New Links - Videos, Games and Reading

It has been awhile since I have posted. I have been very busy. Working on new projects, etc. I am posting some links I think will be of use to many people.

1) http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHomeScientist

This goes with the Make Science Room and the book Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture. (Make: Books, 2008), which I have talked about in another post. He talks about making some chemicals form other chemicals to add to your lab, standardizing store bought chemicals, etc.
http://blog.makezine.com/science_room/

2) http://www.youtube.com/user/NurdRage

Another youtube creation on making your chemicals from easy to find substances in stores.

3) http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html

A free microscope magazine Micscape.

4) http://www.plos.org/journals/index.php

The Public Library of Science. You can read science journals for free.

5) http://fold.it/portal/

If you want to play around with and learn about folding proteins this is a lot of fun. Again it is free.

Enjoy there is much out there to look at and play with.

The Too Cool For School Art & Science Fair

Here is an interesting site: The Too Cool For School Art & Science Fair . They want to bring art and science together. Have a look at it. If you live in Southern Ontario you might want to attend.



Do you seem to live in a different world from everyone around you? Do you spend your free time inventing, collecting, drawing, writing, theorizing, or somehow tinkering with your obsession?

Then we invite YOU to submit a project to the Too Cool for School Art & Science Fair!

The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 26, 2010.

The Too Cool For School Art & Science Fair will be a truly interdisciplinary event at which people from diverse fields share art and information and engage in friendly competition. The event is structured just like a school science fair — participants will display their projects on rows of tables. The difference, however, is that this event is as much about art as it is about science.

The fair is for all ages, with the one restriction being 15 years and older. Here is a link to the submission guideline page:

http://artandsciencefair.ca/call-for-submissions/

which is basically the following:

* one paragraph of 50 words or less describing your project
* one drawing or photograph describing your project
* one bio of 50 words or less describing yourself and your work, education and volunteer experience
* your contact information including mailing address, email and telephone number


Email submissions to info@artandsciencefair.ca

or

send by post to the following address
(no hand delivery, submissions will not be returned, must be postmarked no later than March 26 2010)

Visual Arts Department, Attn: Too Cool For School: 26/03/10
Harbourfront Centre
235 Queen’s Quay West
Toronto, ON
M5J 2G8

We will contact you by April 9, 2010 to let you know if your submission has been chosen. There is no entry fee. Participants will be selected on the basis of originality, depth of inquiry, visual or conceptual impact and creative innovation.

Gel Illumination Box

I have put together some parts I hope to use in the making of a gel illumination box. I will use this to illuminate my gels (stained and partially stained gels) and/or chromatography papers to give me a clearer picture of my separation bands. Many times they are very hard to see.

The box is a cookie/candy tin with the lid having a see-through portion (you can take any cookie tin or box and cut out part of the lid). I will place a light (I found an old broken plastic Christmas candle and removed the light, switch and cord from on top of it) in side the tin. The on/off switch and cord are kept on the outside of the box (they will pass through a hole on a side wall). The see-through portion is made of clear plastic. It is not very rigid but is sturdy. I can lay gels or papers on it to let light pass through and give me a clearer picture of my separation bands.

I also have some white plastic used for shading fluorescent lighting that I found in the trash. I will use this to diffuse the light and as a support for the gels and papers. It will make for easier clean up as well.

Later I will post the finished product.

Gel Electrophoresis

Top picture shows a gel electrophoresis chamber that came with the Discovery DNA Kit. The CSI DNA kit has one as well. The chamber uses 3 - 9 volt batteries. The gel is made using 9 ml of agar or agarose. It makes 3 wells for loading and runs from negative to positive. It is a nice little chamber and works well.

Here in the lower picture I bring together all the items I will need to put together a gel electrophoresis chamber of my own. This will allow me to add more wells and to place the wells in different spots on the gel.

I have a plastic bin for the chamber(this holds everything in place, the gel, sample, buffer and electrodes). I will use a plastic lozenges box for the gel chamber (you can use a soap dish or any other dish that will fit into the main chamber or box). You cut the ends off the lozenges box and use either masking tape or I will try and use Glad press and seal on the ends to form the gel. The styrofoam will be used to make a comb to form the wells in the gel. I will cut out a few different ones. The aluminum will be placed on the inside sides of the large box on opposite ends and will be used as electrodes. I will look for some stainless steal nails or screws to replace the aluminum.

To power the electrophoresis I will be using a old model train transformer that I found and repaired. It goes from 0 - 21 volts, not nearly enough voltage but it will do until I can come up with something better. Or I could use 3-5 9 volt batteries for the power supply.

You can see a couple of packages of agar-agar that I found at an Asian store. These will be used for the gel. I do have some powdered agarose (but not much about 1.5 gm) that I will compare with the agar-agar in my tests.

Here are some web sites that may help in constructing the gel electrophoresis:

http://www.scq.ubc.ca/the-macgyver-project-genomic-dna-extraction-and-gel-
electrophoresis-experiments-using-everyday-materials/

http://hackteria.org/wiki/index.php/DIY_$25_Gel_Box

http://makezine.com/07/fingerprinting/

More Useful Links

1) I would like to thank Tom, a viewer of this blog. He sent me the following link for Constructing Inexpensive Lab Equipment. The link I have as I talked about before is no longer working. I browsed the link Tom gave me and I was able to download the files from there. There are many pdf files to get, so go get them before they get lost.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070704042228/icase.unl.edu/guidbo
ks/guidebok.htm

Here are some more important websites for the citizen scientist.

2) This pdf file was sent to me by Jake(thanks Jake) another reader of the blog. I was able to find a link for it.

The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments - How to Set Up a Home Laboratory - Over 200 Simple Experiments by Robert Brent. I have the soft cover version of this book and I am very glad to find a pdf of it. This way I do not have use the original and worry about damaging it. When looking at this book on the internet you find that many talk about it being a dangerous book, but again let us face the facts that is what can make science fun. So be careful with it. It shows how to setup a home lab and build some of the equipment needed. It has many chemistry experiments as well.

http://chemistry.about.com/library/goldenchem.pdf

3) This link gives you a list of chemicals to outfit your lab and where you might be able to find them. It is part of the Make Science Room. It is a good source I have been searching to see if I can find many of these chemicals especially here in Canada.

http://blog.makezine.com/science_room/general/setting_up_a_home
_science_lab3/

All 3 of these links and all other links are posted on my Links portion of the blog, lower right hand.

Again I would like to thank many of my readers for their responses and ideas. With input from others it will make this a better blog.

Density Meter

I found this in (drawing above) "The Amateur Scientist" by C.L.Stong - chapter on How to Cultivate Harmless Bacteria. It is a light meter for measuring the density of bacterial growth.

Using the items found in the above picture I hope to build this for my use in measuring yeast growth in my experiments. I have collected a box (this one is wood, it can be card board or plastic), the cover should keep out any light. I have a laser pointer as my light source (the original uses a light bulb, if the laser doesn't work, I will use a light bulb). A lens is used to focus the light beam, therefore, giving a more pinpoint concentration of light. A solar cell rated at 5 volts will measure the intensity of the light coming through the sample. The less the growth, more of the light reaches the panel. The volt meter will be connected to the solar panel which will give me my readings.

I will look into hooking it up to my homemade laptop oscillscope so I can record my measurements. I will post the finished meter later when I have worked it out.

Centrifuge Revisited

I have been asked to talk more about how I put together my centrifuge.

In the first picture the centrifuge is partly disassembled. The blender, 2 large salad bowls, small metal mixing bowl, 2 toothbrush travel holders(tops), 2 small angle bars with 1 hole at each end, 4 screws, nuts and lock washers and 2 plastic adjustable ties, 4 clips(to hold salad bowls together when spinning), fishing weights and foam(for inside bottom of tube holders not seen) and duct tape.

The second shows where I cut the upper wall of the blender to flatten and level out the top so the metal dish can spin without touching anything.

In the third picture I put the tube holder put together. I measured the height of the side hole(this is important must be the same for both holders) and drilled this hole slightly larger then the screw. I screwed the angle iron on the tube holder with the screw head on the inside so that it is flat on the inside of the holder. I used a lock washer to tighten it properly. Then I used a plastic adjustable tie to support and steady the tube. Then I did the same for the second holder. Using a balance, some foam and a bit of lead(fishing weights) I balanced each one with the other so they offset each other.

In picture 4 I drilled a hole in the center of the metal dish. This must be done carefully because if not exactly centered it will wobble. First time I used a drill and vise to hold the bowl and did not get it right. Second time I used a drill press and a drill press vise to center the bowl and this time it worked. Now place this on the blender and make sure it spins evenly before going on to the next step. Next you have to drill the side holes for the tube holders(again use a drill press and vise if possible to keep everything steady, you don't want the holes to be of different sizes this could add a weight imbalance by taking off too much from 1 side than the other) . Again you must measure correctly to offset each holder on opposite ends. Now place this on the blender and make sure it spins evenly before going on to the next step. Now put the bowl and holders together.

Next I cut out a large hole in the center of one of the salad bowls. This will fit over and sit on the blender. I used duct tape to hold the bowl in place. Now I placed the tube holder and small bowl on the blender and secured it in place with the blender center piece(shown in the third picture). I placed the 2nd salad bowl on top of the 1st salad bowl edge to edge with the bottom of the bowl pointed up. I used the clips to hold it in place.

Then I tried it out. I do not recommend trying this with out the salad bowls in place. If anything goes flying this should hopefully protect you. Remember be careful when building and using a centrifuge they can be very dangerous. So create at your own risk and I am not responsible for any injuries from building or using a homemade centrifuge.

Stir Plate

Using a candy dish, a fan from an old computer, 2 fridge magnets, a variable resister (old radio volume control), a toggle switch, a 9 volt battery and connector (old radio), some wire (old telephone wire), 4 screws and 8 nuts I was able to build a stir plate. Every part was found from thrown away items and electronics.

The only tools used are drill with bits to cut the holes for mounting the fan, mounting the switch and mounting the resistor. 2 small files, 1 flat for the surface and 1 round for the edges of the holes. Soldering iron for the electronic connections and contact cement for the magnets.

It works well. You can find other directions for building a stir plate on the internet. What I did was very simple, about an hour to put together and totally free.

Useful and Deleted Links

The Other night I was checking my Links list and found the link to Constructing Inexpensive Lab Equipment no longer works. I hope people have downloaded the files and saved them or printed them out. That is why it is often a good idea to print the pages of a web site up or make sure you download any information needed because you never know how long a site will stay up.

I have found 3 useful links for older books that where used in building lab equipment and to do experiments from. They are:

1)The New Unesco Source Book for Science Teaching. Is sort of different edition of the book 700 Science Experiments for Everyone. I am not sure if this book is out of print. A look online and you can still find this brand new. I haven't been able to find a pdf or site for the original book.

unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000056/005641E.pdf

2)The Scientific American Book of Projects. This book is out of print and is a very interesting book.

www.sciencemadness.org/
library/books/projects_for_the_amateur_scientist.pdf

3)The Make Science Room. It is related to the book "Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments" by Robert Bruce Thompson that I talked about in an earlier post:

http://blog.makezine.com/science_room/

I am glad I found the first 2 because I have the books and I would rather read through the PDF files instead of my old books. It is too easy to damage them.

Again make sure to get it while they are up, you don't know how long that will be.

DIY Incubator

I have received email asking me to talk more about the incubator I was putting together. In the picture to the left you can see all the parts I use to build my incubator. The Styrofoam cooler I found on garbage day, but you can pick one up very cheaply. I use this right now to test the whole operation of the incubator. I have a plastic cooler that I will use for my lab. It is much easier to clean and sterilize the plastic.

For the heating I am using an aquarium heater to keep a constant temperature. I use a CPU fan from an old computer to circulate the air over the heater. I power it with the power supply from this old computer. There are many parts that can be used from old electronics. The old computers themselves can be used for programming and hardware builds and you do not need to worry about damaging them.

I found a kitchen cupboard organizer at a department store. This allows me to separate plates, tubes and flasks so the air can circulate around them giving me a stable temperature all around. A multi-meter with temperature measurement was found in a surplus store. This allows me to monitor the temperature without me constantly opening the incubator.

In the picture top right you see the incubator put together with some plates in it. The heater is attached to the cupboard organizer. This keeps it out of the way.