPFL and others are organised in schools in the French-speaking cantons of Switzerland during the touring campaign of a bus named 'Les sciences, ça m'intéresse !' ('Sciences Interest Me!').
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At BASF's Ludwigshafen headquarters, kids and young adults in grades 1-13 can learn about chemistry in the Kids' Labs. Different programs exist for different levels of knowledge. In the two 'Hands-on Lab H(2)O & Co.' Kids' Labs, students from grades 1-6 explore the secrets of chemistry. ⋯ In the 'Xplore High School' Teens' Lab, chemistry teachers present their own experimental lab instruction for students in basic and advanced chemistry courses. The Virtual Lab has been expanding the offerings of the BASF Kids' Labs since 2011. The online lab was developed by the company for the International Year Of Chemistry and gives kids and young adults the opportunity to do interactive experiments outside of the lab.