We use electricity in a number of science projects and think of it as something that is man made or artificial. Just how untrue that is gets proved when we see that most living animals have neurons which work on electrical currents.

These specialized cells of the body move information from organs to the brain in electrical form. This helps the brain keep better control over the body. In a blink on an eye the brain knows that it has stubbed its toe from the pain receptors being activated by such electric currents.

Hands know that a surface is hot when touched for a fraction of a second. Again thanks to the neurons which quickly transmit the information to the brain. The hands are then guided away from the source of the heat by the brain so that they will not be hurt.

The best part is that all these actions and electric currents flow through the human body without ever actually engaging the conscious mind. Like a well tuned machine functioning on auto pilot. It goes through the entire process with no problems at all. Wish all machines were so easy to handle.

The kitchen is a great place to do science experiments. You can actually turn your kitchen into a laboratory without too much difficulty. Most of the ingredients are already there, you just need to know how to use them. And of course have an adult around for safety purposes.

Here is a simple Kitchen experiment that can be great fun to do. You will need a balloon, a small pint sized bottle, a packet of active dry yeast,  a cup of warm water and two or three spoons of sugar. Take the balloon and blow it up a few times. Make sure that it does not have any small holes from where the air may leak out.

Now in the cup of warm water add the packet of yeast and the spoons of sugar. Stir till they both dissolve in the water. Now pour this water into the bottle. You will notice that  the carbon di oxide bubbles start forming in the water as soon as the yeast and sugar begin reacting.

To the mouth of the bottle now attach the balloon. Keep it away for a while. After some time you will see that the balloon has begun to inflate thanks to the air being generated. Try out more fun science projects here.

As far as science projects go, this little science experiment is great fun to do. Imagine getting a hard boiled egg into a bottle with a mouth that is actually smaller than the egg. It demonstrates a number of  science principles at work. The utilization of oxygen to burn a match, the creation of depression due to air pressure being the two most noteworthy.

Here is what you need. A hard boiled egg, which has been shelled. A bottle with a mouth that is marginally smaller than the diameter of the hard boiled egg. And a box of matches. You are set to go.  Just make sure that you have an adult around to help you with the matches.

What is to be done is really simple. You light a match and throw it into the bottle. Then immediately cover the opening of the bottle with the hard boiled egg. As the match uses up the oxygen present inside the bottle it will eventually suck down the egg into the bottle due to the difference created in air pressure inside the bottle and outside.

Now if you are looking for more science experiments involving air pressure you may enjoy these.

In the last blog post we covered how to make a naked egg. Now we are going to turn the naked eggs you produced into a science project based on the principle of osmosis. Hopefully more than one of the six eggs you started out with survived the process and became a naked egg. If not, you can always do the experiment again.

To start this science project you need  a couple of naked eggs ready to use. You will also need separate containers for the eggs which can hold some liquid along with the eggs. You can  use coffee mugs for the purpose. Now take one shell-less naked egg and cover it with water. Take the other egg and cover it with corn syrup. Place the mugs into fridge for 24 hours.

When you take the eggs out of the corn syrup and water respectively you will find a difference between the two naked eggs. The egg that sat all day in water will be plump and firm, while the one which was in corn syrup will be shriveled and flabby. Why did this happen? The eggs in question have a semi permeable membrane, which means that small molecules can go through the membrane and large ones can not.

The egg white in the naked egg is 90% water and so when the egg is kept in water nothing much happens to it. However the corn syrup is just 25 per cent water and has large molecules which can not move past the egg membrane. So to balance out the different concentrations of water in the solution the water inside the egg white moves out making the egg shrivel. Get more experiments here.

What does one mean by a naked egg? An egg without a shell. It would make for an interesting science project to make a naked egg. And no its not as simple as hard boiling the egg and peeling off the shell. What we are going to do is actually dissolve the shell that surrounds the egg so that you get a translucent egg.  Sounds exciting? So lets get started.

Take about six eggs to start with. Now place them in a container large enough to keep the eggs with them touching each other. Cover the eggs with vinegar. You will see some bubbles coming up. Now cover the container and place it in the fridge for 24 hours.  After that when you open the container you will see the shells have gone.

The egg membrane is the only thing that keeps them together. Scoop out the eggs with a large spoon and place in another container gently. The reason we took six eggs is that during this process some of the egg membranes may break and the egg may ooze out. You can throw away these eggs.

Now cover the remaining eggs with some fresh vinegar and again put it into the fridge for 24 hours. At the end of which time you will be able to gentle hold the egg without a shell in your hands and squeeze it. Check out more exciting science  experiments here.

The science project titled checking the inertia of an egg can actually be turned into a quick party game. Place a few raw eggs along with one hard boiled one in a plate. Now ask your friends to point out to the hard boiled one. The eggs should all be at room temperature otherwise the hard boiled one will be too easy to spot.

Any way, once they have failed to identify the hardboiled egg, all you need to do is spin the eggs gently in the plate. The ones that are not boiled will be wobbly while spinning. The hard boiled egg will spin smoothly because the liquid inside the egg is all solidified.

This happens because the inertia of the liquid is missing in the hard boiled egg. Party game plus science lesson rolled into one. You can also use different party games which include science principles. Believe it or not spin the bottle also uses the inertia of the bottle to stop.

If you are looking for more fun science experiments to do you can head over to solve the mystery of the soda can collapsing here. There is just science and no magic to all these funny and weird happenings. Check it out when you have some time.

Part of the magic of doing science projects is the fun experiments that you get to conduct along the way. For instance if you told a person that you would make a coin vibrate without touching it, most would think you are setting out to perform a magic trick. Not true, all you would be doing is putting good use to the science principles you know.

Most of the tricks that are performed by magicians on stage are actually just a tribute to science and some fancy hand work. The hand moves faster than the eye can see after some practice and it becomes magic. That is why magicians never tell their secrets. It would kill the MAGIC!

For those of you still curious about how to make that coin vibrate, here’s the deal. You get a glass bottle and a coin which will cover the opening completely. Now place the bottle in the fridge and chill it. Take out the empty and by now cold bottle and place the coin on top of its opening.

Now place the bottle on a table with the coin on top. Hold the bottle with both hands and wait for the bottle to warm up. Soon you will see the coin begin to vibrate. Why does it happen? You heated the air inside the bottle with your hands. The air expanded and tried to escape from the mouth of the bottle! Get more Air Pressure Experiments here.

A laser is an interesting instrument. It allows you to study the nature of light and darkness. You can see what makes up a single stream of focused light if you know just how to split it up.

The word “LASER” stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Which means that it is essentially a constant stream of photons are emitted from a light source. A single beam allows the light to be focused on any point in the room that you desire.

This is what is also used as a pointer in presentations where the slide is reflected on a screen and the speaker needs to pin point a specific part. It can be a fun toy to play with. It can also be a good tool to learn more about the nature of light.

For experiments related to the use of lasers take a look at this article here. There are simple science experiments for you to perform which you will enjoy. And if you have access to a fog machine it will really look awesome.

Did you ever laugh at the Chemistry lab being blown up by Archie? Did you sympathize with Professor Flutesnoot? Did you ever think that you could do the same science experiments in your kitchen?

Now hold on and pay attention. I don’t want you to go blowing up the kitchen at home and saying it was my idea. However I do want you to understand that you can do a whole lot of chemical reactions in the kitchen.

Think of the kitchen as a place where you have acids available to you without adult supervision. Citric acid for instance, is present in the lemon you cut to make your lemonade. Add rock salt and the lemonade turns pink because of the chemical reaction that takes place.

Another highly reactive substance lying around in a kitchen is Baking Soda. You mom makes use of it to make the cakes she bakes light and fluffy. Ever wonder about the chemical reaction behind that which helps trap air in the cake batter?

If you are looking for a safe and easy experiment to do in your kitchen check out this article here. It may prove that you have some kitchen wizard skills. Cook up a magical batch of science experiments as you understand the chemistry behind it. Have fun!

Imagine interesting science projects that actually are fun to play with. Making sparks fly from the ends of swords or getting a gentle fog to descend on the room. These are not so difficult to do when you know the science behind them. And they can become a part of your science fair project with ease.

Simple but working science projects that actually do something are always more interesting than detailed models that do nothing. That is why even something as simple as a parachute dropping an egg from a height is much more interesting than charts and reports.

So the minute you add motion to the project it captures the attention of the viewers. If you add an interactive element it will become even more popular. That is why the games at a fair are more popular than the displays. Ever notice that they have the largest crowds?

They are also more likely to catch the attention of the judges. So put on your thinking cap and come up with interesting games and working models that use science principles. Check out the Fun Aero plane that you can make here. It would be fun to fly this at the science fair.