1/27/2009 - Watch boiling water turn to snow!

I'm going to Washington, D.C. in a couple of weeks and my only trepidation about the trip is of the potential of some very cold weather. Living in the Southwest USA for most of my life, I have yet to experience truly sub-freezing temperatures. I mean, it snows in Tucson once every two or three years, and when it does, it makes the top of the news. I see tomorrow it will be 40 degrees Fahrenheit there and I would actually accept that for my trip. But I fear that the law of averages will play into the early February time period and below 30 degree temperatures will be awaiting me. If that's the case, I might try some experiments with freezing water or licking a metal pole or something. Watching this next video inspires me:

1/8/2008 - Astronaut demos drinking coffee in space

Being a science geek as a kid, I always thought that being an astronaut would be a dream job for me. But as I got older, I've been more and more apprehensive about even the idea of being in space. It's like I have some kind of phobia about it or something. Maybe it's the exact opposite of claustrophobia... an extreme form of agoraphobia perhaps. I don't know what it is, but the idea of being stranded out there and being far away from Earth gives me the night sweats.

Still, I would really like to experience weightlessness. I guess it would fulfill the dream of flying, being free of gravity, and just having fun with it. Imagine the "fun" you could have with a cup of water in a weightless environment. What's amazing is that scientists have found a way to make an open container that will work in space where the liquid doesn't fly everywhere:



I'd LOVE to try that with Tang.

9/3/2008 - Poor man's "Liquid Nitrogen"

Being a science nerd back in the day, I really wanted to get my hands on some liquid nitrogen. For something to be that cold and yet remain liquid is pretty awesome (I would have said "cool" but that would be a pretty bad pun). I would have so much fun doing the standard freezing of flowers and rubber balls and then shattering them on the floor. My fascination with liquid nitrogen was only heightened with the movie Terminator 2. Anybody who has seen the climax of that movie would know what I'm talking about ("Hasta la vista, baby!"). Sadly, liquid nitrogen would be out of the reach of my high school's budget and it was something we couldn't play, er, experiment with. It's too bad that we didn't have YouTube back then, otherwise we could learn from this video here:



This is something I'm actually tempted to try. Now all I have to do is find some dry ice...

7/15/2008 - Water BURNS - Here is the PROOF

I admit... back when I was a kid, I was a big science geek. Well, maybe a wannabe science geek. I say that because even though I was interested in the science and the cool experiments, I was never creative enough to come up with my own experiments or any practical science projects. That's why I was into the educational TV shows like Beakman's World and Bill Nye the Science Guy. They did all the cool experiments and demonstrations on the show so you wouldn't have to. Mythbusters actually takes the same concept to a more extreme level. But I didn't realize that these shows were lacking something... that connection to the average, blue-collar, middle-class viewer. What they really needed was a redneck Aussie doing science experiments like this guy (beware of some salty language):

6/15/2008 - Powers of 10

I just have three thoughts while watching this video:

1) It's very similar to that Simpsons intro I blogged about last year.

2) It reminds me of those boring VHS programs we watched in science class.

3) The narrator sounds like that psychologist in Total Recall who tries to convince Arnold that he's in a dream. If you watched the movie, you know who I'm talking about.