There be witches here! As a pre-Halloween treat on the evening of Tuesday 28 October 2025, RSC Belgium welcomed science writer Victoria Atkinson to Belgium to give a talk entitled ‘Witchcraft’s chemical secrets: the science behind the spells’.
The infamous witch hunts of the 16th and 17th century claimed thousands of lives (the vast majority of these victims being women), but behind the accusations lay a complex relationship between chemistry, traditional medicine and magic. In her talk Victoria explored how plant alkaloids and folk knowledge created potent and effective remedies that were both feared and sought after.
Dr Victoria Atkinson is a third-generation chemist who studied at the University of Oxford including a fourth-year master’s project working on catalytic methodology with Darren Dixon which led to her first publication. She continued on to do a PhD, with Jeremy Robertson on a total synthesis project, employing enzymatic methodology to produce agrochemical products.
However, towards the end of her PhD, Victoria found that she was enjoying talking about science much more than actually doing it and became heavily involved in science outreach – sharing her enthusiasm for science with younger students through practical workshops and school visits. Later, she focused on developing new outreach material and then made the transition to freelance science journalism via a Marriott Internship with the RSC’s Chemistry World magazine.
Today Victoria works with a range of publications specialising in chemistry, sustainability and research culture.
On the evening of Thursday 21 October RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to a highly informative and inspiring webinar talk from regular Chemistry World columnist and author Dr Philip Ball on The Beauty of Chemistry.
Scientists often talk informally of “beauty” in ideas, experiments and theories - but what do they mean by it? Philip Ball’s recent book with Chinese science photographers Yan Liang and Wenting Zhu offers one answer. Entitled The Beauty of Chemistry, and published by MIT Press, it presents astonishing photos of chemical processes, many based on the videos Yan and Wenting made for their online Envisioning Chemistry project and exhibition in collaboration with the Chinese Chemical Society, which has received international acclaim.
The book has also received numerous plaudits. Alán Aspuru-Guzik, Professor of Chemistry and Computer Science at the University of Toronto said: “This book combines rich descriptions of chemical phenomena with stunning photography of them as they happen. As a child, I was drawn to chemistry by the wonders of precipitating powders, fizzy water, and other ever-present phenomena. The Beauty of Chemistry took me back to those times.”
In the book and webinar talk Philip argued that chemistry excels in its sensual allure: its colours, textures, patterns, even smells, speak immediately to the senses and are often what draw chemists to study their subject. All the same, he argued, scientific notions of beauty are complicated and not always compatible with the way the word is used in art and aesthetics.
Chemistry is not just about microscopic atoms doing inscrutable things; it is the process that makes flowers and galaxies. We rely on it for bread-baking, vegetable-growing, and producing the materials of daily life. In stunning images and illuminating text, “The Beauty of Chemistry” captures chemistry as it unfolds. Using such techniques as microphotography, time-lapse photography, and infrared thermal imaging, The Beauty of Chemistry shows us how chemistry underpins the formation of snowflakes, the science of champagne, the colours of flowers, and other wonders of nature and technology. We see the marvellous configurations of chemical gardens; the amazing transformations of evaporation, distillation, and precipitation; heat made visible; and more.
Relive the beauty!
Phil's excellent talk was recorded and you can relive the lecture either below or via the new RSC Belgium YouTube channel. Enjoy!
About the speaker
Philip Ball is a freelance science writer and author. He worked previously at Nature for over 20 years, first as an editor for physical sciences (for which his brief extended from biochemistry to quantum physics and materials science) and then as a Consultant Editor. His writings on science for the popular press have covered topical issues ranging from cosmology to the future of molecular biology.
Philip continues to write regularly for Nature. He has contributed to publications ranging from New Scientist to the New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and New Statesman. He is a contributing editor of Prospect magazine (for which he writes a science blog), and also a columnist for Chemistry World, Nature Materials, and the Italian science magazine Sapere. He is a frequent TV and radio broadcaster, and is a presenter of "Science Stories" on BBC Radio 4. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, sits on the editorial board of Chemistry World and Interdiscipinary Science Reviews, and is a board member of the RESOLV network on solvation science at the Ruhr University of Bochum.
He has written many popular books on science and its intersections with the wider culture, including works on the nature of water, pattern formation in the natural world, colour in art, the science of social and political philosophy, the cognition of music, and physics in Nazi Germany.
His titles include The Self-Made Tapestry, Critical Mass, Bright Earth and Invisible. His latest book is The Modern Myths.
Philip has a BA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Physics from the University of Bristol.
Are you passionate about science and keen to communicate to the widest possible audience? Think you could get your message across in fewer than 800 words or a five minute recording? Then the Chemistry World science communication competition 2013 is for you!
The competition offers a fantastic opportunity to show your skills and passion for communicating science. And there is a cash prize on offer too!
There are two categories in this year's competition: written and multimedia storyboards. Your chosen topic should be related to the chemical sciences and incorporate this year's theme: openness in science. The judges are looking for a modern, clear and concise style that will convey the significance and interest of the topic to the global readership of RSC's Chemistry World magazine.
The competition is open to students, postgrads and early career scientists anywhere in the world. And the competition is only open to new science writers; those people whose main source of income is through science writing or who have professional (paid) science writing experience are ineligible.
The competition closes on the 31 January 2014 and winners will be announced at a prize giving event at Burlington House in London on 5 March 2014.
The Belgium section of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) was established in 1989. It has around 120 professional members in Belgium and an extensive list of 'Friends of RSC Belgium'. The section organises lectures, visits and social events with a principal objective of promoting the chemical sciences to the public.
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