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07.06.2016 12:00

A delicious breakfast? Coffee, toast, chocolate and the contaminant acrylamide

M.A., LL.M./LL.B. Venio Quinque Unternehmenskommunikation
Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM)

BAM Press Release No. 13/2016
7 June 2016

Where is acrylamide found and how can chromatography, a method more than 100 years old, contribute to today's high-tech trace analysis of these and other pollutants? The Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) will be explain these and other exciting scientific questions in a user friendly way at the Long Night of Science on June 11, 2016. BAM will open their new building in the "Analytic City Adlershof" for the first time for you to take a peek behind the scenes.

Where is acrylamide found and how can chromatography, a method more than 100 years old, contribute to today's high-tech trace analysis of these and other pollutants? The Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) will be explain these and other exciting scientific questions in a user friendly way at the Long Night of Science on June 11, 2016. BAM will open their new building in the "Analytic City Adlershof" for the first time for you to take a peek behind the scenes.

What does BAM do? In one sentence: We promote safety in technology and chemistry!

BAM scientists offer 12 interesting presentations at the Long Night of Science: presented plainly and suitable for the whole family! Exceptionally, the little ones can stay up late and still learn something: Science with a sting, instead of television with chips!

Here are some samples from the programme to try:

Expedition analytics: Come with us on a tour of discovery!

Mill instead of a Bunsen burner – mechanochemistry produces new compounds

Microplastics in the environment

Curious? Visit BAM at the Long Night of Science in Berlin!

When:
11 June 2016, from 17:00 hours (to 23:00 hours).

Where:
Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung, Richard-Willstätter-Straße 11, Building 8.05, 12489 Berlin

BAM’s new laboratory building was inaugurated in 2015. The building combines technical features with sophisticated architecture and is worth visiting. Its many specialised laboratories provide scientists with new free-space for ideas and are a place of lively interdisciplinarity. The Adlershof Campus with its numerous partners from universities and non-university institutions is one of BAM’s important research sites characterised by the motto "Adlershof. Science at work". This is where innovation and technology transfer for engineering safety are created.

Information about the Long Night of Science and ticket sales:
www.langenachtderwissenschaften.de

BAM’s programme at the Long Night of Science

Expedition analytics: Come with us on a tour of discovery!
From 17:00 hours
How can substances in food, everyday objects and materials be tested? We will show you practical examples how our scientists ensure safety in technology and chemistry. Join us on an expedition through the world of analysis at BAM!

Analysis of heavy metals in the Berlin drinking water using ICP MS
From 17:00 to 23:00 hours, every 60 minutes, length: 45 minutes
We carry out multi-element analysis for copper, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead in drinking water samples from Berlin Adlershof, show you the necessary equipment and laboratories.

Micro-plastics in the environment
From 17:00 to 23:00 hours, every 60 minutes, length: 45 minutes
We provide information about micro-plastics entering the environment, their degradation and comminution, transportation and deposition in sediments and biota, about methods development and validation for qualitative and quantitative determination of micro-plastics in environmental compartments and the development of appropriate reference materials.

Mill instead of a Bunsen burner – mechanochemistry produces new compounds
From 17:00 to 23:00 hours, every 60 minutes, length: 45 minutes
Mill together two powders briefly in a mortar – and a new substance is created. A chemical synthesis can be as easy as that. These reactions can occur without glass vessels and long cooking times, and the process is very environmentally friendly. You can try the synthesis for yourself and we'll show you how you can "see" the solids reacting.

The "standard meter" of natural gases
From 17:00 to 23:00 hours, every 60 minutes, length: 45 minutes
How precisely can gas compositions be measured today? How is it possible for everyone to measure the same? What techniques are used?

Our daily bread – with food analysis focussed on it
From 17:00 to 23:00 hours, every 60 minutes, length: 45 minutes
What have coffee, toast and chocolate to do with the pollutant acrylamide? And how can chromatography, a method more than 100 years old, contribute to today's high-tech trace analysis of these and other pollutants? We will answer these questions using a small experiment that illustrates the principles of chromatography.

Determination of breath alcohol: can everything really be measured?
From 17:00 hours
We demonstrate the method and measure your breath alcohol before and after eating chocolates. Breath alcohol testing has proven a practical alternative to blood tests. BAM is a manufacturer of ethanol reference materials used for calibrating breathalysers for the police.

Wonderful bioanalysis: the secret is made visible
From 17:00 to 23:00 hours, every 60 minutes, length: 45 minutes
We also use antibody-based rapid tests for detecting pollutants in the environment. They are so sensitive that they are able to visualise the almost invisible. We will show you that we can detect cocaine on your paper money. The popular biochemical "Battleship" on the 8 x 12 "microtiter plate" battlefield will also be shown. You are welcome to try and beat our colleagues!

How much dirt is clean? Working in the cleanroom
From 17:00 to 23:00 hours, every 30 minutes, length: 30 minutes
In order to develop reliable methods for medical diagnostics and environmental analysis and to cultivate cells, dust and germ-free conditions are required in a cleanroom. But what is a clean room? Many imagine sterile rooms, no windows and people in white suits and protective masks. Take a look behind the scenes and find out what the characteristics and conditions of a cleanroom are and what requirements are placed on those who work there.

Aerosol emissions from MPD 3D printers
From 17:00 to 23:00 hours, every 60 minutes, length: 45 minutes
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is enjoying increasing popularity in the private and education sector however, the associated emission problems so far go unnoticed or are unknown. A live demonstration of particulate emissions in the operation of a low-cost molten polymer deposition 3D printer will be given.

Guided tour in the pilot plant
From 17:00 hours
We will show you around the pilot plant for thermochemical experiments and demonstrate a small-scale electric arc furnace. Posters and exhibits will illustrate various research topics.

Hydrogen barriers made of glass
From 17:00 to 23:00 hours, every 60 minutes, length: 45 minutes
Its special attributes for shaping such as sintering powders or drawing very thin capillaries or its virtually unlimited variable composition make glass an extremely interesting sealing material that can be used in hydrogen storage, as a sealant in SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) or as passivation glass in microsystems. BAM is looking for glasses with the highest sealing effect and developing measuring methods for detecting minimal H2 permeabilities.

In addition to the presentations at BAM’s Berlin Adlershof site, BAM’s researchers will participate in other presentations at Berlin universities:

Functionalisation of concrete surfaces using micro-structuring
From 17:00 hours, Beuth University for Technology Berlin, Haus Grashof, Luxemburger Straße 10, 13353 Berlin
Concrete has many uses as a building material. Special concretes have special properties that allow any structure to be cast at the micro level. We will show microstructured surfaces of ultra-high performance concrete as a self-cleaning façade and concrete records. The concrete records will be shown and played.

Hands-on exhibition: plants, animals, sensations
From 17:00 to 0:00 hours, Königin-Luise-Straße 12 – 16, 14195 Berlin (House No. 13 on the site map)
Secrets of model organisms: biological research projects within reach. An exhibition of posters, show pieces and experiments provides a vivid addition to the lectures – hands on and discussions. Termites, cockroaches and moths will be displayed.

Contact:
Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM)
Venio Quinque, M.A., LL.M./LL.B.
Head of Section Corporate Communications
Phone: + 49 30 8104-1002
presse@bam.de
www.bam.de

About BAM

BAM promotes safety in technology and chemistry.
The Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) is a senior Federal Institute with responsibility to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

BAM performs research and testing and offers advisory support to protect people, the environment and material goods. Its activity in the fields of materials science, materials engineering and chemistry is focussed on the technical safety of products and processes. BAM’s research is directed towards substances, materials, building elements, components and facilities as well as natural and technical systems important for the national economy and relevant to society and tests and assesses their safe handling and operation. BAM develops and validates analysis procedures and assessment methods, models and necessary standards and provides science-based service for the German industry in a European and international framework.

Safety creates markets
BAM sets and represents high standards for safety in technology and chemistry for Germany and its global markets to further develop the successful German quality culture „Made in Germany“.

For more information see www.bam.de.

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Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
Journalisten
Biologie, Chemie, Umwelt / Ökologie, Werkstoffwissenschaften
überregional
Forschungs- / Wissenstransfer
Englisch

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