Events

It is commonly stated that stained glass windows in medieval cathedrals are thicker on the bottom than on the top because glass flows, albeit very slowly. While the two clauses comprising that urban legend may (or may not!) be accurate, their relationship certainly is not causal. Come hear about the actual consequences of the fact that glass has both liquid and solid character and how materials of this type are of interest, in applications as disparate as oil delivery and cryo-preservation. I will discuss how chemistry and modern imaging technologies are used in my laboratory to "stain glass" and look at the behavior of individual molecules within glass for the first time, affording us fuller understanding of this unique material.