Check out this nifty how-to video by ThScience on how to make your own fake blood, just in time for Halloween. It's really entertaining, like a chemistry lesson and a classic rock concert rolled into one. Which pretty much sums up my entire high school career.
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How-To: Make stage blood
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/08/how-to_make_stage_blood.html
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August 5 2010, 12:00am | More »
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How-To: Make glow sticks
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/07/how-to_make_glow_sticks.html
Have you ever been curious how a glow stick works or how they achieve all those wonderful colors? In this video from NurdRage you'll learn what it takes to generate the chemical energy needed and how to harness it to create various colors in the spectrum. [via WonderHowTo]
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July 22 2010, 7:00am | More »
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The Home Scientist video: Where to get lab chemicals
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/06/the_home_scientist_video_where_to_g.html
MAKE's science and chemistry author, Robert Bruce Thompson, has a new installment of his video series The Home Scientist, on acquiring chemicals for your home lab. This video is a nice companion to Bob's piece in the Make: Science Room on the same subject: Chemicals on the cheap. See Bob's YouTube channel for all of the videos in the series.
And don't forget to check out the Science Room section of Maker Shed for lab gear and supplies.
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June 19 2010, 4:32pm | More »
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How-To: Anodize aluminum
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/06/how-to_anodize_aluminum.html
Ron Newman's fantastic page on DIY room-temperature anodizing of aluminum parts was last revised in 2007, and looks like it may be significantly older than that. Ron's selling a how-to book, now, and a bunch of anodizing supplies, from the same page, but to me it looks like there's more than enough free info there already for a savvy person to figure it out for him- or herself. And while Ron's set-up, pictured above, may look intimidating, it's actually possible to do this without a lot of expensive equipment.
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June 18 2010, 9:31pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
Jeri Ellsworth turns an LCD into an EL display
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/06/jeri_ellsworth_turns_an_lcd_into_el.html
Jeri experiments with Dupont Luxprint Electroluminescent inks and converts an old LCD into a simple EL display. She also demonstrates that super glue can be used as the dielectric and that zinc sulfide glow powder does not work well as an EL phosphor.
More:
- Jeri's homemade pinball machine
- MacGyver of the Day: Electronics Hacker Jeri Ellsworth - Makers @ Lifehacker
- Jeri Ellsworth and Short Circuit #1
- Jeri's homebrew pinball, day 7
- Jeri makes rocket "candy"
- Jeri's nifty Nintendo/C64 purse
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June 11 2010, 3:00pm | More »
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DIY liquid nitrogen generator
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/06/diy_liquid_nitrogen_generator.html
One of the more intriguing exhibits at this year's Maker Faire Bay Area was Ben Krasnow's liquid nitrogen generator rig. Ben built the entire assembly, for under $500, with parts he scrounged (over a year) on eBay.
In this video, shot at the Faire, intrepid reporter Circuit Girl, aka Jeri Ellsworth, interviews Ben. We apologize for the loud ambient noise and the gonging robo-Gamelan next door. Hopefully between the video, the above illo, and Ben's blog posting, you can get the gist of his set-up.
(And yes LN2 can expand with explosive force and can burn living tissue. All sensible cautions apply.)
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June 8 2010, 12:30am | More »
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Tiniest cannon works, blasts targets
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/05/tiniest_cannon_works_blasts_targets.html
This surprisingly accurate and destructive mini cannon proves that you don't need a lot of powder to inflict damage. Looking back on age 10 when I was burning more black powder than Kit Carson, things could have worked out much worse. [via boingboing]
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May 9 2010, 11:00am | More »
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I posted to hackaday.com
Making magnetite nanocrystals
http://hackaday.com/2010/05/08/making-magnetite-nanocrystals/
Unlike many chemistry projects we post here, making magnetite nanocrystals doesn’t require anything that can’t be found in a local grocery store. All that is required is oil, vinegar, crystal drain opener, and rust. We don’t recognize the specific brand of drain cleaner that they are using, but we’re sure that you could find one with the same ingredients. Magnetite nanocrystals are used to remove arsenic from water. If you are in the USA or most of Europe, that’s not a big concern, but it can’t hurt can it?
[via Make]
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May 8 2010, 10:00am | More »
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Beautiful element photography on Wikimedia Commons
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/05/beautiful_element_photography_on_wi.html
I have been reading the Picture of the Day feed from Wikimedia Commons for about a month, now, and it is fast becoming one of the best parts of my daily newsreader experience. Every day there's a gorgeous new publicly-licensed photograph pre-selected for quality by a vote amongst Wikimedia community members.
That's how I happened upon the work of German inorganic chemist and photographer alchemist-hp (English-language page). She or he takes amazing photographs of element, mineral, and chemical samples and has a stated goal (badly translated by yours truly) "to create special pictures of all naturally occurring elements."
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May 6 2010, 12:00pm | More »
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DIY home carbonation
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/diy_home_carbonation.html
Repurposing a leftover CO2 cylinder and regulator, maker Joel Miller assembled this DIY home carbonation unit after a quick parts run.
The carbonating process is simple. Fill an empty bottle with the liquid of your choice and refrigerate it. Replace the cap with the special one you made and attach the quick-disconnect hose to it. Make sure the shutoff valve on the regulator is closed, then slowly open the main valve on the tank until the regulator shows pressure. Adjust the output pressure to about 45psi and open the shutoff valve, pressurizing the bottle. Now loosen the cap on the bottle just slightly while squeezing any air space out of the neck of the bottle, then tighten the cap. This will purge any air from the bottle and replace it with CO2. Now shake the bottle vigorously for about 20-30 seconds; this will help dissolve the CO2 into the liquid faster. Shut off the CO2 at the regulator and disconnect the hose from the quick-disconnect fitting. You can now remove the special cap (slowly, the contents are now carbonated!) and replace it with a regular cap.
So on the first day I made seltzer water. On the second day I carbonated apple juice, grape juice, and Gatorade, and ended the evening with a carbonated vodka martini (nice!). What else can I carbonate?
Just to be on the safe side, Joel also mentions:VERY IMPORTANT: Apparently there is a chemical reaction between the CO2 dissolved in water and copper (or copper alloys like brass) that creates a toxic substance that will make you sick. Never use brass or other copper-based fittings with seltzer! All of these fittings (or at least the ones that will be in contact with the seltzer for any length of time) are either zinc-plated steel or stainless.
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March 19 2010, 7:00am | More »
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Make a lab centrifuge out of a salad spinner
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/make_a_lab_centrifuge_out_of_a_sala.html
Forget the laboratory supply store, you can score a centrifuge on late-night TV!
I recently visited a lab that had a salad spinner on their lab bench and at first I wondered if they were putting together a salad lunch there but when I took a peek I got a nice surprise. It turns out that the salad spinner was actually a bench top, "minifuge" version of a plate centrifuge.
What a great idea I thought. A cheap, quick-to-build plate centrifuge that also worked pretty well for a quick spin just before PCR. So, we tried to built one in my lab and we loved it so much that we now have one sitting near almost EVERY PCR plate instrument, and have even gifted a couple to others!Thanks, Abizar!
There are lots more science tutorials, lab experiments, and resources available in the Make: Science Room. Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Chemistry | Digg this!
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March 16 2010, 3:00pm | More »
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Element 112 officially "Copernicium"
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/element_112_officially_copernicium.html
Admittedly, if you're not a chemist or physicist, you may find this post as boring as dirt. (Please forgive the simile, microbiologists. I know dirt is actually fascinating.) Then again, it's not everyday a new element is added to the periodic table.
The latest addition, number 112, was discovered on February, 9th, 1996 at 10:37 PM by a team under Professor Sigurd Hofmann at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Center for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany, who confirmed its existence by observing a characteristic "decay chain" of radioisotopes (illustrated above) that could only have originated with element 112.
Just a couple weeks ago, on February 19, that discovery was officially confirmed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), who accepted the GSI team's recommendation of the name "Copernicium" in honor, naturally, of Nicolaus Copernicus, whom most will recall as the first scientist to stand up and declare that the earth revolves around the sun, rather than the other way 'round. The new two-letter symbol is "Cn."
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March 7 2010, 9:00pm | More »
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Maker Birthday: Linus Pauling
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/maker_birthday_linus_pauling.html
Yesterday, February 28, 2010, Linus Carl Pauling would've been 109 years old. And we'd all be better off he were still with us since, by all accounts, even a doddering Pauling could've run rings around most folks intellectually. One of four human beings ever to have been awarded multiple Nobel Prizes, and the only one ever to have won both the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1954) and the Nobel Peace Prize (1962), Pauling's 1939 Nature of the Chemical Bond remains one of the most influential chemistry texts ever published. And his 1947 General Chemistry, available in its classic 3rd edition through Dover Publications for a song, remains one of the best-written and most readable introductions to the subject. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for his instrumental role in scientific activism to end above-ground nuclear weapons testing. A complete list of Pauling's accolades could, and has, filled several books, but I can't resist mentioning, in closing, that geek ubermensch Linus Torvalds is reportedly named after him.
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March 1 2010, 3:54pm | More »
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Microfluidics with common thread
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/microfluidics_with_cotton_thread.html
"Microfluidics" (Wikipedia) is kind of a blanket term that covers manipulation of liquids on a very small scale. An inkjet printer head is an everyday example of a microfluidic system, but many of the more exciting applications are in biochemistry and/or medical diagnostics, where mass-produced "lab-on-a-chip" systems incorporating complex networks of tiny fluid channels could one day bring complex analytical procedures, that once were practical only in the laboratory, out into the field. Many of the same technologies that are used in the production of semiconductors can be applied to the manufacture of microfluidic systems.
As in semiconductors, however, the costs of prototyping labs-on-chips can be quite high. Many of you may recall the buzz surrounding UC-Irvine professor Michelle Khine's recent discovery that inkjet-printable shrinky-dink plastic could be used to rapidly prototype microfluidic systems.
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February 21 2010, 9:00pm | More »
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Atomic emission spectrum scarf
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/atomic_emission_spectrum_scarf.html
Our very own inimitable Becky Stern makes and sells these beautiful custom scarves featuring the atomic emission spectrum of your favorite element. Shown above is the "silicon" version (as modeled by AdaFruit's likewise inimitable Limor Fried) but you can choose whichever element/spectrum you like. And here's a handy-dandy Java applet from The University of Oregon that makes it easy to browse for your selection. Minimalists may prefer hydrogen or helium, but for my money it's hard to pass up the rainbow-y goodness of, say, iron or tantalum. Want!
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February 15 2010, 8:00am | More »
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Glenn Seaborg's old mailing address
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/glenn_seaborgs_old_mailing_address.html
The occasion of Dmitri Mendeleev's birthday seemed like a good opportunity to recognize another great hero of the periodic table and to relate one of my favorite anecdotes about him: Glenn T. Seaborg (Wikipedia), who, among his various stellar achievements, won the 1951 Nobel Prize for "discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements." By the time of his death in 1999, Seaborg had participated in the discovery and isolation of ten superheavy elements. Shortly after the official 1997 recognition of the name seaborgium for element 106, Jeffrey Winters, writing in the January 1998 issue of Discover Magazine, made the following observation:
Not only is Seaborg the first living scientist to have an element named after him, he's also the only person who could receive mail addressed only in elements: Seaborgium, Lawrencium (for the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where he still works), Berkelium, Californium, Americium. But don't forget the zip code.
Naming an element after a living scientist generated significant controversy among the international chemistry community of the time. At a talk in 1995, Seaborg himself famously quipped: "There has been some reluctance on the part of the Commission for Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry to accept the name because I'm still alive and they can prove it, they say."
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February 8 2010, 4:00pm | More »
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Flashback: The Florence Siphon Arabica Brewing & Extraction Apparatus
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/flashback_the_florence_siphon_arabi.html
I thought I was really into coffee until I met John Edgar Park, host of Make: television, contributing writer to Make: Online, and author of several MAKE magazine articles. John takes his coffee seriously. Seriously. Case in point was when he devised and wrote a how-to for his Florence Siphon Brewing and Extraction Apparatus for MAKE Volume 17, our Lost Knowledge issue. This apparatus is sure to raise eyebrows (and spirits) next time you invite someone to your workshop for a cup of blessed joe. Check out the whole project in this week's Flashback, and pick up a back issue of MAKE 17 over in the Maker Shed.
Make your own mad-scientist coffee machine.
By J. Edgar Park IIAboard the dirigible Aeroship Phaedrus, two men are seated at a table in the onboard Laboratory:
"Doctor Liepold, would you kindly prescribe something to lift my depressed spirits?"
"Why of course, Captain Heffernan. What is it that ails you?"
"My mind feels sluggish and there is still much work to be done before daylight. I am drawing up charts for the expedition."
"Ah, yes, I have just the thing. Sit a moment while I extract the invigorants from these wondrous beans."
"Very good, thank you. What is that strange device, Herr Doktor?"
"I call it the Florence Siphon. It is an arabica brewing and extraction apparatus. Allow me to demonstrate. First, I fill this boiling flask with a quantity of pure spring water. It is a vessel of my own devising that can withstand great heat and pressure. I heat the flask, which causes the water to vaporize, passing through this tube here, through a filter, and into the beaker to my left. Here, the water commingles with precisely roasted and ground fruit of Coffea arabica. I give the slurry a rapid stirring to fully saturate the grounds, then wait.
"As my boiling flask cools, a vacuum is created, causing the very atmosphere of the Earth to push the liquid through the filter, leaving the grounds and all unsavory particulate matter behind. Thus the liquid, now filled with essences, oils, solubles, flavors, and vital invigorants, is returned to the flask. Allow me to unstopper it and pour you a dose."
"Doctor! You have outdone yourself! I feel revitalized by this most miraculous potion."The vacuum siphon coffee brewing method dates back to the 1840s. It produces some of the cleanest, smoothest-tasting coffee of any method. Commercial vacuum pots are available, but I wanted to heighten the drama of vacuum brewing by taking it into the realm of the mad scientist's lab. Thus the Florence Siphon was born!
After studying original patent drawings and existing devices, I identified these key features:
• Water is heated in a boiling flask that has a tube leading to a second vessel containing ground coffee.
• The tube must have a filter, to allow the water to flow through but not the grounds.
• The filter must be submerged during brewing, so as to maintain a seal with the boiling flask.
• The second vessel must be accessible for stirring the slurry.
• The boiling flask must be large enough to create a sufficient vacuum as it cools to "pull" the coffee back through.One drawback to early vacuum brewers was the constant danger of exploding glass. Today, we have plenty of high-quality borosilicate glassware that's up to the task — it just happens to be found in the lab, not the kitchen.
Filtration was another challenge. I tinkered with a few options (including an unfortunate foray into shower heads) before arriving at an inverted thistle tube. This is a type of bulbed funnel that's easy to cover with filter cloth. (Thanks to Dr. Jim Callan from Avogadro's Lab Supply for this suggestion.)
I assembled my funnel, stopper, tubing, filter, and a beaker for the grounds. I filled my flask with preheated water (small burners can take a while to boil 500ml), poured 38g of medium-ground coffee into the beaker, donned my goggles, and lit the burner.
The water began to bubble quickly, and soon went straight up the glass tube and over to the grounds. After about a minute, the flask was nearly empty and I extinguished the flame. At this point, there was an abundance of expanded water vapor (steam) inside the flask, which prevented the water from returning.
I stirred up the slurry with a stick and then waited with great excitement. Would the siphon be able to draw the coffee back up? At just about the 2-minute mark, I saw the gorgeous brown liquid begin its ascent. This is due to the vacuum created by the cooling and contraction of water vapor in the boiling flask. It was tentative at first, but as the boiling flask continued to cool, the coffee started to move quickly up the tube, over and then back down to the flask below. Within another 20 seconds, the journey was complete: 420ml of coffee made it back, leaving 80ml of water behind with the grounds.
I removed the stopper and poured myself a cup. It was perfect! Smooth, bright, clear, and clean. Vacuum coffee is a step above a French press, and leagues above drip. Plus, when you brew with the Florence Siphon you get to don your lab coat and cackle maniacally. What more could you want from a cup of coffee?
Here's how to build your own Florence Siphon.
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February 3 2010, 8:00pm | More »
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Briggs-Rauscher oscillating chemical reaction
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/briggs-rauscher_oscillating_chemica.html
Discussion about yesterday's mercury "beating heart" reaction post got me thinking about chemical oscillators in general. Turns out, the mercury beating heart may be the only mechanically oscillating chemical reaction that anybody knows about. It's certainly the only one I know about, and its the only one I can find on the web. But if you know of another mechanically oscillating reaction, do please drop me a comment. However...
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January 31 2010, 10:56pm | More »
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Mercury "beating heart" demo video
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/mercury_beating_heart_demo_video.html
This classic chemistry demo involves the use of toxic metallic mercury, so it's one of those that is best to just watch on YouTube instead of trying yourself. The pulsing action is caused by surface tension effects--metallic mercury is oxidized at the surface of the drop to form a film of mercury (I) sulfate, which lowers the drop's surface tension and causes it to flatten under its own weight. The flattening brings the drop into contact with the tip of a carefully-positioned iron nail, which reduces the mercury (I) sulfate back to metallic mercury, which in turn increases the drop's surface tension and causes it to contract away from the nail. The solution contains an electrolyte and an oxidizing agent, in this case weak sulfuric acid and potassium dichromate, respectively. Thanks to YouTuber sciencevidds for sharing it with us. [via Boing and then some more Boing]
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January 30 2010, 9:05pm | More »
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New catalyst turns atmospheric CO2 into useful chemical
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/new_catalyst_turns_atmospheric_co2.html
Anyone who suggests that we might fix the atmospheric carbon problem just by recycling carbon dioxide from the air and turning it into, say, plastic, probably hasn't run the numbers: the 3% human contribution to annual global carbon dioxide emissions is 23 billion metric tons, whereas annual global plastics production amounts to only 91 million metric tons. Even if the necessary technology were practical, in other words, the entire annual global human plastics demand would consume less than 1% of the entire annual global human carbon dioxide surplus.
Still, every little bit helps, and this copper-based catalyst recently developed by Elisabeth Bouwman and co-workers at Leiden University in the Netherlands represents a vast improvement over previous atmospheric carbon-dioxide-fixing processes. Most of these are poisoned by oxygen, which means that you can't just pump air into the reactor without removing the oxygen first. Bouwman's catalyst, however, reacts with carbon dioxide but not oxygen, producing oxalate, which is a useful feedstock for the manufacture of methyl glycolate and other organic compounds. And while Bouwman's material is not a "true" catalyst in that it actually forms a compound with carbon dioxide and has to be regenerated in a second reaction, the regeneration step can be done electrochemically with remarkably little energy.
Here's the abstract of Bouwman's recent paper in Science, and here's an audio interview with Bouwman from the Science podcast.
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January 22 2010, 11:00am | More »
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Alt.CES: I can haz hydrogen?
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/altces_i_can_haz_hydrogen.html
On the assumption that hydrogen-powered cars (jet packs?) will be commonplace some day, H-hawker Horizon introduced a consumer gadget at CES that converts water into hydrogen and stores it safely in solid form.
The small desktop device simply plugs into the AC, a solar panel or a small wind turbine, automatically extracts hydrogen from its water tank and stores it in a solid form in small refillable cartridges. The cartridges contain metallic alloys that absorb hydrogen into their crystalline structure, and release it back at low pressures, removing concerns about storing hydrogen at high pressure. This storage method also creates the highest volumetric energy density of any form of hydrogen storage, even higher than liquid hydrogen. Unlike conventional batteries, these cartridges carry more energy capacity, are cheaper, and do not contain any environmentally-harmful heavy metals.
Horizon believes the HYDROFILL is the first step towards private refueling of new generations of fuel cell electric vehicles. Fuel cell technology can greatly improve the features and usability of many battery or engine-powered devices, and create the possibility for lower cost electric cars that drive longer distances and recharge instantly.
[via electronics-lab.com]
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January 15 2010, 2:00pm | More »
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Iodine clock reaction
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/iodine_clock_reaction.html
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Nice video of the "Iodine clock reaction"... here's how to do it too.
Don't forget, MAKE has a great Chemistry section on our blog and the Maker Shed.
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December 19 2009, 5:00am | More »
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Soft-setting adhesive putty
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/soft-setting_adhesive_putty.html
Sugru is a lot like epoxy putty, except that it sets on exposure to air (so you don't have to knead two different components together) and that it dries to a soft, pliable, bouncy silicone elastomer. It sticks to most surfaces and bonds especially well to metals. [via Hack a Day]
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December 7 2009, 11:04am | More »
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How-To: Chemistry-themed Xmas ornaments
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/how-to_chemistry-themed_christmas_o.html
Bethany Halford's column in this week's Chemical & Engineering News drew my attention to BEYONDbones, an official blog from the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, and particularly to a couple of chemistry-related holiday projects. This page teaches how to make a crystalline ornament from pipe cleaners and saturated borax, and this one, how to use washable markers and a coffee filter to make tie-dye-like paper ornaments based on the principle of paper chromatography.
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December 5 2009, 9:00pm | More »
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Rocket fuel from aluminum and ice
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/rocket_fuel_from_aluminum_and_ice.html
Really cool video, with great experimental footage, chronicling the development of the so-called ALICE (ALuminum and water ICE) solid rocket propellant by a team from Purdue and Penn State. The key to the process is that the metallic aluminum is present as a nano-scale powder, and its oxidation by water thus occurs over a huge surface area and therefore proceeds very quickly, releasing amazing amounts of energy. The video starts with the acoustic mixing of the nano-aluminum with water to make a gray paste which is frozen, in a mold, to make a tubular rocket motor. It then proceeds through various test-bench firings and culminates (at 4:00) in the launch of an actual rocket using the mixture.
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December 4 2009, 8:00am | More »
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How to make your own caffeinated alcohol beverage
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/how_to_make_your_own_caffeinated_al.html
If San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera gets his way a generation of club goers will miss out on the sickly sweet tang of caffeinated alcohol beverages like Sparks, Four-Loko, and Joose. Yet, all is not lost. A group of enterprising practitioners have seized the opportunity to handcraft a batch of Bathtub Sparks in an attempt to recreate the extreme libation.
The following drink was reverse-engineered from a vintage can of caffeinated Sparks and rigorously tested via blind taste-test by SFoodie and four people who agreed to come over to the author's house and drink this stuff, plus two random guys on the street who should be applauded for their daring and general zest for life.
Related:
- HOW TO make Moonshine Whiskey
- Garbage bag + rice cooker = alcohol still
- Home Distillation of Alcohol
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November 18 2009, 6:00am | More »
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Pumpkin abuse in the name of science
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/pumpkin_abuse_in_the_name_of_scienc.html
Over at the Periodic Table of Videos, their chemists put pumpkins through the ringer to demonstrate properties of various chemicals, states, and processes. Nice to see Halloween getting the whole "Peeps in the microwave" treatment. [Thanks, Shawn!]
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See our own growing collection of chemistry experiments in the Make: Science Room- Tags:
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October 31 2009, 1:51pm | More »
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Periodic taxi
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/periodic_taxi.html
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Follow up - Bruce sent this in "Periodic taxi"!
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October 30 2009, 12:18pm | More »
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Flammable ice
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/flammable_ice.html
This awesome little chemical machine is from Mr. Kent's chemistry page. Ice is laid in a Pyrex dish over a layer of calcium carbide. As the ice melts, the liquid water reacts with the carbide to produce acetylene gas, which of course is highly flammable. A match starts it off, and then it burns continuously on its own. My first thought was that the system could rapidly spiral out of control--more heat melts more water makes more gas makes even more heat. But it's limited by the amount of oxygen that can get down into the pan, I think. My second thought was that maybe a bit of sodium metal down there with the carbide could make the process self-igniting.... (For God's sake, no one try that.)
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October 29 2009, 10:00pm | More »
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Super cements aka "geopolymers"
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/super_cements_aka_geopolymers.html
Think cement is just cement? Not so. These unlovely mugs are nonetheless very special. Prepared from special synthetic aluminosilicate materials called "geopolymers" (Wikipedia) by members of Dr. Waltraud M. Kriven's research group at The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, these mugs were tested in a special "mug drop" event at the 2004 American Ceramic Society (ACeRS) conference, and supposedly "were impossible to break at even 50ft onto bare concrete" (although the photos clearly show an astroturf-covered floor). Danger Room's David Hambling recently posted a nice overview of geopolymer technology with an eye towards defense applications. These presentation slides by Dr. Kriven (.pdf) include some actual formulae.
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October 27 2009, 9:49pm | More »
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Bob Thompson on laboratory scales
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/bob_thompson_on_laboratory_scales.html
Bob Thompson, our resident Make: Science Room lab geek, answered a question in the comments for the "Setting Up a Home Science Laboratory Part II - Gearing Up" topic, about buying digital scales. I thought it was worth posting here for the benefit of others.
Cynthia asked:
What would you recommend in the way of a digital scale for intermediate/high school science? I was thinking of purchasing one that was a 1000 g capacity with a 0.1 sensitivity. Could this both serve chemistry and physics, etc.?Bob's reply:
Good question. The two big trade-offs in buying a balance are capacity and resolution. Ideally, we'd all like an inexpensive balance with 0.0001 gram resolution, but unfortunately, there aren't any such animals.
The balance I chose two or three years ago for my own home lab is the desktop MyWeigh iBalance 201, which has 200 gram capacity and 0.01 gram (centigram) resolution. That's still a current model, and is available in Maker Shed and elsewhere. However, it's also a $100+ balance.
If you're looking for something a bit less pricey, Maker Shed also carries a portable $33 electronic balance (on sale through 10/31 for $29) that has the same 200 gram capacity and 0.01 gram resolution. I have one of those as well, and it's a very nice little scale. I suspect it probably isn't quite as durable as the i201, but OTOH, it's less than a third the price. (It's also useful around the house. My wife just used it yesterday to see if she needed to put a second stamp on an envelope.)
My take on this is that 200 g is sufficient capacity. Almost any experiment you do that would use the 1000 g capacity of the balance you're considering can be scaled down to work within the 200 g capacity of these balances. OTOH, having 0.01 g resolution instead of 0.1 g resolution is very nice, particularly for chemistry.
It'll also save you money on chemicals. For example, if you need to make up a solution to a particular accuracy, being able to weigh out (say) 7.87 g of the chemical and making up 100 mL of solution is cheaper than having to weigh out 78.7 g of the chemical and make up 1,000 mL of the solution.
This way to the Make: Science Room >>
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October 26 2009, 5:00am | More »
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"The joy of sex don't last like the fun of shootin' anvils"
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/the_joy_of_sex_dont_last_like_the_f.html
To "shoot," an anvil, for the record, is to blast it several hundred feet into the air using a charge of black powder. This delightful man, Gay Wilkinson, is apparently the world's champion anvil-shooter. The fireworks start at 1:30. [via Boing Boing]
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October 21 2009, 5:05pm | More »
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Litmus candy
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/litmus_candy.html
Windell of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories noticed that the "Blueberry Blast" candies he picked up contained red cabbage extract, which, as every evil mad scientist knows, is a classic homebrew pH indicator. So he dunked three samples in baking soda solution, neutral water, and vinegar. Sure enough, visible color changes.
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October 16 2009, 12:00pm | More »
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I posted to hackaday.com
A Stirring Hack
http://hackaday.com/2009/10/08/a-stirring-hack/
[Oleg] of Circuits@Home and maker of the USB Isolation Board and the USB Host Shield has a new, two-part hack for his chemistry set. In Part 1 of this hack, [Oleg] discusses the method he uses to make a stir bar spin and what types of stir bars work the best. Part 2 discusses the motor control code and circuit. Given the ample amount of capability leftover in the Arduino he used, we would like to see this stirrer paired with a heating element to have a complete hotplate/stirrer. What do you think you could do with or to improve this device?
October 8 2009, 4:00pm | More »
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Maker Shed Science Room Grand Opening Sale
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/maker_shed_science_room_grand_openi.html
The paint has dried, the floor's been swept of construction debris, and all the merchandise is now in place in the Maker Shed's new Science Room section, their companion to our new Make: Science Room. To celebrate this accomplishment (think: ordering, receiving, warehousing, and merchandising hundreds of chemicals and lots of things made out of glass!), they're holding a massive Grand Opening Sale. Almost all of the items in the Shed's Science Room section are on sale, some items as much as 60%. Even the impressive line of microscopes they're selling are on deep discount! They'll be running this sale through the month of October. So, if you've been thinking of putting together a home science lab, now would be a good time to order your gear.
And I don't know about you, but with all of that amazing labware available -- beakers, test tubes, Erlenmeyer and distilling flasks -- at such low prices, I'm definitely seeing a bubbling mad scientist's lab inside my front door this Halloween!This way to the Shed's Science Room >>
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October 1 2009, 1:30pm | More »
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3D printing in glass
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/09/3d_printing_in_glass.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890
The Solheim Rapid Prototyping Lab at the University of Washington was in the news last March for developing a new 3D printing process that uses ceramic powder as an inexpensive alternative to the pricier substrates that are currently the de facto standard for powder-bed processes. Well they've done it again, this time with glass powder, which is formed into an object by layerwise application of a liquid binder. When the part is complete, it can be sintered in a kiln to produce a continuous glass object. The official UW online press release includes a telling quote from lab co-director Mark Ganter: "It became clear that if we could get a material into powder form at about 20 microns we could print just about anything."
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September 25 2009, 9:00am | More »
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Gorgeous bismuth crystal
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/09/gorgeous_bismuth_crystal.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890
Check out this amazing photograph of a chunk of lightly oxidized bismuth metal. Wikimedia Commons identifies the author as Alchemist-hp, who has produced some other really cool element sample photos.
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September 16 2009, 10:00am | More »
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In the future, kid scientists will keep companies legit...
This is a great way to teach chemistry to kids :) Old story, but new(s) to me...Two New Zealand schoolgirls humbled one of the world's biggest food and drugs companies after their school science experiment found that their ready-to-drink Ribena contained almost no trace of vitamin C. Students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo tested the blackcurrant cordial against rival brands to test their hypothesis that cheaper brands were less healthy. Instead, their tests found that the Ribena contained a tiny amount of vitamin C, while another brand's orange juice drink contained almost four times more.
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August 30 2009, 6:59pm | More »
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The pitch drop experiment
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/08/the_pitch_drop_experiment.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890
In 1927 Dr. Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland heated a sample of petroleum pitch, also called bitumen, and poured it into a glass funnel, with a sealed neck, set in a ring stand. Three years later, in 1930, he broke the neck off the funnel and set it aside. It took eight years for the first drop of pitch to fall. The experiment has been running continuously ever since, and has produced a total of eight drops to date. The man shown in the photograph above is Dr. John Mainstone, who is the experiment's current custodian.
The most recent drop fell in November 2000, which means the next one should be falling sometime in the next couple of years. The funnel contains enough pitch to run, it is estimated, at least another hundred years. To date, no one has ever witnessed or photographed a drop falling, but that's likely to change with the next one. The University of Queensland maintains a webcam showing a live view of the experiment at all times. The photograph below shows a screenshot I captured of it just this morning:
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August 17 2009, 11:00am | More »
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I posted to hackaday.com
Colored pyrotechnics
http://hackaday.com/2009/08/16/colored-pyrotechnics/
Regular submitter [Jared Bouck] from Inventgeek.com has sent us this cool project. He wanted to make a fireball cannon, but didn’t want to settle for plain old fireballs.Instead of using a common propane system, he built an alcohol based one so he had a “blank slate” to start with. He then applied some copper chloride to get the desired greens and blues. With all of the fire displays we see, how come we don’t see more colored flames? Check out the overview video after the break.
August 16 2009, 6:09pm | More »
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