A crystal garden is something that not everyone has. Grow a crystal garden for a science project, or grow it to add a hint of magic to your own herbal or vegetable garden. Show it off to friends and family. Watch this video to learn how to grow a crystal garden for your person ...more
Remember the firestorm SCRABBLE Trickster caused nine months ago? SCRABBLE enthusiasts across the world were outraged when Mattel created a game that would allow proper nouns to be acceptable words of play. Essentially, it was a dumbed down, youth-friendly version of the class ...more
There's only three weeks left until the spookiest holiday of the year, which means stores and costume shops everywhere are bringing out their Halloween inventory full force. So now's a good time to start prepping your Halloween costume—because you really don't want to do it la ...more
The Holy Grail of chicken has just been found by an unsuspecting reporter of the Chicago Tribune. Yes, that's right: The secret 11 herbs and spices in Colonel Sanders' Original Recipe chicken has finally been revealed, and it looks legit as hell. While a copy of the Original ...more
In this online video you'll get tips for recognizing signs of drug & alcohol addiction from a former addict. John DePalma explains how drugs can affect the brain and the long-term affects of addiction on the body. He explains the symptoms of several types of drug use, from alc ...more
Entitled "Venus", the "Natural Crystal Chair" is Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka's latest project. Truly an innovative production process, "a substrate made of polyester elastomer forms the skeleton and is submerged in a tank, causing crystals to grow on the substrate", s ...more
Turn a used toilet paper roll into a fantastical garden of colorful salt crystals! Creator Jim, AKA HvySteel, is part artist, part scientist. His HowTo brings back great memories of our youth. To get such ornate sculptures, proper chemical reactions must take place. 'The crys ...more
This week, Silk Road was shut down for good when the FBI seized the anonymous online marketplace after Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested. This comes just two weeks after another illegal marketplace called Atlantis shutdown. However, there are plenty of othe ...more
This is a great school project or weekend fun. Grow some silver crystals that you can see under a microscope! Use the princples of electrochemistry to create crystals out of silver metal, and watch them grow right before your eyes.
This is a timelapse of a salt crystal garden growing on a toilet paper roll. You need salt, water, food coloring, ammonia and a dish with a pourous stiff object.
Tim Carter shows a clever method that prevents tree roots from entering an underground sewer or septic line. Check for underground utilities before attempting this project. In the spring, trees start to bloom and grow leaves. But they also have aggressive root growth. These r ...more
Find out how everything in a chemistry lab works, from pipettes to burners to recrystallization to storage. You'll get precise instructions on how to work and perform certain scientific duties in the chem lab, whether it's chemical or just ordinary high school science. Watch ...more
CalTech's Kenneth Libbrecht reveals the sublime beauty of snow crystals when photographed with a specially designed snowflake photomicroscope. The physicist is author of the Field Guide to Snowflakes and The Secret Life of a Snowflake, and recently posted an instructional guid ...more
In this tutorial, Anne Marie shows us how to make rock candy at home. Rock candy is simply sugar crystals, and you can make this at home in any color or flavor you like easily. The only ingredients you need are sugar and water, though you can add color and flavor as you like. ...more
Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka (creator of the crystal chair) is back with a new "shape-shifting" chair, set to debut at Milan Design Fair this upcoming week. Inhabitat reports: "Made of recycled aluminum, the amorphic chair, called 'Memory,' squishes into a new shape e ...more
Conceptual furniture project by designer Kai Linke proposes the idea of growing furniture from plant roots. Says Dezeen, "Kai's experiments so far involve cultivating fast-growing plants such as grass, cress, bulbs and bamboo and chanelling their roots into a miniature chair ...more
In this tutorial, we learn how to make silicate salt. First, you will need to add sodium silicate with boiling water. Keep adding the sodium and then stirring in small amounts until it is completely dissolved. Then, allow the mixture to cool off and add in nickel chloride. You ...more
This is a video tutorial in the Food category where you are going to learn how to make rock candy in your spare time. For this you will need 4 cups sugar, 2 cups water, small saucepan, wooden spoon, candy thermometer, glass jar, measuring cup, cotton string, a weight to hang o ...more
Rock candy endures as a childhood sweet because it is both taught in science class as a fun (and yummy) experiment and because it's made entirely out of sugar. And you'd have to be just downright weird if you're a kid who doesn't like sugar. Watch this video to learn how to m ...more
Interested in chakras? Boost the seven energy centers from the base of your spine to the top of your head for optimum health and vitality. Learn how to awaken chakras with help from this video. What you will need: • Controlled breathing • Knowledge of chakra properties • F ...more
Dungeon Defenders is the most exciting craft game on the Fall 2011 release schedule. I got a chance to play it at PAX in August and interviewed developers Trendy Entertainment last month. After more than a year of publishing difficulty and delay, the game finally came out on P ...more
Long admired for their active and cooperative community behavior, some types of ants also wear a gardening hat. Nurturing underground fungus gardens, these ants have a win-win relationship that provides food for both ants and fungi. If we humans understand it better, it may ju ...more
Don't you hate it when the ice cream in your freezer loses its soft, smooth textures and has ice crystals all over its surface? Prevent this from happening by covering the ice cream in the carton with a sheet of plastic wrap before closing the lid tightly. Other than wrapping ...more
For anyone who has spent an entire afternoon attempting to assemble a set of IKEA chairs, these wooden masterpieces probably seem pretty appealing. British furniture maker Gavin Munro has found a way to create interesting, yet functional pieces by planting tree shoots, guidin ...more
Smartglasses are the future of augmented reality, and Samsung is betting on waveguide maker DigiLens to emerge as a leader in the growing AR wearable industry. On Tuesday, the company closed a $50 million Series C funding round that counts Samsung's venture arm and Pokémon GO ...more
In one of my previous articles, I showed off how to make water freeze into ice instantaneously. In this article, I'd like to elaborate on this, and show how a glass of water can turn to ice instantly on command. What exactly is this supernatural power? Discover the secrets to ...more
In the Western world, the only time you'd associate food with cockroaches is health code violations. And while other cultures and countries are more open to cooking with and eating these and other little buggers, insects are probably not a food trend that will be adopted by th ...more
Move over rainbow food trends, there's a new, darker kid in town: jet black ice cream. And no, it doesn't have squid ink in it. This frozen dessert may look mysterious and slightly intimidating, but trust us— it's insanely delicious. The blackish hue is created from activated ...more
Ice pops are like summer on a stick, with all the sweetness and stickiness of July and August. Store-bought popsicles, although refreshing, are never as good as homemade. So it's time to up your popsicle game with some of these beautiful creations, including some boozy pops (p ...more
In years past, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) mostly dabbled in the future as far as the long-term vision for augmented reality was concerned. This year, however, objects in the future are much closer than they appear. While the outlook for truly mainstream AR smartglass ...more
If you've already read the first part exploring what geniuses actually eat as opposed to what the rest of us are told to eat for brain health, you've noticed that there are some big discrepancies. Instead of favoring healthy, wholesome foods high in antioxidants, lots of high- ...more
YouTube's massive user base comprises almost one third of all people on the internet, and collectively, users spend well over 100 million hours on the site watching billions of videos each day. Add it all up, and this means that YouTube is viewed by more people than any U.S. c ...more
The origins of vodka are shrouded in mystery, with both Russia and Poland laying claim to its invention. Some say Genovese merchants brought vodka (then known as aqua vitae, or the water of life) in the late fourteenth century to Russia. For many years, vodka wasn't just an al ...more
People fundamentally distrust magicians. And they should. The illusions they proffer are just that, illusions meant to astound rather than tangible interactions and results that have weight and meaning in our real world. Our lizard brains know this, and, no matter what the out ...more
UPDATE: The OnePlus 8 Pro has been released! Check it out on the official OnePlus website or read through the rumored specs we've left below for posterity. Even though OnePlus no longer uses the motto, they still embody the spirit of "Flagship Killer." OnePlus is known for of ...more
While there aren't as many ways to customize your iPhone like there is on Android, there are still a lot of apps out there that can help streamline and enhance your experience beyond Apple's own default options — and we've hand-picked over 100 essentials. No matter if you've ...more
It's always a big deal when the company that makes Android releases a new phone. Google's Pixel series has made a name for itself in three short years behind its camera prowess, but now it's time to start competing with the major players. That said, Google should like how thei ...more
The iPhone XR has touched down alongside the XS and XS Max, and it utilizes tried and tested materials found on the iPhone 8, while being molded in the same vein as the iPhone X. The budget-friendlier flagship comes with its own set of design elements to set it apart from its ...more
So, the in-person conversations between you and your friends has slowed down to a near halt, thanks to everyone's obsession with texting, Facebook, and over-uploading pics to Instagram—socializing at its best. It could also be that you're just not interesting enough anymore in ...more
While our smartphones are many things, one of their primary functions is to make calls. Many of us try to avoid ever having to make calls, but there are situations when it's a must, such as wishing your grandma happy Birthday or calling 911 — and in those times you want stella ...more
Rumors about the 2022 iPhone series stirred well before the iPhone 13 models were even released. While Apple remains quiet on the next big iPhone, as it always does, we're seeing more and more leaks and reveals for the iPhone 14 series as we lead up to a likely fall release. ...more
The iPhone doesn't stop at last year's excellent iPhone 12 lineup. Apple's been developing its iPhone 13 models for a while now, and there are a lot of rumors already with eight or nine months still to go until a release. This year, we're expecting four new models with similar ...more