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.