So Halloween is almost upon us and the fancy dress costumes are appearing in the shops – and in the Asynt office! It looks like we’ll have at least two gorgeous witches on duty on the night – and possibly one vampire!
With the new J.K.Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series) movie, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”, is due out soon and it feels like I’m going to be surrounded by witches and wizards! Quite a few of the Asynt team are big fans of the “Potter-verse” and can’t wait! If you’ve somehow missed this phenomenon, Harry Potter is a young wizard fighting a power-mad dark wizard in a magical world unseen by all the Muggles (non-wizards) surrounding them.
(Our “Deathly Hallows” Pumpkin – carved by Ffion!)
I wondered how much real chemistry or chemical engineering is involved with the magic shown in the movies and took a look via the magic of Google to see what I could find out! There’s a great blog written by IChemE (The Institute of Chemical Engineers) with Seven Harry Potter Spells that’s saved me from having to rush off and get a PhD so I can work these out myself:
- Essence of Dittany: amazing healing powers!
- Impervius: a spell to repel water
- The invisibility cloak: taking this to a real world solution for soldiers
- Lumos: producing light without a wand!
- Giminio: Potter-friend, Hermione uses the charm to duplicate an object. What about digital printers instead?
- Wingardium Leviosa: instead of knocking out trolls, how about improving the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals?
- The Beautification Potion: Getting rid of eye bags (yes, please!) and seriously scientific nail polish!
You can see this blog in full here: https://ichemeblog.org/2015/05/21/seven-harry-potter-spells-that-chemical-engineering-is-the-magic-for-day-359/
I’m always bowled over by the simple fact that the novel tools that the Asynt chemists design and introduce to laboratories all over the world are truly helping to create real-world “magic”; solutions to treat or cure disease, prolong lives, or give better quality of life in so many ways. We are also helping chemists work in a more sustainable way, and in a more economical way. You could call this the Asynt (chemistry) school of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Which house would you hope to join?
We’re proud to be part of the magical world of chemistry and have some unquestionably exciting new products out before the end of the year which are going to open up some brilliant opportunities for our customers, and we are already developing the next round of ideas for 2019. Don’t forget that we do work with companies and academia to help you bring your ideas to market too though! Long may the magic continue!
