The term ‘chemis-tree’ may soon appear in Oxford Dictionary with its origins attributed to Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) scientists.
Since 2022, the aforementioned group have come up with a Christmas tree design featuring items of laboratory equipment only. And, yes, they call it, quite rightly, a ‘chemis-tree’.
By common consent, the 2024 version of this iconic design ticks all the boxes.
Driving the project are analytical chemists in AFBI Newforge. They gather up a collection of unique and unused glassware from their labs and clamp them to a retort stand in the shape of a Christmas tree.
It’s then a case of adding liquid with festive food colourings, tinsel and lights.
This year, Leah Scott, Ruth Loy and Stewart Floyd have created the most elaborate offering to date and have set the bar for future chemis-trees.
When not designing bespoke chemis-trees the members of the AFBI analytical chemistry team are hard at work delivering a wide range of services to the the public and private sectors.
AFBI provides diagnostic and analytical scientific services to both the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and other public bodies and commercial customers.
Services for DAERA and other public bodies are mainly statutory in relation to EU Directives and local and national legislation.
Those for commercial customers are designed to improve performance in their respective marketplaces.
