Congratulations to Josh Byers and his wife Danielle on the birth of their baby boy, Benjamin on the 13th of June, weighing a healthy 2.9 kg. Both mother and baby are doing great!

On the 7th of July the Chemistry Department hosted the annual Students vs Staff departmental cricket match in memory of Arthur Hartwell. Several members of WEIG took part in the match, with other members of WEIG on the sidelines giving support to their colleagues.

Despite starting the match in the rain and coming off after two overs, a full 12-a-side, 22 over game was possible. The staff (heavy on technicians, light on academics) put the students (mostly PhD's and a few undergrads) into bat in moist conditions.

The Arthur Hartwell Memorial Trophy was won by the Students (136 for 7 vs 86 for 6) and triumphantly accepted by the student captain Rob Channon. The day was a contrast of strong performances by newcomers and several dropped catches. In the end, faster hitting and better fielding granted the students a 50 run victory.

The Harry Wiles Sporting Performance Cup was awarded by Alison Rodger to Sophie Kinnear for "a fantastic spell of death bowling (2-0-4)".

PhD students, Sophie Kinnear and David Perry, represented the group at the Microscience and Microscopy Congress last week. The conference covered all areas of microscopy from advanced functionality of AFM to the latest TEM and SEM techniques.

Both students gave talks about their work with SICM, Sophie discussed her project in using the technique for surface charge mapping and David, gave an insightful talk about using SICM in his newly developed bias modulation mode.

Speakers Doug MacFarlane, Alan Bond and Jie Zhang provided insight into the great advances in electrochemistry occuring at Monash University at the "ACES: ElectroMaterials Down Under" talks hosted by the University of Warwick. Excellent talks were also given by WEIG's very own postdocs Aleix Guell and Maxim Joseph on carbon nanotubes and diamond respectively.

Monash University and the University of Warwick form the electromaterials alliance, providing a link between the two universities in order to improve on electrochemical research. Doug MacFarlane presented a plaque as a symbol of the partnership.

The recently released Regenerate toothpaste made by Unilever, is based upon scientific studies conducted in Warwick Electrochemistry and Interfaces group. The new toothpaste has been causing quite a stir in the media, with articles being published on the toothpaste by UK newspapers such as the Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Futher the work was featured in Nature.

The paper published in the Journal of Dentistry, found here, uses several methods such as SECCM and raman to show that hydroxylapatite (HAP) was formed from calcium silicate. Deposition studies demonstrated greater delivery of calcium silicate to acid eroded than sound enamel and that the volume of acid etched enamel pits was significantly reduced following one treatment (p<0.05). In the protection study, the intrinsic rate constant for calcium loss from enamel was 0.092±0.008 cm/s. This was significantly reduced, 0.056±0.005 cm/s, for the calcium silicate treatments (p<0.0001).

It can therefore be concluded that calcium silicate can transform into HAP and can be deposited on acid eroded and sound enamel surfaces. Calcium silicate can provide significant protection of sound enamel from acid challenges.