In the modern world people are interested equally in two sometimes opposing disciplines: science and magic.

Thanks to the NIU chemistry department, students and community members can get a little of both in an open demonstration conducted by faculty, graduate and undergraduate students.

At 8 p.m. today, the chemistry department is offering a series of demonstrations to the general public. The demonstrations will consist of a variety of experiments designed to stimulate most of the senses including sight, sound and taste. The taste portion is ice cream, made by the chemists for the audience.

“The two things we’re trying to accomplish with this week’s demonstration session are fun and education,” said Michael Spires, coordinator for recruitment and public relations for the chemistry and biochemistry department.

Despite the underlying theme of education, Spires said audience members won’t need to memorize the periodic table to enjoy themselves.

“Obviously, the more background in chemistry one has, the more one will get out of the evening, but we guarantee there will be something for everyone,” Spires said. “If you’re interested in chemistry or think you might be, come and listen to the explanations we’ll provide for each of the demonstration items.

“Or if you’d prefer to sit back and relax for a while, you can just watch what we do and tune out the educational bits,” Spires added.

Associate chemistry professor David Ballantine said the chemistry department has a history of doing these demonstrations.

“For the last 10 years or so, they have kind of died off,” Ballantine said. “Then about three years ago Chris Simkus, who was at that time a first-year grad student, had seen that the individual professors would do demonstrations in the introductory chemistry programs, but it wasn’t anything that was organized.”

Ballantine said Simkus was interested in putting together a series of demonstrations so that students could watch some of the applications of chemistry.

This chemistry demonstration night was put together over three years ago. Since then, demonstrations have occurred once a semester.

“It takes what they learn in the books and really puts it out on the table so they can see what we are talking about,” Ballantine said. “We started advertising it last year, and now it is set up so it coincides with National Chemistry Week.”

National Chemistry Week is an annual event sponsored in part by the American Chemical Society. Departments and teachers of chemistry all over America have special events to commemorate this week, which is intended to increase awareness of the importance of chemistry in everyday life. The theme for this year’s week is Chemistry and Art, so a lot of the demonstrations will involve color, color changes, etc.

Spires said a couple of the experiments actually involve artwork. The molten iron created in one experiment will be cast in a sand mold.

“Last spring we had [more than] 120 people, and this year I think we will have quite a turnout,” Ballantine added. “I’ve gotten calls from people in Geneva and St. Charles who want to bring their Cub Scout troop and things like that.”

There are 14 demonstrations planned this semester that will be conducted by Ballantine and Victor Ryzhov, a chemistry faculty member, as well as many graduate and undergraduate students. Among the experiments is a thermite reaction that generates a lot of heat and produces molten iron from rust.

“That one is pretty dramatic, it throws off a lot of sparks,” Ballantine said.

Additionally, demonstrators will use nitrogen tri-iodide to produce a type of explosion. It is based on pressure sensitive material that will undergo rapid decomposition and create a pretty big bang, judging from what Ballantine said. They also will utilize chemical luminescence, or chemically-created light, to make items glow in the dark.

“This is a good way for chemists and non-chemists alike to see the kinds of things chemistry can do in real life,” Simkus said. “How often do you get to see someone hammering a nail into a plank with a banana?”

The evening will end with ice cream samples for the audience. The ice cream will be made using liquid nitrogen.