Scientist and science communicator Martin Kadlec: I want to spark people’s curiosity
At the Faculty of Chemistry at Brno University of Technology, Martin Kadlec works with hydrogels and viscoelastic materials, but outside the laboratory you might also meet him at workshops, lectures, festivals or even at a summer camp. He only became involved in science communication towards the end of his Master's studies, but gradually embraced it fully. Today, what he enjoys most is sharing his enthusiasm, trying out new experiments and, above all, awakening people’s curiosity. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be chemistry. What matters most is that they want to find out what is happening in the world around them,” he says.
At the faculty, you work with hydrogels. How would you explain what you actually do to someone outside the field?
I mainly focus on the preparation and subsequent characterisation of viscoelastic materials, such as suspensions or polymer solutions. But above all, I work with hydrogels. I try to connect their macroscopic properties, in other words, how a sample behaves on the outside, with what is happening inside the hydrogel at the microscopic level.
A hydrogel is a material somewhere between a liquid and a solid that can contain more than 99% water within its structure and still retain its shape.
Where do we encounter hydrogels in everyday life?
People are familiar with hydrogels even if they may not realise it at first. A hydrogel can be jelly, a gummy bear or hair gel. But it can also be a pain-relief gel.
The range of applications is really broad: medicine, cosmetics, food production, agriculture and even entertainment. In medicine, hydrogels are used, for example, as moist wound dressings, and they could also serve as drug delivery systems or as substitutes for the extracellular matrix in the body.
What do you enjoy most about science communication?
What I enjoy most is presenting information in an entertaining way. I like passing on my enthusiasm, or sharing other people's excitement when they learn something new and interesting. It gives me energy, even when I'm taking part in a demanding event.
It also gives me an opportunity to experiment in the laboratory and try things that I would not normally get around to, or that might not even have occurred to me otherwise. Science communication events actually give me a reason to try new things and look for experiments that I can then show to others.
Do you remember a particular moment when you decided that you wanted to bring chemistry to people outside the laboratory as well?
I can't really pinpoint one particular moment. I've enjoyed sharing information and knowledge for a long time. For example, as a leader of a children's outdoor club, I would explain how to start a fire, how to pack a backpack and various other outdoor skills.
Maybe it also has something to do with coming from a family of teachers. With chemistry, it developed gradually. Once I became involved in workshops and science communication events, I enjoyed it more and more with every event.
How do you know when a workshop has really been successful?
Definitely by how actively the participants get involved. It's great when they're enthusiastic and take something away from the experience, but when they start asking their own questions, experimenting and coming up with their own ideas… that's the best part for me.
Of course, we have a plan for what we're going to do, often including precise amounts of chemicals or exact volumes. But sometimes someone asks, “What would happen if I added less or more of this?” And I say, “Well, let's try it.” We have enough space to experiment with ideas that come directly from the participants. I always enjoy that because it means they've started thinking about it. They're not simply doing what we tell them to do. They're wondering, “What would happen if I tried it this way?” That's what experimentation is all about.
Rather than simply hearing “that was great”, I'm happier when I see people actively engaging, when the topic raises questions and gets them thinking. And I think that applies equally to preschool children, high school students and senior citizens. If they leave wanting to learn more and be more curious, I'm happy. (laughs)
Do you have an experiment that never fails to impress?
I have several. They're my favourite experiments and they're pretty reliable crowd-pleasers. One is making slime. It's relatively simple, and most students, whether they're in high school or the later years of primary school, have encountered it before. It's playful, so it gets their attention.
Another favourite of mine involves redox reactions with a colour indicator. You have a glass bottle containing a yellow liquid. When you shake it, it turns red, and when you shake it even more, it turns green. It's known as the chemical traffic light.
And then there's bubble tea. I think those three can really capture people's attention.
Is there anything that surprises you about today's high school students?
Generally speaking, I wouldn't say that today's high school students are less curious, as we sometimes hear. Those who come to a workshop are usually interested and genuinely keen to learn something new.
If you could choose one thing you would like students to take away from a visit to the faculty, what would it be?
It doesn't have to be complex knowledge, particular experiments or a precise understanding of how everything works.
I'd be happy if they left with, or discovered, a spark of curiosity and a desire to explore. I want them to be interested in something, and it doesn't necessarily have to be chemistry.
I want them to be curious about what's happening around them, about what's happening in the media and how to filter information, and about what's happening in the world. And if that curiosity leads them to chemistry, then of course that's fantastic and an added bonus.
Curiosity. That's my main wish.
One of the projects you are involved in is Chemické té o páté. Can you tell us more about it?
It's a series of popular science events featuring people working in chemistry or related fields. They are scientists, innovators and experts from a range of areas.
What matters is that their science doesn't stay confined to the laboratory. Research can sometimes end up being done without ever finding a practical application. That's not the case here. What our guests research has either already been successfully put into practice, or it addresses issues that affect all of us and that we encounter in everyday life.
These are current topics that are being actively discussed and explored. Most recently, we focused on the circular economy and how to turn waste into something valuable, such as protein products.
What topics do you have coming up?
We try to choose a diverse range of topics.
For example, we have an upcoming lecture by Petr Ryšávka, who works with probiotics and healthy gut microbiota, which can influence a person's overall health. Then we'll have a joint lecture combining an academic perspective with a colleague from industry. That also ties in with the subtitle of the entire series: science extracted into practice.
What surprises you about science itself during these lectures?
Even though I work in science myself, I'm still surprised by how difficult and challenging the journey from beginning to end can be. There are so many dead ends and so much work behind everything, both in the laboratory and in the thinking itself.
Do you think the public perception of chemistry has changed in recent years?
That's a very difficult question. Chemistry is surrounded by a lot of stereotypes. There is the idea that everything in chemistry is either disgusting and slimy on the one hand, or a white crystalline substance with no taste or smell on the other. When people imagine a chemist, they usually picture an older man in a white lab coat with messy white hair and a test tube in his hand. It's simply a stereotype.
We also encounter claims everywhere such as “this product is chemical-free”, with the implication that this somehow makes the product better or healthier. But there's no such thing. Chemical substances are all around us.
You never hear people say that something is “physics-free”, “biology-free” or “mathematics-free”. Yet people say it about chemistry.
Why do you think chemistry often has negative connotations?
I think people often associate chemistry with particular events or situations rather than with chemical substances themselves. For example, they think of poisoning, oil spills or the consequences of using the insecticide DDT. Chemistry itself isn't directly responsible for those unfortunate events. Of course, some substances really are dangerous. But there are also many areas where chemistry has made an enormous contribution and without which society would not be where it is today. The problem is that these negative associations tend to be generalised to chemistry as a whole.
Take plastics, for example. Today, they're often perceived as something inherently bad. But imagine life without plastics. Our phones, car parts and appliances contain plastics, our clothes are made from synthetic fibres… Chemistry gives us clean water and medicines. The Haber-Bosch process gave us synthetic fertilisers, which make it possible to feed the world's enormous population. These are developments that have moved humanity forward tremendously.
So in your view, chemistry is neither good nor bad?
Exactly. Chemistry isn't black and white. Chemistry is a tool, and we need to know how to use it. But we often focus on the negative side and forget about the good.
Fortunately, more and more people are trying to challenge the idea that chemistry is bad. Popular science books are being published on the subject around the world, and there are popular science lectures, workshops, open days, science cafés and events such as our own Chemické té o páté, all of which try to present chemistry in a more balanced light. I hope and believe that the image of chemistry in society is gradually changing for the better.
Which chemistry myth would you like to debunk once and for all?
Probably the idea that everything created in a laboratory is harmful and everything natural is good. I think that's a deeply ingrained misconception.
Take botulinum toxin. It's an extremely dangerous poison, and it's natural. Just because something wasn't made in a laboratory doesn't automatically mean it's good. Conversely, there are things created in laboratories that save huge numbers of lives, such as recombinant insulin.
What do science communication and leading a children's outdoor club have in common?
In both cases, it's primarily about working with people who are enthusiastic about what they do, and who need to be enthusiastic about it. I think that's equally true of communicating chemistry and working with children in a club. And in both cases, every event, whether it's a workshop or a summer camp, involves a huge amount of work behind the scenes that people don't see, such as preparing experiments or coming up with activities for the camp. That's definitely another thing they have in common.
Do you use chemistry experiments at summer camps too?
I do, because chemistry is basically everything, even the sugar in your tea or the salt in your soup. (laughs) This year, my friends suddenly told me that they needed me to come up with a potion-making activity for the following day. So we made an instant flammable gel and a bottle that changes colours. Those always get everyone's attention. And we also did the “elephant toothpaste” experiment.
Has working with children taught you any skills that you also use in science communication?
A pretty strong ability to improvise. (laughs) I used to be someone who needed to have everything prepared down to the last detail. Now I'm much more comfortable with situations where you simply have to improvise.
If you could organise absolutely any science communication event with no limits on budget or space, what would you come up with?
I've always thought it would be great to take a large swimming pool and fill it with a suspension of starch in water. It's a special type of fluid that behaves differently when stress is applied to it. If you throw it around or squeeze it, it behaves more like a solid. If you simply leave it sitting on your hand, it flows.
Normally, this experiment is done on a smaller scale. But if you made it big enough, you could actually run across it. And as soon as you stopped running, you'd sink. You could even ride a bicycle across it, but you'd have to keep pedalling.
It's a bit childish, but I think it would be brilliant. (laughs)
After a demanding semester and all those events, how do you like to recharge?
Either by doing something with the club or simply going out into nature. I enjoy day trips as well as spending the night outdoors somewhere. I also like playing board games, watching films, going for a run, playing the guitar or doing some archery.
And what about something to give your brain a rest?
I like puzzles and ciphers, which perhaps doesn't sound much like giving my brain a rest. (laughs) I enjoy both solving them and creating them. Once a year, we organise our own puzzle game. I also occasionally take part in puzzle games in Brno.
Let's finish with a quick “either/or” round. Laboratory or forest?
That's a difficult choice for me, but probably the laboratory. If we're talking about survival, it's because there's a source of water and heat. It's an enclosed space, which makes it easier to protect and defend.
Slime or bubble tea?
Slime for me. It's easier and quicker to prepare, and I think it's always a success.
An axe or a pipette?
Purely in terms of versatility, I'd take the axe. An axe is a great tool. You can chop and cut with it, use it to hammer something in and even use it for defence. A pipette isn't much use for any of that.
And if you were stranded on an island: a microscope, a mess tin or something else entirely?
If it were about surviving on an island and I had nothing else, I'd choose the mess tin because it's useful to have a container in which you can boil water. But I'd also consider the microscope, because you could break it apart, take out the lenses and use them to start a fire. If I could choose absolutely anything else, though, I'd definitely take a boat so I could get back to civilisation. (laughs)
Thank you for the interview, and we wish you many more successes, both in science communication and beyond!
-jo-
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| Link | https://www.fch.vut.cz/en//f96620/d359170 |