Amateur Science

I once forgot to throw away some uncooked vegetable and they were not refrigerated for weeks. I only happened to remember it when it started to give out disgusting smell. The vegetable was decayed. What interested me was that there were a lot of small white bugs / worms slowing climbing and staying around the dead vegetables but there were two interesting things I found. 1. They were very well localized and didn't seem to go out of the dead vegetables so I felt safe. I was so worried that they would have migrated to somewhere else and reproduced in my kitchen, which didn't happen. I couldn't find any bug in nearby area where the dead vegetable was put. 2. T…

Just an imagination, if someone is thrown out of the space shuttle where it has gone out of the earth completely. Will he die very quickly and what will he die of? Die of lacking oxygen or being killed by direct sunlight?

Hello! I am a high school senior who fell in love with the subject of microbiology. I had gathered the money ($400) and trying to purchase either OMAX or Amscope microscope on Amazon. Which brand is better?

Now, you may have reached the conclusion that the universe will eventually contract itself, in, say, 10 trillion years or whatever. All of the atoms and energy around us (as well as within us) will be gravitationally attracted to the center of the universe, and like before, form an omega black hole, until once again, the weight reaches critical mass, and it causes the ULTRANOVA (do you like my nomenclature? XD) All of the atoms and energy - well, does it all explode out the same way? Does all of this happen again? Will your life repeat itself once more? And how many times has this all happened? Am I a bad person for freaking you the heck out? Hit m…

Hi everyone! I'm trying to make an at home tooth whitening gel that needs a final concentration of 6% hydrogen peroxide, when means I need a stock of 12%(1:2 dilution). My local drug store only sells 3% hydrogen peroxide. Now I know that I can buy 30-35% online very easily but the problem for me is it costs a lot. So I was reading another topic on this forum about people getting h2o2 to like 90% (not sure why) but they mentioned that you can get h2o2 to 62% by freezing. My question is how can I get 12-20% by freezing? I don't want it to get all the way up to 60% and I'm also not clear on the method (just place it in the freezer and take out the ice cubes?). Also after…

Bought a strip off eBay. Trying to figure out if it being noisier than similar strips of metal is just my imagination or not. Any help or thoughts on the subject is appreciated.

Hi, First post I have noticed the light corona emitted from an LED. What I am talking about is sparkle light, stars, surrounding the LED. As I move my head away, it looks as though I'm zooming into the 'stars' and visa versa. If I tilt my head sideways the corona also tilts in line with my eyes. Is it cataracts, that is causing it? Can it be photographed? Cheers, Camerart.

Do lasers refract at differenct frequencies? When a laser refracts off an object does the refracted em waves of the laser bounce off at different frequencies? How are the laser frequencies measured?

The Wright brothers’ patent: "Plane stabilized in roll by a pendulum" (US Patent no. 1,075,533). It seems impossible. "The pendulum rocket fallacy is a common fundamental misunderstanding of the mechanics of rocket flight and how rockets remain on a stable trajectory." Robert Goddard fell into this trap as late as March 16, 1926 when he tested a liquid fuel rocket. The Wright brothers filed their US Patent no. 1,075,533 in February 1908, tested the stabilizer in December 1913 and it worked flawlessly. Orville Wright even got a prize for his achievement (see the book below). How is it possible? A pendulum with its pivot in an accelerated movement (like inside an…

I'm currently building a microbial fuel cell as a biosensor ( more bacteria = more current) experiment. I'm using algae as the substrate, but I can't seem to find a suitable biocatalyst at biosafety level 1. It would be useful if I could get some advice ASAP. Thanks!

Hi. I'm new to this forum. My fourth grade son has decided he wants to make a Mirascope (hologram) and discuss it for his school's science fair. I know you can easily buy one at target, but that won't be ok for the presentation. I was hoping we could make one by buying two concave mirrors, but the trouble is drilling a hole in one, and I don't even know if it will work (even if we can drill a hole without shattering everything.) Can anyone help me figure out we can (easily) make our own micrascope? Thank you!

I have a DIY query regarding the bubbling/filtering of smoke though water. No, it's not regarding weed or tobacco - it's regarding wood smoke. Take a look at the following image, just as a start guide: http://www.artisan-distiller.net/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=1676 If a set-up was made using steel (iron) pipes similar to what's shown, where the left-hand vertical pipe was sealed and filled with wood chips, but instead of using an external air-blowing source (shown as an aquarium air pump) - an external heat source was applied to the bottom of the vertical pipe on the left (e.g. burner, or hot coals)....would enough "smoke pressure" be built up so that the smoke wo…

These are some of the astronomical clocks that I made for little money with quartz movements

Someone has recently commented recently on “the rice experiment” but isn’t willing to discuss it. I thought it would be a good case study for looking at the issues of experimental design and the sort of potential confounding factors that need to be taken into account. It seems that a Japanese amateur scientist claimed that being saying nice or nasty things to a mixture of rice and water will change the way it decays or ferments. Being nice to the rice results in fermentation and a nice smell, being nasty (or ignoring) the rice results in black mould and foul smells. There are lots of examples online, carried out by people who are both sceptical and not, wi…

Poplawski thinks every blackhole contains another universe. Yes, no, or, maybe.

i spilt some water in the kitchen a few days ago. so grabbed the dish cloth from the sink, and it was bone dry. so i wet it under the tap first , then wiped up the water. and this made me think. what is the reason why a dry cloth wont wipe up water, it needs to be wet first?

The concept of polarization is an established phenomenon associated with the theory of light as a wave. It is all about vibrations and their direction. It is also quite incompatible with Huygens' Principle which states that every element of a wave contributes to pushing the wave indefinitely until it meets an obstacle. Huygens was quite adamant about the fact that side processes did not diminish the energy necessary for the wave to keep going forward. It was, as far as he was concerned, the only reasonable assumption that did justice to the idea that light could travel indefinitely through space. Later on, those side processes, or "wavelets", acquired more pronounce…

Hello! My group mates and I are working on a project concerning potential reinforced concrete hollow blocks using junk shop materials. We're pretty new to the entire process, and we're not sure of how we will arrive to our results (if the final results will be declared via machine or derived through a certain formula). Either way, we've decided to include an equation for further explanation. Our aim is to compare the compressive strength—the topic we are researching on. Knowing which equation to use is somehow troubling since upon searching, results show the usage of the Hilsdorf Equation; although, according to a webpage I've encountered (https://theconstructor.org/pract…

I don't know if this subject belongs here, since it concerns less experiments than some observations I cannot explain using the laws of Optics. Only one sun reflected on the surface of a pond Why is that? Shouldn't we see an infinite number of suns on the surface of the water? Only one tree on the surface of the water This is the same problem. We can see the single reflection of the tree. We can even go around it, and it will show us the same tree, seen from another perspective. Can anybody explain how this is possible?

Is it possible to create a battery from magnets? The idea came to me when I was in biology learning about cellular respiration. ATPs, or Adenosine Triphosphate which uses a negatively charged phosphate in concentration to energize the body. So my question is, can you make a battery harnessing the energy created by 3 negatively charged magnets being forced together. Would the magnets be enough to create a substantial amount of excited electrons? Could these electrons be used for energy?

Hello I have heard many things about how electrons/em fields move through a circuit. Can someone give me a good mental image of what a em field is and how it moves through a wire? Iv seen many respones on how electrons moving cause em field/magnetic field (again iv heard elctonic field and magnetic field idk which one) like how electrons moving causes friction which causes heat which causes photons which are the virtual photons in magnetism. I dont know if that is right. So what im asking is a correct answer covering what is the thing flowing and causing power in a circuit. If its electromagnetic field explain how electrons movement causes electro or magnetic fields. …

do you people know how to get pre compressed air in to a compressor so that I can compress it even more? pictures / diagrams will be greatly appreciated because I am a visual learner psi goals 50,000+ psi

Hello I am looking for a substitute for the nuclear war head in an Orion drive rocket. the main reason for this is I want to launch a probe controlled (during launch) habitat module of ridiculous proportions into space or possibly land it on the moon. money will be a main factor in this project of mine so I will want an estimate of the total cost (including habitat frame of various sizes) the charges for the engine can be of various shapes and sizes/types (EX: liquid/solids) for maximum efficiency if possible I want 3D models / animations but pencil drawings will work if they are relatively neat. consider structural integrity people! but otherwise good luck and may …

so i was compressing a small air tank i made for my homemade air powered car and it ruptured at around 5000 psi lucky me that I put it in my small very thick steel "blast box" that directed the air away from me. before I proceed to higher pressures, I need a ratio of thickness to pressure for metals and different things like carbon fiber for safety. also how many joules of energy are in one gallon container of air at 10000-20000 psi at room temp. I need to know for how many miles I can get out of my car I have lots of safety tests to do before I build it

I was just thinking about how to avoid death in AIDS.... I thought of an idea....we know that ADA can be treated by using recombinant DNA techniques..... so what if we go to the sourse of the production of leucocytes... the bone marrow.... can't we make artificial bone marrow with recombinant DNA..... using the same technique can't we transfer the function of T-lymphocyte and neutrophil(which is 60-65% of wbc's ) and then do a bone marrow transfer as done in leukaemia....of the artificially made bone marrow... so even though our T helper cells die... our antibodies keep on producing lowering the risk of other diseases..and thus avoiding death maybe....it's just an idea. I…