Perhaps the best part of my work is hearing from people who have taken one of my projects and run with it. Elizabeth saw my recent PVC-dyeing hack and applied some real craftspersonship to the process, using the dye in two new ways that never would’ve occurred to me. The top cord has been tie-dyed and the bottom one resist-dyed.
Clever food-safe trick to make glow-in-the-blacklight Jell-O that is, nonetheless, edible. At least in theory. I have seen this trick in a couple places, but Instructables user cluracon has the best instructions and photography of the bunch.
1960’s “Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments,” by Robert Brent and Harry Lazarus, is now freely browsable on Scribd, and can be downloaded as a .PDF after either paying $5 or uploading a document of your own in exchange.
Here’s an excerpt from my new book, The Practical Pyromaniac. It’s a bit different than a lot of the other projects because it deals with making things NOT catch on fire. It’s a pretty simple chemistry project. By the way, it makes paper fire resistant, not fire proof.
Our favorite pyromaniac, Bill Gurstelle, is back, and just in time for the 4th of July. He’s also here to talk about/excerpt from his latest book, The Practical Pyromaniac. We’re always excited to have Bill onboard, not only ’cause he’s a great guy, an epic maker, and a good writer, but being the pyro that he is, you just never know what he’s fixin’ to immolate. Keeps a person on their toes.
This video is short, and really pretty boring if you don’t know what’s going on. Shown is a chunk of new alloy that undergoes a phase change, at about 125C, from a nonmagnetic material to one that is strongly magnetic. If you bias the system with an additional, permanent magnet, heating the system past the transition temperature produces an electric current in a nearby coil, thereby converting heat to electricity.
Robert Bruce Thompson, author of Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, has assembled a chemistry set to sell to amateur chemistry buffs and homeschoolers. Because chemistry is widely considered to be the most difficult lab course to do well—particularly on a tight budget—we offer the CK01 Standard/Honors Home School Chemistry Laboratory Kit. It provides a […]
