My son is doing a science project on Paper Chromotography and I am confused! We cannot find out what the meaning of the word is (chromo) and is there a difference between chromotography and chromatography? Any help would be very much appreciated!

There is no "chromotography". It is misspelled. The chrom in chromatography comes from chromos which is the Greek word for color, if I remember correctly.

Thank you!

The term "chromatography" was coined at the turn of the last century by a Russian botanist studying plant pigments. He filled a long glass tube with powdered chalk, applied a few drops of a plant-leaf extract to the top, then poured in "petroleum ether" (essentially white gasoline). As the pet ether percolated down the tube of powdered chalk, the pigments got dragged along more slowly and separated into a number of orange and yellow bands. He claimed that the colorful results led him to name the technique chromatography, from the Greek words for "color" and "writing".

There's a twist to this story. The man's name was Mikhail Tswett. I believe that the word "tswett" in Russian translates loosely as "color" or "flower" -- he named the technique after himself!