MetaFilter posts tagged with experiments

Do Not Try This At Home

The Whelk — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:30:12 -0800

You can see that things gradually become more terrifying : Five of the six alkali metals and their reactions to air and water. Learn more at the Periodic Table Of Videos. Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, Cesium (Caesium), and the elusive Francium.

Wondermark on Postmarks

Lentrohamsanin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:08:39 -0800

David "Wondermark" Malki was curious about how important the dates on the stamps printed by an APC (Automated Postal Center) are. Here are his findings.

Be all that you can be

Joe Beese — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:52:11 -0800

The Department of Veterans Affairs has reported that military scientists tested hundreds of chemical and biological substances on them, including VX, tabun, soman, sarin, cyanide, LSD, PCP, and World War I-era blister agents like phosgene and mustard. The full scope of the tests, however, may never be known. As a CIA official explained to the GAO, referring to the agency's infamous MKULTRA mind-control experiments, "The names of those involved in the tests are not available because names were not recorded or the records were subsequently destroyed." Besides, said the official, some of the tests involving LSD and other psychochemical drugs "were administered to an undetermined number of people without their knowledge."

Discover Your Inner Frankenstein

amyms — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:23:52 -0800

"In Massachusetts, a young woman makes genetically modified E. coli in a closet she converted into a home lab. A part-time DJ in Berkeley, Calif., works in his attic to cultivate viruses extracted from sewage. In Seattle, a grad-school dropout wants to breed algae in a personal biology lab. These hobbyists represent a growing strain of geekdom known as biohacking, in which do-it-yourselfers tinker with the building blocks of life in the comfort of their own homes." They might be discovering cures for diseases or developing new biofuels, but are their experiments too risky? Via. Additional links from the article: "In her dining room lab, Meredith L. Patterson is trying to develop a bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine." "This home experiment for extracting DNA from strawberries [YouTube video] uses a zip-lock bag, a glass, detergent and some strawberries." "Read more about Katherine Aull's experiment in her closet lab." "DIYbio Group co-founder Mackenzie Cowell explains some of the initiatives [Vimeo video], and the community lab the group is setting up in Cambridge, Mass." Related: The Biohacking Hobbyist Biohacking: The Open Wetware Future The Open Biohacking Project

Studies In Getting Smacked

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:24:28 -0800

Three psychology experiments that raise ethics questions because of the danger they posed to the research assistants. (via) The Reaction to Rape by American Male Bystanders: "The present study simulated a rape in a realistic natural setting. The topography of the location ensured that the subjects, men walking to their adjacent parked cars, had but one of the following three options: to walk away, to intervene directly, or to intervene indirectly by summoning a police officer. Intervention was more frequent by groups of bystanders than by individual bystanders and was overwhelmingly of the direct kind." Personal space invasions in the lavatory: Suggestive evidence for arousal.: "A field experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that personal space invasions produce arousal as measured by delay of onset and duration of men’s urination. Men using a three-urinal lavatory at a Midwestern university were subjects. According to a previously determined schedule of random assignment a confederate either, stood at the urinal directly adjacent to the subject, stood one urinal away, or was absent from the lavatory. An observer with a periscope was concealed in a toilet stall and recorded measures of urination." The stare as a stimulus to flight in human subjects: "An experimenter, reading a motor scooter, arranged to arrive first at a red traffic light. When a car drew along side, the experimenter turned to stare directly at the driver until the traffic signal turned green."

On royal curiosity and language deprivation experiments

voltairemodern — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:23:23 -0800

Frederick...made linguistic experiments on the vile bodies of hapless infants, "bidding foster-mothers and nurses to suckle and bathe and wash the children, but in no wise to prattle or speak with them; for he would have learnt whether they would speak the Hebrew language (which had been the first), or Greek, or Latin, or Arabic, or perchance the tongue of their parents of whom they had been born. But he laboured in vain, for the children could not live without clappings of the hands, and gestures, and gladness of countenance, and blandishments." Emperor Frederick II was not alone in his curiosity on this score: Both Psammetichus I (664-610 BCE) and James V (1513-1542 CE) also organized their own versions of the experiment. We tend to think of such research as having been abandoned wholesale by the time of the 20th century, though there have been cases of “feral children”, even very recently. (And other, similarly cruel experiments have been performed, for example, in an attempt to discover the source of stuttering.) Yet the grandiose questions about language that perplexed both the royal “scientists” organizing such experiments as well as the more contemporary scientists studying feral children, remain largely unanswered. This indicates to some that "the forbidden experiment may belong to a...group of experimental problems that persistently seem meaningful but are not."

Why Do Beans Make You Fart?

netbros — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:16:49 -0800

ilovebacteria.com explains science to people who do not necessarily have a scientific background. You'll find a selection of DIY experiments like egg osmosis, and strange facts like the ever popular why does asparagus make your wee smell? And don't forget to meet the microbes.

Zap!

boo_radley — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:32:13 -0800

Spark, Bang, Buzz is a site (well, two sites, one at earthlink, and the other at sparkbangbuzz.com) dedicated to dangerous and awesome science. Can you charge a refridgerator with propane? Make an air cannon! Flame triodes ! And, of course, as the author notes, "There is a great deal of satisfaction in the idea of having built your own laser".

13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel

dhammond — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:37:04 -0800

The Most Expensive Drink at Starbucks.

31 free optical project books from the 1970s

nímwunnan — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 10:39:12 -0800

The folks at Anchor optics must have figured out that if you give away more than thirty pdfs of classic science project books involving optics, people who want to do the projects will know where to shop. My favorite: Fun With Fresnel Lenses (22.9 mb pdf).

...her maidenhead plane's now a torus.

Wolfdog — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:42:58 -0800

Can you cut a hole in a 3x5 card that's large enough to crawl through? Topological trickery and some other classic science experiments.

SCIENCE!

hangashore — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:50:17 -0800

"UNTIL you experiment with chlorine, you have missed some of the biggest thrills your home laboratory can give you." Sound like fun? Bet you'll want to set up your own home chemistry lab and try it out. But don't stop there - the wonders of hydrogen and mercury await! Make a gas that gives you the giggles, then blow stuff up for more guffaws. And that's just part of only one section of Modern Mechanix - "Yesterday's Tomorrow, Today!"

“Allowing parents to select their children’s sexual orientation would further a parent’s freedom to raise the sort of children they want to raise.”

mek — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:51:01 -0800

Cure for teh gay? I was relaxing in front of X-Men 3 when a friend mentioned that the United States "gay sheep" experiments were wrapping up (though not uneventfully), with considerable successes. Lesbian tennis champ Martina Navaratilova has been fighting to end the tests for some time, but it appears a "gay vaccine" for pregnant mothers may be inevitable. Meanwhile, the GOP's only gay congressman retires.

Forgot how to dissect a frog?

Gyan — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:50:40 -0800

Journal of Visualized Experiments is an online research journal for publishing visualized (video-based) biological experiments

Physics is "phun"! (And "krazy")

RockBandit — Thu, 25 May 2006 00:04:12 -0800

Is this guy an awesome teacher or just crazy? Or maybe it goes hand in hand. Think back to the days of high school and college science classes. For most people, it probably wasn't chalkboards full of endless physics equations that got them interested in the sciences, but rather the crazy, cooky and awe-inspiring professors who do dramatic and unique demonstrations to get students interested. What makes a good teacher or professor? Is this teacher really reckless or is it a legit demonstration that benefits students?

Thermite and other memorable experiments

blahblahblah — Thu, 04 May 2006 23:10:29 -0800

Unsafe-science-experiments-you-did-in-class-Friday: an advisory on dangerous chemistry experiments (they mention Nitrogen Triiodide, Chromate Volcanos, Whoosh Bottles, and Potassium Chlorate and Sugar), unwise microwave oven experiments, and, of course, thermite (and a great thermite video). I am amazed anyone survives high school, what other dubious but educational experiments did you do? Note: all pages are science education sites. Read the warnings. The awesome Chemistry Comes Alive site mentioned prev.

One piece of paper.

mathowie — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 12:23:40 -0800

One piece of paper. "It was an experiment to see how long it could last. Draw a comic, rub it off, and draw another over the top. Once it had finished, a second experiment was started on another piece of paper. Current data - one piece of paper can survive an average of 65 cartoons being drawn on it" [via mefi projects]

Richard D James makes me freak out a little bit

crunchywelch — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 00:49:40 -0800

images embedded in music by aphex twin can be viewed on certain tracks using a spectograph. What initially was thought to be a hidden demon face, turned out to actually be Richard D James' trademark, his unnerving grinning visage. (other examples are interesting). The images were embedded in the music using a program called metasynth which allows you to do cool things like 'paint sound'. The secret images even inspired a reasonably interesting article at wired. The most remarkable thing to me is how the generally abrasive result of this process was blended so well into the tracks. I have listened to these many times myself and never sensed something off or odd about the sections with these embedded images in them (other than the usual odd sounds that make up the tracks themselves). Wikipedia has a pretty good article for those unfamiliar with the artist.

previously on mefl here, but the content is old and that link dead so I thought it was worth another post.

From pitch to drops

dov3 — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 14:07:11 -0800

Longest lab experiment

Smarty pantses

greatgefilte — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 15:37:51 -0800

Beyond the science fair. Behind a veneer of shoddy web-design lies a brilliant idea: getting grade- and high-school students to do actual scientific work. For example, "10 students from New York, Texas and Virginia joined three World War II veterans and a retired railroader from Virginia" and discovered a way to make walls self-sterilize. The guy behind it is Carl Vermeulen.

Phun with Physics

afrooz — Sun, 01 May 2005 20:52:10 -0800

Mad Physics dot com has experiments and demonstrations that teach physics principles in strange and more interesting ways. Examples: demonstating Hooke's law with a 13 year-old kid and explaining efficient light emission with Glowsticks! Great for geeks.

Experiments in the Revival of Organisms

derangedlarid — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 13:04:51 -0800

Experiments in the Revival of Organisms 'Of course technique is everything...' Introduced by renowned Marxist scientist and geneticist JBS Haldane, this Soviet film depicts the artificial maintenance of individual organs, a severed dog's head, and finally a dog in toto (excuse the pun).

Ben Franklin's Electrical Experiments

yankeefog — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 06:07:07 -0800

I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time Ben Frankin's extensive experiments with electricity went well beyond his famous kite flying; he also proved that lightning was electrical (and invented the lightning rod), and was the first one to use the words "positive" and "negative" to describe electrical charges. It would no doubt please the ingenious Mr. Franklin to know that all of his writings on electricity are now available online (Note: link goes to 912k PDF file.) Franklin's excitement over his discoveries is palpable--and high school students can duplicate them on their own, thanks to Ben Franklin As My Lab Partner. And for a demonstration that combines Ben's knowledge of electricity with his mischievous sense of humor and fondness for political subversion, watch Conspirators, or The Treason.

Not So Fast...

zarq — Fri, 03 Dec 2004 16:05:46 -0800

That BBC article about AIDS and NYC? Debunked. This one's for schroedinger, who posted the original BBC story about the documentary accusing the NYC Association for Children’s Services of using children in foster care for drug testing experiments without parental consent on MeFi here. Here's an intelligent and well thought out rebuttal from blogger respectfulofotters to the points made (and sources used by,) the documentary.

Save the Planet, One Macaque at a Time

fenriq — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 13:56:46 -0800

Adopt an Ex-Lab Experiment Monkey
The BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection) is sponsoring an adoption program to help care for some 50 macaques that had been owned by a lab in Thailand to be used for scientific experiments. After some publicity, they were pressured into releasing the little monkeys just prior to their last experiment that would have killed them all.