Red Cabbage Chemistry - Sick Science! #105

...but the smell...

If you don't want to buy universal indicator, make yourself some red cabbage solution. It's cheaper. It's available at your local grocery store.

And it smells like cabbage.

You can - if you're a school - also buy cabbage extract powder from some science suppliers.

It's a great way to pass an afternoon...or just to entertain yourself while your significant other makes red cabbage to go along with the smoked sausages if you - like I - don't eat cabbage.

Results after the jump...in case you're too lazy to do the experiment yourself...

Valentine's Candy Science - Cool Science Experiment

What a waste of perfectly good candy...especially the Not-Quite-Everlasting Gobstoppers.

Steve Spangler has a few hundred videos from his various YouTube channels, all of which are between cute and very cool.

This one is worth looking through if only for the still photo chosen for the above video and the ease with which that image can be recreated.

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?