chemical history » ChemHacker

Nanotechnology and Chemistry in a DIY Setting Talk: at University of Chicago

I’m nearly recovered from Notacon (had a lot of fun and I already can’t wait till next year’s Notacon). While there, my friend Christina invited me to speak at the Ripple conference in creativity in education conference on Saturday, April 24 at 5735 S University Ave, Chicago, IL 60637 (university of chicago).

I’ll be giving a slightly longer (20 extra minutes…what will I do?) and cleaner (no swearing… I swear) version of the talk and chemistry demo I gave at Notacon.

The talk will be at 11:10-12:30

Free Ripple signup is here and schedule is here.

A few programming notes:

If you attended the talk at Notacon, you know that I’ve promised to post my ferrofluid recipe here – it will be posted here in a few days (lots of writing and photos go into making a good recipe).
My Notacon video will also be posted here when it goes live.

History: Wired’s Don’t Try This At Home Article

This is an old article, but it’s still very relevant. The June 2006 edition of Wired Magazine has this article detailing the rise and fall of the garage chemist: Don’t try This At Home (here it is all on one page, but without all the pretty pictures).

The reason you should read this:

Taking chemicals and lab equipment away from kids who love science is like taking crayons and paints away from a kid who may grow up to be an artist.

[Links and resources after the jump] Read the rest of this entry »

History: The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments

I know I can’t start a discussion about at-home chemistry without mentioning the (in)famous Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. Some overly dramatic people have called it a banned book – it isn’t, but it is a bit out of date and presents some experiments that aren’t exactly safe for unattended kids (or even adults) to perform.

Published in 1960 and updated in 1962 and 1963, and now widely available in pdf form on the internet, this book was an inspiration to many a home chemical tinkerer.

There are several basic safety flaws with the book that prevent me from recommending it as an experimental handbook. I found these in a 10-minute review:

pipetting by mouth – a seriously bad no-no
teaches you to make ammonia gas?!?!
teaches you to make chlorine gas ?!!? seriously? WTF!!
has you taste a weak NaOH solution – I prefer reading books that don’t try to poison me…
shaking test tubes by putting your thumb over the opening and shaking – another bad no-no
people sticking their fingers into boiling milk? what?

Things I do like about it:

It is a great, concise (only 114 pages) background on basic chemical theory and history
The majority of the experiments are good (but I disagree with the methods the authors use)

Homework assignment:

So, for homework, I assign everyone out there to skim through the Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments and find the most awesome examples of terrible safety and the most inspiring and interesting experiments and theories it discusses. Discuss in the comments…

Low resolution image of the Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments courtesy of Wikipedia.org

Update:

Arrgh, I can’t believe I just noticed that NO ONE in this book wears any safety gear. There are no gloves, goggles, aprons. These kids are doing chemistry in their Sunday best!!! I don’t think the author mentions anything about real fire extinguishers either (but they do talk about how fire extinguishers work…).

Intro to ChemHacker

What’s going on here?

Over the past several decades, chemistry as a hobby has fallen from grace. Instead of a noble, interesting, healthy realm of inquiry, chemistry is now viewed with mistrust and fear by most people. In the United States, chemical hobbyists are now assumed to be only interested in drugs and explosives and face the risk of investigation by three-lettered government agencies. This environment of fear and mistrust is a terrible thing for both the science of chemistry and humanity as a whole.

The causes for this fall from grace are many, and while most of the causes of this fall are unwarranted, some of them were caused by the chemical industry and chemical hobbyists themselves. Read the rest of this entry »