28 JUL 2014 by ideonexus
How to Make Slime
Mix up a batch of 50/50 water and glue, dissolve a spoonful of Borax in more water, then mix the whole mess together. (If you want real numbers, mix 1/4 c water with 1/4 glue & dissolve 1 tsp Borax in 1/8 c water, but really, you can be pretty slapdash about this.) As you knead it, the slime will quickly start resembling silly putty. For extra awesomeness, consider mixing in some iron filings to create your own batch of magnetic putty.
1 Something to do with the kids.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Newton's Experiment Proving White Contains All Colors
Newton wasn't the first person to make a rainbow with a prism. Other people had already got the same result. But many of them thought the prism somehow 'coloured' the white light, like adding a dye. Newton's idea was quite different. He thought that white light was a mixture of all the colours, and the prism was just separating them from each other. He was right, and he proved it with a pair of neat experiments. First, he took his prism, as before, and stuck a narrow slit in the way of the co... 1 
notes
notesUsing a prism to split light into a rainbow, he then used a lens to merge the rainbow back into white light and split it apart again.
25 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Experiments of Light Versus Those of Fruit
Again, even in the great plenty of mechanical experiments, there is yet a great scarcity of those which are of most use for the information of the understanding. For the mechanic, not troubling himself with the investigation of truth, confines his attention to those things which bear upon his particular work, and will not either raise his mind or stretch out his hand for anything else. But then only will there be good ground of hope for the further advance of knowledge when there shall be rec... 1 notes
notesThe experiment of light has the admirable property of never missing or failing, always shining light on the natural world.
06 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Experimental Methods for Understanding Babies
But why should you believe us instead of those benighted experts who thought babies couldn't really see? How can we say we actually do know what babies think? With the help of videotape, scientists have developed ingenious experimental techniques to ask babies what they know. One whole set of techniques has been designed to answer two simple questions: Do babies think that two things are the same or different? And if they think they're different, do they prefer one to the other? You can prese... 1 notes
notesMethods for knowing what's going on in a babies brain when exposed to various stimuli.
20 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Caenorhabditis elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans was chosen in the 1960s as an ideal experimental animal by the
formidably brilliant South African biologist Sydney Brenner. He had recently completed his work,
with Francis Crick and others at Cambridge, on cracking the genetic code, and was looking around
for a new big problem to solve. His inspired choice, and his own pioneering research on its genetics
and neuro-anatomy, has led to a worldwide community of Caenorhabditis researchers that has
grown into the thousands....Folksonomies: biology experiments
Folksonomies: biology experiments
1 notes
notesA species in which we know every cell in its body, making it an excellent experimental specimen.
20 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
An Experiment With a Tadpole's Development
An early classic experiment by the Nobel Prize-winning embryologist Roger Sperry
illustrates the principle perfectly. Sperry and a colleague took a tadpole and removed a tiny square
of skin from the back. They removed another square, the same size, from the belly. They then
regrafted the two squares, but each in the other's place: the belly skin was grafted on the back, and
the back skin on the belly. When the tadpole grew up into a frog, the result was rather pretty, as
experiments in embryo...Folksonomies: biology experiments
Folksonomies: biology experiments
1 notes
notesTaking a piece of skin from the belly and switching it with a piece from the back caused the frog to scratch its belly when you tickle its back.
