Lessons
Do them in order: each one builds on the last.
Carbon basics
Lessons 1 to 5
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Meet carbon
Why one atom with four hands builds diamonds, pencils and you.
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Sharing is bonding
Single, double and triple bonds, and how chemists draw them.
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Molecules in 3D
Why methane is a 3D tetrahedron, not a flat cross.
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Chains and names
From methane to octane, read and name carbon chains.
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Functional groups
The small parts that make vinegar sour and bananas smell sweet.
From rings to DNA
Lessons 6 to 10
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Rings and benzene
Carbon chains that close into rings, and the flat ring behind many smells.
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Mirror-image molecules
Why one carvone smells of spearmint and its mirror image smells of caraway.
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How reactions happen
Bonds break, atoms swap partners and new molecules form.
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Polymers
Small molecules joined into long chains make plastics, nylon and more.
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Molecules of life
Sugars, fats, proteins and DNA, built from the groups you already know.
Why molecules behave as they do
Lessons 11 to 15
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Uneven sharing
Some atoms pull harder on shared electrons, which gives water its charged ends.
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Molecules that stick together
Why oil and water stay apart, and ethanol boils far above propane.
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Acids and bases
What makes lemons sour, and why baking soda fizzes in vinegar.
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Soap and washing up
Molecules with two different ends lift grease off your plates.
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Colour
Why carrots are orange and red cabbage changes colour.
Reactions at work
Lessons 16 to 20
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Speeding reactions up
Heat, catalysts and enzymes help molecules over the energy hill.
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Oxidation
How wine turns to vinegar, a cut apple turns brown and cooking oil goes stale.
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Fuels and energy
From crude oil to petrol, and the energy stored in bonds.
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Medicines
How a medicine fits its target like a key in a lock.
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Kitchen chemistry
The chemistry of caramel, toast, a seared steak and a boiled egg.
The chemist's toolkit
Lessons 21 to 25
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Curly arrows
How chemists draw electrons on the move, and why reactions go the way they do.
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Separating mixtures
Why ink splits into colours on wet paper, and how coffee loses its caffeine.
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How chemists see molecules
Light that makes bonds wiggle, a machine that weighs molecules, and magnets that find their hydrogens.
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Making molecules
Plan a molecule backwards, then make it, purify it and weigh it, as chemists do with aspirin.
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Greener chemistry
Less waste, safer solvents, and what happens to plastics after use.
Molecules all around
Lessons 26 to 30
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Cis and trans
How a flip around a double bond lets you see, and what trans fats are.
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Smell and taste
Why menthol feels cold, chilli feels hot, and some mirror images smell different.
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Messengers in your body
Hormones and neurotransmitters, the one hand of adrenaline, and how caffeine keeps you awake.
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Air and climate
How carbon dioxide and methane trap heat, and what CFCs did to the ozone layer.
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New forms of carbon
Graphene, nanotubes and buckyballs, built from carbon's four hands.
Materials from molecules
Lessons 31 to 35
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Rubber and stretch
Why rubber snaps back, and how sulfur bridges turn sticky sap into tyres.
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Glues
How glue grips a surface, and why superglue sets with a trace of water.
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Fibres and fabrics
Cotton, wool, silk and polyester, the lined-up chains in Kevlar, and how dyes hold on.
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Sunscreen and skin
Molecules that soak up ultraviolet light, from sunscreen to your own melanin.
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Molecules that glow
Glow sticks, fireflies, highlighter pens and the screen in your pocket.
The story of carbon
Lessons 36 to 40
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Photosynthesis
How plants build sugar from carbon dioxide, water and sunlight.
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Energy in your cells
How your cells burn glucose in small steps, and why you breathe out carbon dioxide.
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Carbon dating
How a rare kind of carbon tells the age of old wood and bone.
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Carbon in space
Stars that make carbon, molecules between the stars, amino acids from asteroids, and buckyballs in space.
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Why carbon?
Why life is built on carbon, and what silicon, its neighbour, builds.