Why do Pineapple and Kiwi Ruin Gelatin?

As far as I'm concerned, the video could just as easily be asking why thumbtacks or dog poo ruin gelatin because I'm about as likely to put them in my gelatin as I am to put pineapple or kiwi.

...because those fruits are nasty.

Sure, these acidic fruits denature the proteins that hold together gelatin meaning that they ruin the collagen network that keep the gelatin jiggly. That's what acids do, donchaknow.

I assume that highly basic foods would do that some thing, too.

Shocking Pickled Pumpkins! Halloween Science

Don't electrocute pumpkins at home.

And especially don't set up two forks with electricity running to and through them onto which you mount random produce...like pumpkins or pickles or jalapenos...that would be stupid.

But if you were to do that, soaking the pickles...or pumpkins...or whatever, I'd be okay if you soaked the produce in various ionic compound solutions so you could check to see if the ions produced different colors.

You know, if you wanted to do something totally stupid...just if...

We're Running Out of These Elements - Here's How

We need elements.

Lots of them.

Lots of lots of different ones of them.

Some of those elements aren't quite as plentiful as we might like them to be.

Actually, some of them are plentiful enough in total, but they're hard to recover...or they're only found in a very few places.

Either way, we're in danger of running out of a whole lot of elements - or at least in danger of not being able to get to those elements when we need them.

You may want to stock up on your cerium, ladies and gents.

Oxy-Acetylene Explosions at 330 000 fps | Fastest High Speed Camera on Youtube!

"I think this is bad idea," is my favorite quote from, I think, Lauri.

This video certainly isn't as bad an idea as heating a jackhammer up past its BCC -> FCC phase change. In fact, I think this video's a pretty great idea.

The video is a super slow motion look at the combustion of acetylene gas, producing a gorgeous, bright blue flame that I can't even see in real time.

Phase Change Materials. wmv

I remember the Cincinnati Bengal mascot coming to our school a decade or so ago, back when Becky and I were running the Pasta for Pennies campaign (and raising $30K-40K in a month doncha know). He was there for what we called the Wacky Olympics, a celebratory picnic and bunch of games that we held at the end of our fundraising year. We would have grade-level (and staff) teams compete in stupid games (pass the orange, four-legged race, stuff like that), eat hot dogs, drink punch, and generally have a blast.

One year the local Leukemia and Lymphoma Society chapter arranged for the Bengal mascot to come out and celebrate with our students. It happened to be a nice, 85-degree day, though, so I was a little worried that our mascot would end up with heatstroke. He explained to me that he had 'ice packs' that weren't really ice under his costume. Those packs were filled with a material that undergoes a phase change from solid to liquid at around 70^oF, meaning that they'll have a stable temperature at that range for a long time, keeping the mascot-suit-wearing human close to that temperature for a long time.

The video up top shows a material similar to that being used in wall materials to keep the office at a fairly stable 23^oC (73.4^oF).

The videos below show something a little more like what the mascot wore under his costume.







How cool is that?

Colourful Chemistry: Chemistry of UNIVERSAL INDICATOR

Source - James Kennedy

Back in the day, we didn't get a whole lot of science educational content on television. It was pretty much just Mr Wizard, and by the time I was watching him, he was in reruns on Nickelodeon.



If you haven't seen Mr Wizard, you should check it out before watching Sam Rockwell's science skit on Saturday Night Live.



There certainly are days when that feels all too familiar. Thankfully, I don't drop the language that Sam Rockwell did.

But I digress...

In that first video up there, Mr Wizard explains to his young assistant how you can check the pH of a solution using an indicator solution of red cabbage juice. I've done the red cabbage experiment, and it's a blast. The cabbage contains anthocyanins that change color depending on the pH.

In the chemistry lab, though, we rarely use red cabbage juice. Yes, some science suppliers will sell it, but most would much rather sell a solution of universal indicator, made up of a solution of four indicators that produce a lovely and in-order rainbow of colors as the pH increases.

Thanks, by the way, to James Kennedy for putting the top-most infographic together.

Super Expensive Metals - Periodic Table of Videos

Are they really worried that The Professor is going to rob the place that they had to strip him and even take away his belt?

Rhodium, iridium, palladium, and platinum are impressively un-reactive, noble metals.

In the video today we get to see these catalytically useful metals being processed from sponge (what I would think of as ore).

I love seeing what I think of as a crude process like forging being used to reshape the incredibly expensive ingots.

And I doubt these are the absolutely most expensive metals out there - I'd put the sodium from previous videos up there - but it is a chance to answer a question I get from students from time to time: "what is the most expensive element?"