‘CHEMISTRY’ is the word, was introduced in higher classes to me and now these days introduced much earlier. For years it was benzene ring’s diagram that was chemistry for me. Best time I had with chemistry was in lab identifying some compounds during ‘practical test’.
While we see and experience chemistry all around, we rarely connect with it. “Chemicals’ have become a negative term among kids “this food has chemicals”. We forget that all the processes happening around are chemical reactions in many different ways.
Recently visited a lab which works from testing food and compounds in them. It was an eye opener to understand the whole process of testing and developing product using many chemical process. All the words I studied like ‘solvent, pH, stability, … came alive during the visit. Thank you Geetha and Team for spending time with us.
It began with a notice ‘visit to Drishthi Naturals’, somehow kids imagined ‘chemicals’. They had their own apprehension for both ‘chemicals and lab’.
What If something explored in the lab we all die;Smell will be unbearable;Glass instruments;God knows what chemicals will be there?
At the same time they were equally excited to know
- What all chemicals are put in hair gel?
- How do they decide what chemical to put in food?
- How do they test?
We entered the lab with our own apprehension, some had arranged for cloth mask, some carried water bottles, some looked inside the lab and shared equipment safety … Before we went to the lab, we were explained all about the products, research (R & D), process of research, product development, concept of expiry date, stability test, and testing process.
Currently the lab have developed few product with Turmeric and are under testing process. First we understood the process of developing a product and then we actually saw all the process, testing machines and complete lab. It was interesting to know that each product takes years to develop and still one can go wrong. We understood the use of ‘precision, observation, failing’ in our daily life. We understood that even 0.01% makes a lot of difference.
We all came out with a wonderful and memorable visit. Some want to go back and observe more, some want to know about machines, some want to experiment more, some want to develop own products.