Mole Day is a chemistry-centered subject day. This year's Mole Day, held at the end of October, featured the periodic table and a large scavenger hunt. In the Zhentao and Xianmian Buildings, giant QR codes could be found. By scanning the code to access the mini program, students could discover a hidden question to be answered in order to unlock clues to the next code. Students got a special prize once they had collected all the QR codes of a certain element.

Besides the hunting game that stimulated interest, an academic lecture entitled “the Magic of Catalysithehe Past, Present, and Future” was given online to investigate the mystery of catalysis. A video of the “Elephant Toothpaste” experiment made by the speaker was shown and discussed at the beginning of this lecture. By interviewing Dr. David Macmillan, who had developed the asymmetric organocatalysis and, as a result, won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the student speaker presented his classmates more aspects about the positive contributions of chemistry like what catalysis brings to the world, among other things. After the lecture, students realized that chemistry is a mysterious power to influence not only molecules but also the world around them. As a result, they were wondering how to positively impact the world through chemistry research, which is the coolest thing every chemistry enthusiast wants to do now and in the future.

(Written/ Pictures by Amy Cheng, Eason Lu   Supervised by Min Yang    Reviewed by Qian Zuo)