Luke Iseman sells a Bicycle Defense Kit for $19.90.
The Bicycle Defense Kit (BDK) offers options for dealing with aggressive motorists. Contained within an altoids tin, the 8 tools vary in detectability, potential to cause damage, and legality.
Specifically, cyclists can:
• Issue "citizen ... More.
Popular Science is reporting that a piece of bread, dropped by a passing bird, has managed to damage the Large Hadron Collider.
The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at ... More.
Elephant Toothpaste is the name of a classic chemistry experiment that's all about getting hydrogen peroxide to quickly break down into water and lots of oxygen. The result: Thick spirals of super-awesome foam.
There's lots of videos of this on the Internets, but I chose this one (despite the head... More.
Designer toy photographer Brian McCarty shot this lovely portrait of Hello Kitty. The piece is titled "Three Apples," which according to Ms. Kitty's bio is her weight. Brian writes:
Truly an icon for the time, (Hello Kitty) is a totem and emblem of kinship for devotees of cute. With this realizatio... More.
We've covered Theodore Gray on Boing Boing a lot, and for good reason -- he's amazing. His Mad Science book was filled with spectacularly fun science experiments, he built a Periodic Table table with little compartments to hold samples of elements, and now he has a new coffee table photo book cal... More.
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Add acetone to the mix! The yeast aerates the acetone peroxide and the result is rocket fuel.
"You can't do this one at home"
Aaaaaawwww!? Wait, I'm an adult; that means I can (as long as I pick up the mess) :D
And as long as you avoid spilling the 30% peroxide solution on anything you value, such as your skin.
"Corrosive - can cause serious burns. Eye contact can cause serious injury and possibly blindness. Harmful by inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact. Safety glasses are essential; acid-resistant gloves are suggested."
Someone needs to do this with Pure h2o2. Those brainiac guys still around?
This is going to get disemvoweled so hard, but foam SHOOTING up from the giant flask was basically a science-money shot.
Science Bob!!! I used to teach at the same school he does -- he's K-4 science and considered by many to be the best teacher in the school. Kids *adore* him. Fun guy. Nice to see him getting internet glory.
Love the saturday morning science experiments and hope that BB makes it a permanent installation
Shave that guy's head and you've got yourself Moby!
I usually add sodium iodide or potassium iodide to mine, and I only ever use 30% hydrogen peroxide. Fun for kids, nightmare for janitors.
Fun for kids but where's the science? He could have at least explained what's going on, why the bubbles are formed, what's inside of them, why it is exothermic, etc., etc. Without that it is just another carney trick.
Bill
Really, peroxide is nothing to be flippant about. Those guys should have worn safety glasses and gloves throughout the entire piece.
Also fun--
brush teeth with toothpaste, one of the Crest types. Then, rinse and swish mouth with regular hydrogen peroxide (about 3%, from the drug store), as if trying to whiten teeth further. Do not swallow or the resulting foam, via reverse peristalsis, isn't much fun (great for dogs who swallow garbage, however).
be sure to test over the bathroom sink
That's science? Where's the control? Where's the replication? Was there really any uncertainty about the outcome that made this "experiment" worthwhile?
@pfh
I agree, even though that may make me a "spoilsport" in some people's eyes, as I don't really see the excitement of these set demonstrations. The really cool thing about science (which is almost entirely absent from the way science is taught to anyone below graduate school level), is finding out things that literally *nobody* knew before. And you don't have to be a Nobel Laureate -- literally any science graduate student is finding out previously unknown stuff. I don't know how exactly undergrad and high school science education could be reformed to capture this, but it needs to be.
anonymous if you look at the "demonstration" at http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/elephants_toothpaste.php, he actually goes over those questions.
So it's only science if it's boring, dry and full of monotonous explanations?
As a science *demonstration* this is great and is pretty cool. Without cool demonstrations and interesting things to spice up the science taught straight out of a textbook fewer kids will be inspired to follow Science! careers.
Chemistry in America has been under attack for years now and the lack of fun and dangerous kits available and the general lionization of science and learning is hurting the USA's competitiveness.
Wasn't the high grade hydrogen peroxide the stuff Najibullah Zazi procuring to blow up stuff?
@Jonathan Badger:
Before we can teach kids to be fascinated by the frontiers of knowledge being pursued by science at the moment, we have to convince them that the subject is interesting in the first place. Demonstrations like this, combined with actual engaging experiences doing stuff themselves, help lay a foundation that can lead to further interest, which is why science teachers groan harder than most when their budget gets the axe.
The frontier of knowledge is not really all that hard to reach. The Mythbusters are a good example of doing it right.
The frontier of knowledge for a child is trivial to reach, so long as you don't hand them the answers immediately.
Getting to a frontier the pushing back of which will improve the world in some way takes mastery of a body of theory. Hard work. I don't think dressing up in a clown suit helps with this. The promise that you might get that thrill of discovery about important things, the same as you did on something more trivial, might. And it shows greater respect for students.
pfh. Here's a question that goes to the frontier of knowledge in one:
How do we get America off the bottom of all industrialized nations in science performance by high school graduates?
Thanks for publishing my toothpaste photo!
When I was a Studio Teacher, we would invite Science Bob to come on the set and teach science to the child actors The kids all loved him! He is a terrific teacher.I am personally thrilled to watch the TV world discover him.
Years ago I saw Lee Marek do this on the Late Show's "kid scientists" segment--but they turned off the lights and he cracked a glow stick and dumped it in before adding the catalyst. sweet!
Someone did a similar demo on David Letterman many many moons ago. But he used goat's blood to catalyze the H2O2 in a 2 liter bottle. Lot's of foam and melted the bottle.
Hahaha, I wonder if there could be a setup created for the first bottle for Halloween- along the lines of "Aaaaaaaah! My intestines are spilling out!"