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Made by chemistry

John Blachford, BEng’59, PhD’63, DSc’09

Chemist, President of H. L. Blachford
Member of the Faculty of Science Advancement Board

John Blachford, BEng’59, PhD’63, DSc’09, Chemist, President of H. L. Blachford and member of McGill’s Science Faculty Advisory Board

As a PhD student, I used radioactive cobalt to crosslink polymer molecules. The polymer was in a glass container. I noticed the glass turned a beautiful amber when exposed to the radiation. So, being a poor grad student, I exposed cheap wine glasses to the radiation and gave them as wedding presents. Much later I discovered that when the glasses were washed in a dishwasher the amber colour disappeared!