August 29, 2007

"Anti-helium" at The Tonight Show

Everyone knows the effect of helium gas. Who hasn't inhaled a party balloon and had fun talking like Donald Duck? Kids today are at least familiar with this phenomenon.

At Jay Leno a couple of months ago, Josh Duhamel demonstrated the behaviour of a different gas heavier than the components of air. He described it as "anti-helium", the correct name is SF 6 (Sulfur Hexafluoride). This is a nice demonstration at science shows. The gas is harmless to people (in moderate doses), but harms the ozone layer. So please consider the risks for the environment if you wish to use this demo.

August 26, 2007

Make a glowing tomato

I just saw this amazing video made by The Shooting Eggs Production, and I can't wait to try it for myself. It does not look like a fake to me. It requires three household chemicals, match phosphorus, bleach and hydrogen peroxide. The chemicals have to be strong, though (according to a comment to the video), so take care with your hands and your eyes if you want to give it a go.

August 12, 2007

Happy birthday LEGO!


Last Friday was the 75th birthday of the danish toy company LEGO. I have played with the bricks since I was a toddler, and still enjoy to play with them, both with my son and at work. This summer I visited Legoland Billund with my family, and my son claimed it had been the best day of his life! I must admit, I enjoyed it tremendeously as well. We were the last people to leave when they closed....

For those of you who haven't stopped playing with LEGO, and wish to try something new (as I do), check these links I found at the Make:blog:

And finally; the top 10 strangest creations in Lego, as nominated by the Tech Blog staff

Round two failed

It was reported from work around July 20th that 6 eggs had hatched. I returned to work a couple of days later and found an empty nest. We don't know what has happened, but we believe that other birds have visited the nestbox and robbed the chicken (meaning; food). Anyone out there who knows more about this than me?