To describe Dr Ray Plevey and his wife Rosemary as mere chemistry teachers would be an injustice. The comedians/magicians/ cooks demonstrated such marvels as turning water to wine, cooking eggs in liquid nitrogen and charming a dancing snake out of burning matches in a Science Week event at the Dublin Institute of Technology yesterday.
Disdaining white lab coats in favour of striped pinafores, the pair told the 120 students that "chemistry is akin to cooking".
"We base our act on the food programmes," Dr Plevey admitted, though presumably most cooking shows would stop short of turning Bud Light into a glowing aqua beverage, as Ms Plevey did.
Students seemed eager to uncover the secrets of the colour-shifting liquids and fires created by adding water. One challenged Dr Plevey to drink the "milk" that had been clear a moment before. Without breaking stride, the professor stuck his nose in the glass and declared it sour. "If you want to know how it's done, ask your chemistry teacher," he said, though he answered questions after the show and promised to send "recipes" for the illusions to those interested.
Another highlight came when Dr Plevey stuck his hand in a container of liquid nitrogen and then pounded his "numb" finger with a mallet. The whole room shrieked in shared pain.
The audience was amazed when a chemical reaction occurred in a series of beakers held by student volunteers. The beakers' contents changed in order of the height of the students holding them. "Your brain waves had further to travel to tell the water to turn black," Dr Plevey told the tallest volunteer.
Ms Plevey played the straight woman to her joking husband, groaning with the largely female audience when Dr Plevey characterised one experiment as "extremely female in its indecision". The liquid in the beaker changed back and forth from blue to yellow, "like my daughter trying to pick out clothes", he said.
Dr and Ms Plevey, who live in Birmingham, presented their chemical magic show in Cork and Waterford and said they enjoy travelling to share the message that science is not dull. They ended the show dramatically with a glowing sign emerging out of the darkened room proclaiming "Chemistry is Fun."
Thousands of other students heard a repeat of that message, about physics and biology and other sciences as well, when they attended the DIT's Open Days this week.
"The point is to generate more interest in science for second-level students," said Mr Kieran Henderson, a DIT physics postgrad student and temporary tour guide. "Over 2,500 students came from Dublin and surrounding counties to experience student life and work here."