Nano technology and Hydrophobic

I was getting ready to write another experiment in the blog when my hubby dear sent me this video to watch.  Its just so cool that I decided to write about this instead.

Nano technology and Nano science are relatively new fields and there is a lot to learn but are also very fascinating subjects.  To get an idea about the scale of Nano-technology, imagine this:  a single human hair is approximately 80,000 - 100,000 nanometers wide!!!  So, we are talking about how things can be manipulated at that minute scale.

A company called UltraTech came up with a new product called Ultra-Ever Dry..A liquid/spray that can be sprayed on almost any surface (or they claim) and it will repel water, oils, atleast limited number of acids!!!.  Imagine a car coated with this would never need a wash again:)

Here's a cool video of how the product works.  Wish I could get more info as to how it works but ofcourse it would be their secret not to share right...The only info I could find is that the nano-coating relies on a barrier of oxygen/air to form the barrier on the surface of the material it is coating.  Meaning the surface does need to be exposed to air (and so cant be used inside a pipe which is under the ground?).

Here's a video that shows how it works....

Disclaimer:  I am not promoting or advertising for the product....just a cool video showing how nano technology is being put to use for practical uses....

Instant snow...

Unless you live in a place where there is snow all around you right now, wouldn't it be fun to make some snow in the warmth of your home and play with it without it melting away?

This "instant snow" comes in a powder format.  Just add water to it and it almost instantaneously expands upto 100 times its original volume.  It is spectacular to watch it puff up.  It feels like real snow to touch and you can dry it up and make it puff again and again...You can't eat or make snow cones with it unfortunately.

What is "Instant snow"? - Its a super absorbent polymer called sodium polyacrylate.  You find this in baby diapers!!  yes, you can open up the baby diapers (before they are used ofcourse) and get the powder out and use it as instant snow too....  or you can order it from various sites including Amazon and try it out.

Slimey Slime....

Our son joined a new school which has a lot more of parent participation.  I started volunteering in his class.  Working with the class teacher, I am doing more science experiments in class with the kids.  Decided to post the experiments we are doing in class here with the recipes (ofcourse)....

Last week we did Slime.  Something about slime is soo appealing to all kids.  Girls and Boys were equally excited to make it.  Some took it back home to play at leisure, some couldn't wait and played in class. 

Slime is one of the things that are so easy to make that they can make it any number of times and its exciting every single time.

Ingredients to make slime: 

3-4 tablespoons of white school glue (Elmers glue)
a couple of drops of food color

1 tablespoon of Borax powder
Half a cup of water.
a craft stick or a plastic knife to mix

• Mix the Borax powder into half cup of water and stir it.  This is the Borax solution we will use.
• Pour 3-4 tablespoons of glue into a disposable cup or bowl.  You can add a little water if desired.
• Add the food color to the glue and mix
• While mixing the glue, add a few drops of Borax solution.  Keep adding a few drops and mix till the slime forms.  Once all the glue is mixed and formed into a big blog, slime is ready to play.  The more you play the harder it gets..
• Enjoy....

Bones and calcium

Two weeks ago, we put a chicken bone into a jar of vinegar (with a little red food color for effect as it was almost time for halloween).  This chicken bone was already cooked and our son tried to bend/break the bone before putting it into vinegar.

Two weeks later, today, we took it out of vinegar to see what happens.  And it became quite flexible..You can bend it as much as you want.  It was like a thick rubber!.  

What happened?  Vinegar absorbs/takes away the calcium in the bone leaving it bendable.  This is what happens to bones when no enough calcium gets absorbed by the body. So, kids, listen to your parents and get enough calcium and exercise for your bones...

Liquid Nitrogen and ping pong balls

I came back home last night from a intense 3 day workshop for my other passion (art and jewelry) and my husband and son showed me this cool video.   I love liquid nitrogen although I havent done many cool things with it yet.  Its cool to see how you can freeze a banana in it within seconds or make awesome ice cream with it very quickly but this video tops them all.


 Not sure I will try this any time soon but boy wouldn't this be cool one to try...

Made for each other   - experiment using a bottle of liquid nitrogen and 1500 ping-pong balls... Enjoy!

SciFun and Rube Goldberg Competition

SciFun, along with Lumate, Summer University of Tampere and Finn-Brit association are sponsoring the very first Rube Goldberg Competition for High Schools in Tampere.  YAY!

What is Rube Goldberg machine?

Basically Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption overly complex (built deliberately ofcourse) to do a very simple task.  Like the in the example above, it goes through numerous steps which are pretty entertaining indeed, to finally put a little toothpaste on to the brush.

This competition in Tampere is to be done with everyday materials such as cardboard, paperclips, string, straws, maybe some legos, hotwheel tracks or train tracks, balloons, paper cups and plates etc etc...

Just sent out the student guidelines to follow (you know...things like what materials are not allowed even if they are cool - power tools, fire, chemicals etc).  I also came to know that the IB highschool in Tampere is using this competition as their annual "big project" (like the Solar cooker project I worked on 2 years ago)...YaY!.  I know kids are going to have so much fun building them.  Wish I could be there to watch them but I am sure Kaarina is going to send pictures.

I will post as I get updates...

Summer and ....

Hello everyone,  Although I have been silent on the blog all through summer, SciFun wasn't silent.  During our visit to Finland for a month, I gave a science show in the English Playschool, Tampere.  I didnt go prepared from here to give the science show so had to collect all the materials and plan the experiments from a little village named "Lestijarvi".  It was the second after they opened the playschool after summer break but we had a blast.  We made CD hovercraft (my little guy was my helper), made a device to make chicken sounds from a paper cup, ofcourse had to do volcanoes and balloon experiments.

Apart from the children and the teachers, we had three special guests at the show.  One of them is a key person from the new LUMATE organization in the city.  Lumate is organizing science clubs for young children to promote Science.  YAY!.  Ofcourse one of them is my most favorite high-school teacher of all times...Ms.Kaarina from Tampere IB high school.  The third person was from Finn-Brit association Ms. Tarja.  I wished I had half the energy as she had and is full of ideas:)

After the science show, we talked and I presented an idea of having a competition between high schools in Tampere during the Science Week this year and is received very warmly by everyone.  After a few more long-distance discussions, the idea became firm and I just sent details of the competition and all the information required to send out to schools.

Stay tuned for another post with details about it...