Web Videos Show Off the Wonders of Chemistry

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."

Comments

I love how it...

[Datamonstar]

.... tells you right out how many include fire and/or explosions. That's the sort of data a geek REALLY needs.

Other wonders.

[palegray.net]

What discussion of the wonders of chemistry would be complete without a mention of these nifty advances in the "better living through chemicals" department:

• Methamphetamines
• Methylbenzoylecgonine
• LSD
• Methylenedioxymethamphetamine

Dry Ice Bombs are fun to watch (^_^)

[MacDork]

Too bad the youtube version of this video requires you to log in and be over 18...

Entertainment, not education

[neapolitan]

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!

Petition

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Dear Slashdot,

More this and less Microsoft/RIAA/FSF crap.

Sincerely,

BadAnalogyGuy

chemistry

[davidknippers]

Chemistry isn't as nearly as 'cool' as these pretty make-fire videos lead one to believe. Every explosion a young chemist commits brings them closer and closer the sad reality of their career later in life, performing volumetric titrations day in day out in labs with limited ventilation and no capacity to do dumb shit with metal sodium. Chemists are nothing more than glorified, poor cooks who use class 'A' glassware.

Re:not easy to get some of this stuff

[gnick]

For me the big problem occurred when I set an entire table on fire in the shed when the old man wasn't home. For me, one of the most memorable (certainly not the most dangerous or biggest injury inflicted, just memorable) was when my parents were gone and I managed to set fire to the surface of a large jarred candle. Mind you, once all of the wax in a candle is melted and the surface has actually caught fire, water is a bad idea. The wax boils and begins shooting flaming wax balls out. Then the glass shatters. Major bummer and hard to explain when the parents notice the huge charred area on the porch.

I'm curious though, what school the 10 year old goes to. Los Alamos, NM has a very unique school district. I'm actually torn between moving away and furthering my career or stagnating the career, staying, and viewing it up as an investment parallel to private-school...