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...