Wet Washcloth in Space | Outrageous Acts of Science

There isn't much that isn't stunning when done in space.

Wring out a wet washrag on Earth, and nobody gives a crap. Wring out a wet washcloth in space, and the sight of the water hugging the outside of the rag but not letting go is stunning.

Check out the original for less explanation but more playing around by Astronaut Chris.

The Elements by Theodore Grey

Turn your passion into a career.

That's just what Theodore Grey did when he took his collection of element samples - entertainingly displayed at PeriodicTableTable.com - and turned it into a mini-empire.

Grey's first project was, I think, Elements, the book (or maybe it was the periodic table then the book). The book is an outstanding and gorgeous tome with a two- (or for a few elements, four-) page spread on black background. There's a main photo - taken in gorgeous focus and presented brilliantly - along with element data and a one-page essay about the element along with more photos of uses of the element.

The large photos are then repurposed into a periodic table that is available in a dozen different formats, one of which I have hanging in my classroom.

Then came the app for iPads clocking in at $13.99 but worth every penny because of the gorgeous photography, especially if you spring for the extra couple of bucks to get the 3d glasses.

Now there are quilts, a second book (Molecules - which I own but admittedly haven't read), two books of experiments, a column in Popular Science.

Theo has done just fine for himself.

Invisible Racecar Fire?

Methanol is terrifying.

In the above video, we see - or rather don't see - fire engulf Rick Mears and his mechanic, but it's a fire that nobody can see. Methanol and its invisible fire strikes again.

Don't use methanol.

Methanol fire and explosion-awesome.flv

I've mentioned methanol as being horrifically flammable, terribly dangerous, and not to be used in a classroom (or at home either, in case you had any ideas there).

Check out this video showing infrared video of a fire on a methanol tanker...and the explosion that eventually results.

Children among 13 injured from Reno Science Museum explosion

There isn't anything funny to say about the methanol explosion from above.

Methanol is a fairly small, organic molecule with one carbon, three hydrogens, and a hydoxyl group (CH₃OH.) Because of its small size, methanol has weak intermolecular forces and is highly volatile meaning any liquid supply evaporates very quickly and easily. That combines with its high reactivity with oxygen makes for a marvelously flammable - hence incredibly dangerous - compound.

And it burns almost totally clearly in daylight - as you can see in the below video. This combination - highly flammable, nearly invisible fire - makes it a natural choice for demonstrations involving chemicals that change the color of this 'invisible' fire, flame tests with compounds like boric acid, lithium chloride, potassium chloride, sodium nitrate, etc.

It also makes it a horrible choice for those demonstrations because any open flame hits the methanol vapors which then explode terrifically.

I'll state this. Just about anytime you hear about a lab accident - in a high school or college chemistry class - I'll give you ten to one odds that it's a methanol explosion. Yes, there are other explosive chemicals, but methanol is the common, bad one.

I don't use methanol with fire at all. Nope...not with any open flame in the room in the least.

Elements - experiments in character design

I'm not sure as to the utility of the individual element character cards over at Elements - Experiments in Character Design, but I like a lot of the designs. Here are a few of my favorites, and I warn you that after element 95, they become increasingly boring.

Each card contains a single fact about that element - what it's used for, what it's named after, where it was discovered - not useful but at least trivially entertaining.

Pictures from an organic chemistry laboratory

I know so very, very little organic chemistry. Yes, I took a year of organic chemistry at Wabash, but organic and I weren't exactly close friends.

So, in reading through the Pictures from an Organic Chemistry Lab tumblrhttp://labphoto.tumblr.com/, I found a heck of a lot of stuff that was over my head.

But I understood enough to get the idea of what the gorgeous photos were describing.

Atomic Bonding Song

Are those just big light covers from Pier One or something that they're wearing?

If so, they're fairly well turned into atom costumes.

Honestly, if my students understood everything that these two folks were singing about by the end of our bonding chapters, I would be pretty happy.

I don't get, though, how at 4:10 chlorine lets go of an electron.

Gaviscon Worms - Cool Science Experiment

I've never tried the gummi worm procedure that Steve shows off at the beginning, but I really want to. Wonder if sodium alginate is available in a glowy solution like he uses...probably from his website.

The formation of the 'worms' is curious. In looking Gaviscon up at Wikipedia, here's what I found...

The formulation of Gaviscon varies by manufacturer. The three active ingredients in Reckitt Benckiser's version are sodium alginate, a bicarbonate (either sodium or potassium in variants) and an antacid (calcium carbonate). The GlaxoSmithKline variant lists only antacids as its active ingredients (aluminum hydroxide and either magnesium carbonate or magnesium trisilicate). Alginic acid and sodium bicarbonate are listed as inactive ingredients. The combination of alginic acid and a bicarbonate forms a layer on the contents of the stomach, which prevents stomach acid from refluxing up into the esophagus. If reflux does occur the protective barrier is the first to contact the esophageal mucosa, instead of gastric contents.

What will science think of next?

Your periodic table is probably WRONG

The periodic table is the awesomeist tool in all of chemistry.

It's based on the periodic law, the single most important discovery in the history of chemistry (other than maybe the law of conservation of mass).

And it's even cooler that the periodic table is constantly in flux.

This one's working in the smaller margins of the organization, admittedly, but that's still pretty important stuff in terms of the pattern.

"What we're interested in is how nature is like not how easy it is to draw it."

QuizUp

QuizUp is an app that allows you to play seven-question, multiple choice trivia games against real (and sometimes, admittedly computer-generated) opponents in the subjects of your choosing.

The image above is from the web version, but the smart phone version doesn't look all that different.

I'll offer up three community points for each of the following achievements...

• levels 10 or 20 in chemistry
• levels 10 or 20 in periodic table
• levels 10 or 20 in name the elements
• levels 10 or 20 in high school chemistry

The name the element category is a really nice way to learn the elements. You will have to know this, though.

Rainbow Colored Flame(thrower) Science Experiment!

If ever you hear about a high school chemistry lab burning down, it's by way of methanol.

Seriously, pretty much every lab experiment that has a big, fiery death (or injuries) came from methanol. It's a lot of dangerous than this video makes it out to be - particularly because it's highly volatile and has a low flash point. The vapors are nasty and travel way further than you would think.

Of course, methanol does produce way better results in flame tests than would ethanol's yellow flame.

And it burns almost invisibly which can be really, really bad.

Be careful out there, folks, even if you're just blowing the methanol up all over your backyard.

SMBC - Superman freezes the Gulf

There was an episode of Batman: the Animated Series in which the villains dump two barrels of stuff into a lake. The barrels rupture (as they are designed to do), and the lake freezes solidly...instantly... the waves are frozen, even.

All I could think when I was in college and rewatched that episode was that the heat of reaction of those chemicals must be hugely endothermic. That's the level of science dorky that I was...clearly was...not is...was.

And then, along comes Zach Weinersmith with his geeky Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal which is a webcome largely devoid of math but with definite educational overtones.

Check out, for example this comic dealing with the heat of vaporization of water.

And laugh all the way to popularity.

Candy Corn in Space

I will watch just about any video labeled, "in space."

I would watch blobs of water floating in space, shoes drifting away from astronauts, candy corn with a few drops of water.

This video rocks explaining hydrophobic, hydrophillic, surfactants, soap, and mycells.

And they do it all "in space."

Fire and Ice: a heat of fusion demonstration

Heat of fusion isn't a terrifically exciting concept to demonstrate. Usually it involves melting or freezing of water. Oooh....ahhhhh....zzzzz

But the use of the heat of fusion (or latent heat of fusion, maybe) to start a fire is pretty outstanding.

To explain the concepts...

• paraffin absorbs energy from the blowtorch or Bunsen burner 
• paraffin melts and starts to boil, releasing paraffin vapors (highly flammable, paraffin vapors)
• the ice water beaker is lifted to quickly cool and solidify the paraffin wax
• the paraffin wax had absorbed energy in the process of melting (heat of fusion)
• that energy is released when it solidifies again (reverse of heat of fusion)
• that released energy is enough to set the paraffin vapors on fire

How frickin' cool is that?

And messy, too...how frickin' messy is that?

Check out another version of the same demonstration...

The Genius of Mendeleev's Periodic Table - Lou Serico

The single greatest discovery in chemistry is that of the periodic law.

Before the discovery of the periodic lab (and subsequent creation of the periodic table), chemistry was a collection of random, unorganized facts about the stuff around us.

Sure, there were some elements that reacted sort of similarly, but a few connections doesn't make a system of knowledge.

Then, along came Dmitri Mendellev and his dream.

Check out the video if you don't understand how awesome the periodic table is and how phenomenal its creation was.

Eight Beautiful Chemical Reactions

Pretty simple and direct title, eh?

I've done some of those reactions (not the dancing fluorescent droplets - is that really a reaction - or the stuff with the flower - fascinating), but I've certainly never photographed or filmed them nearly that well. Man...

Check out more work from the same folks at Beautiful Reactions.

Symphony of Science

Admittedly, this one might not be for everybody out there.

It's a series of autotuned 'songs' created from music and quotes from famous and inspirational scientists. It's from a musician (?) called Symphony of Science, and the songs are available for download for a name your price model.

Personally, I think the best tune is the first one embedded up there.

The Most Astounding Fact

I have nothing to add that isn't better said by NdGT in this video.

The fact that every atom in my body - perhaps save for a few hydrogen atoms - was born in a distant star and that anything heavier than iron was born when a star went superova is just astounding.

As NdGT's scientific predecessor said, "we are made of star stuff."

Just how small is an atom? - Jonathan Bergmann

You know how tiny an atom is?

No, you don't. It's smaller than that.

No matter how small you think an atom is, it's a million billion times smaller than that.

And the nucleus is way smaller than that.

How small? Check out this video to find out.

Create Your Own Biggest Bang

How cool is that?

This BBC video is like a choose-your-own-adventure video for chemical reactions. They have eight chemicals to mix...

• hydrogen
• sodium
• sulfure
• chlorine
• oxygen
• iodine
• aluminum
• nitrogen

...and filmed all of the possible combinations (lemme do the math 7+6+5+4+3+2+1...carry the four...integrate the divisor...28 possibilities) for YouTube videos.

And you can explore them all...