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Web Videos Show Off the Wonders of Chemistry

Posted by Zonk on from the it-started-explodey-and-got-explodier dept.

Timmy writes "Wired Science has picked ten of the best videos from YouTube and their own show on PBS to highlight the wonderful things chemistry can do. Only four of them involve fire or explosions. The rest range from music videos about the polymerase chain reaction to reactions that repeatedly change color. One shows how to pour sodium acetate stalagmites. Another shows Chris Hardwick giving instructions for building a glow stick while making absurd comments."

5 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Thermite - One concoction to rule them all... by gnick · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...a clear victory for thermite... May the gods smile upon whoever decided to combine aluminum and rust. But, this was posted on Sunday so I have to wait all the way until next weekend to spark anything up... =(
    --
    He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  2. Entertainment, not education by neapolitan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From TFV:

    "Adding something cold to thermite doesn't cancel it out, it just makes it angry."

    Wow, just wow. We've talked about this kind of thing before in the context of CSI and Mythbusters.

    I really wish that popular science shows would at least attempt to bring some education into the mix. I am not against blurring of education and entertainment, but the videos presented are simply bad entertainment. Why not give an elementary discussion of 'heat capacity' or energy that is associated with phase transitions, etc? It would still give the explosion of thermite and provide a small education.

    Does anybody remember the old PBS series "3-2-1 contact" or "Square One?" It had education plus entertainment in a nice combination IMHO. What I would like to see is a Mythbusters-type show where they try to predict things *first* with introduction to physics / chemistry concepts, and then test their findings (with explosions and the hilarious consequences.) They do this a bit with their *Warning Science Content* segments, but it could be made a bit more rigorous.

    Yes, I know the arguments that this is making kids "interested in science," but true research / science is very little about explosions, and these shows are, in my experience, not making kids interested in the rigor or reality of scientific reasoning. The question regarding thermite was proposed by a 30+ year old man!

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    Slashdotter, ID #101. UIDs are in binary, right?
    1. Re:Entertainment, not education by wizardforce · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why not give an elementary discussion of 'heat capacity' or energy that is associated with phase transitions, etc?
      you know, it's important to know concepts important to thermodynamics although it's infinitely more important and useful to understand the scientific method its self. The facts and theories are the result of the scientific method and would be pretty much unthinkable without it. knowing that we know something is not as important as knowing HOW we know something. It's always been something that has been lacking severely in the general population's understanding of science and it is also why pseudoscience has become as widespread as it has. There is a disconnect between the logic used to create knowledge and people's understanding of how their world works. If shows can find a way to start with the science using the scientific method and make that more entertaining than it will improve things a great deal.
      --
      Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  3. Obligatory grousing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...about how chemistry-as-a-hobby is increasingly a victim of the War on Terror (TM).

  4. Petition by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dear Slashdot,

    More this and less Microsoft/RIAA/FSF crap.

    Sincerely,

    BadAnalogyGuy