I'm a Scientist

I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of £500 to communicate their work.

Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.

This is the Cadmium Zone. It has a range of scientists studying all different topics. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!

Cadmium can be toxic, image by Chemicalinterest for Wikimedia

Cadmium, pronounced kad-mee-uh-m, is a soft bluish-white metal that is used in batteries, nuclear reactor shields, rustproof plating, pigments (bright red, yellow and orange shades) and TVs.

Its use is decreasing due to new technologies and the fact that in certain forms it can be toxic – it accumulates in the body and is known to cause birth defects and cancer.

It’s also found in cigarette smoke, tap water, coffee and in some processed foods and sea foods.

In the lab it’s used in helium-cadmium lasers – a source of blue-ultraviolet laser light, and it’s also used in fluorescence microscopes – which are used for imaging biological tissues.