Living Smart

III SCIENCE & STEM EDUCATION 084 085 While the danger of dust explosions is no stranger for industries such as coal mining and sugar refining, where dust is often created during operations, the general public may lack the awareness to mitigate such risks of fire hazards in our everyday routine. To recount a personal moment of concern: I was dining in a local restaurant that served a popular “burning” dessert known as “Baked Alaska,” where spirit was ignited from a small jug by the waiter at the table, who then with bare hands poured the burning liquid over the dish in front of the guests, while the rising flames beneath appeared to be burning his fingers. While there is a certain “wow” element to the presentation, such a performance creates a safety hazard: if handled improperly, let’ s say the waiter’ s fingers were burned causing him to drop the jug with burning fluids, the waiter and guests could be seriously injured, and even the entire restaurant could be burned down. Another easily overlooked risk is the rampant use of perfumes and cleaners in many households, which often contain inflammable solvents and compressed gases. Without due caution, such products could become an easy fuel to start a fire in a cramped household. In this festive season, we would do ourselves a great service if we could give more thought to the fire dangers lurking around our homes and surroundings: as the saying goes, if we play with fire, we will only get burned. Published on December 19, 2018 Old school, not genes, makes difference Prof. King CHOW Acting Dean of Students, Director, Interdisciplinary Programs Office, Professor, Division of Life Science, and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering P reviously, my colleague Dr. Melody Leung explored in this column the issue of gene editing babies, which may have prompted some parents to ask one question – can we make children fonder of school with genetic engineering? An international research team in August 2018, published