What role does chemistry play in our daily lives? How do plants adapt to their environment? What is an electron microscope for? What is the impact of plastics on the environment? These questions and many others can be asked during the Science and Technology Week 2011, which is being held at the Centro de Investigaciones Científicas Isla de la Cartuja (cicCartuja). Between November 14 and 17, cicCartuja (a joint center of the CSIC, the University of Seville and the Andalusian Regional Government) is organizing this informative activity, with the aim of popularizing research work and encouraging scientific vocation among young people.

Professor Ernesto Carmona, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, will be in charge of inaugurating this conference on Monday, November 14, with the lecture “Chemistry, catalysis and life”, which will address the relevance of this science in today’s world. Framed in the International Year of Chemistry, Carmona’s conference will also highlight the multiple social and industrial applications of the studies carried out at the Institute of Chemical Research (IIQ), to which he belongs.
Along with Ernesto Carmona, on the following days (November 15, 16 and 17), six other cicCartuja researchers will participate in the Science and Technology Week, with talks aimed at high school students. These lessons will deal with various aspects of relevance in modern science, such as the adaptation of plants to their environment, the possibilities offered by nanomaterials, new applications of gold in energy production or the impact of plastics on the environment. The students, who will have the opportunity to ask questions to the researchers, will be guided through the cicCartuja facilities, touring the laboratories of the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis (IBVF), the Institute of Materials Science of Seville (ICMS) and the Institute of Chemical Research (IIQ). In addition, cicCartuja will present them with the third edition of the Isla de la Cartuja Science Outreach Notebooks, whose contents are adapted to the subject Science for the Contemporary World.

Program of the Science and Technology Week 2011 in cicCartuja*.

14/11/2011 – 12:00 h. Inaugural lecture: “Chemistry, catalysis and life”, by Ernesto Carmona Guzmán (IIQ).
15/11/2011 – 10:30 h. Juan Cámpora (IIQ): “Plastics: environmentally friendly?”
15/11/2011 – 11:00 h. Miguel Ángel Centeno (ICMS): “Rediscovering gold: new applications in the 21st century”.
16/11/2011 – 10:30 h. Anna Lindahl (IBVF): “Plants adapt to their environment”.
16/11/2011 – 11:00 h. Antonio Jesús Cejudo (IIQ): “The role of tachykinins in human sperm function”.
17/11/2011 – 10:30 h. Lorena Saelices (IBVF): “How an enzyme is controlled: an interaction can change metabolism”.
17/11/2011 – 11:00 h. Asunción Fernández (ICMS): “A journey through the nanoworld and nanomaterials through the electron microscope”.
* All lectures will take place at the Salón de Actos del cicCartuja.