Nitrogen makes up 78 per cent of the air around us, but most people know very little about it. The Inspiring Gases programme aims to change that. Its CD-Rom uses video and graphics to show chemistry students at GCSE and A-level how nitrogen is used in various daily contexts, from freezing food and preventing bacteria from reaching it, to cooling and shrinking metal so parts can be joined without bolts or welds. A poster illustrates some of these techniques. Further resources are also being prepared on oxygen and hydrogen. “Splitting the air” becomes an imaginable process.

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