Condensed concepts

Recently I bought a small wire of NiTinol to have fun with and use in demonstrations to kids. This video gives a spectacular demonstration a...

From Steve Spangler  I learnt this "party trick"  demonstration of how the polymer molecules (p olyethylene ) in a plastic bag are...

 A friend recently showed me that solid gallium can melt in your hand. I did not know this. I was quite familiar with liquid mercury, bu...

This week my wife and I did some science experiments with kids, aged about 8-12, at a holiday kids club organised by our church. The first d...

Computer simulations can provide significant insight into different physical phenomena. Two decades ago the best one could do in a class or ...

Dimitri Mendeleev , who proposed the periodic table of the elements, purely from phenomenology and without quantum mechanics! He even succe...

I am currently helping teach a second year undergraduate course Thermodynamics and Condensed Matter Physics. For the first time I am helping...

I think it is worth noting that there are many distinct goals for public outreach activities concerning science. These include the following...

My wife and I are often looking for new science demonstrations to do with children. The latest one she found was "bouncing soap bubbles...

Sometimes when I speak about science to church groups I show the old (1977) video Powers of Ten which nicely illustrates the immense scale o...

I like concrete classroom demonstrations. Andrew Boothroyd recently showed me a very elegant demonstration based on this paper Spontaneo...

On sunday I went to the Science Street Fair hosted by the Aspen Science Center. It featured booths from a diverse range of organisations, m...

Science education in schools in the Majority World faces many challenges including lack of resources, poorly trained teachers, and a fixatio...

Yesterday my wife and I did our latest kids science demo gig, at a holidays kid club at our church. My son has encouraged us to come up with...

For my latest celebrity scientist speaking gig [at a small church youth group] my glamorous assistant [my wife] found a new demonstration to...

It is always fascinating to me when one can experience some scientific concept in everyday life. I particularly like it when one can see thi...

It is amazing since a common science project for school children is to make blue crystals of copper sulphate [CuSO4.5H2O]! [Although I was ...

I recently went and did some science demonstrations to several grade 3 classes at the local primary school [elementary school in the USA]. I...

I am very proud to have my first paper published in the Journal of Chemical Education! Moreover, I believe it concerns a very important to...

On the weekend I did something I had not done for about 16 years. I went to the supermarket and bought a packet of disposable nappies (diape...