Nitrogen Triiodide is a very powerful contact explosive, but like most fun chemicals is not readily available to the general public cheaply. If you want some and have some chemistry skills, watch this video to learn how to make Nitrogen Triiodide at home out of household ammon ...more
This free video science lesson from the Home Scientist demonstrates a simple technique for creating ammonium chloride from hydrochloric acid and ammonia. For all of the relevant details and detailed, step-by-step instructions, as well as to get started trying this experiment y ...more
In the mood for a little mad science? In this home-science how-to from Steve Spangler, we learn how to prepare a bubbly, color-changing concoction using water, ammonia, a universal indicator (cabbage juice will do fine), dry ice, gloves and two plastic cups. Now, repeat the pr ...more
Whites are the hardest color to keep looking bright and new after just a few months' time. Your sweat and oils quickly become stains, and colors from other clothes will eventually bleed into the fabric, discoloring your bright whites into something merely whitish. But before y ...more
Cheese is one of the most loved foods in the world, and there are hundreds of different types. Some prefer super expensive gourmet cheeses, others are fine with the cheaper processed stuff. Whether it's an imported wedge from the cheese counter or pre-sliced from the deli, yo ...more
There are few things peskier in the summer than an unexpected mosquito bite swelling up on your arms and legs. Fortunately, there are many ways to heal your body of its annoying itch, ranging from fruit (lemon slices and banana peels) to common household items (baking soda and ...more
White or light-colored dinnerware is a classic: it looks crisp, clean, and elegant. The only problem is that after you've used it for a few years, the surfaces bear a lot of grey scuff marks from forks, spoons, and knives being dragged across the surface. It's tempting to don ...more
Though you may scrub every inch of your kitchen, there are plenty of trouble areas that are nearly impossible to get clean: gunked-up tile grout, rust in the sink, and caked-on burners and grates on the stove. As far as burners and grates go, you're in luck, because there's a ...more
Here are three different methods you can use to make a stink bomb prank from things you can find around the house—just a pack of matches, an empty plastic soda bottle, and some household ammonia. Mix the tips of the matches with the ammonia and let it sit for three or four day ...more
As you get barbecuing this summer, you're likely to encounter a few grills that aren't exactly the cleanest. At parks or campgrounds and even on your friends' grills (or, um, your own), no one wants to place food on gunked-up grill grates. The leftover mess from previous barb ...more
Home chemistry is great, but what happens when you forget to label your chemicals? How do you know if you turned a clear glass of ammonia into a clear glass of unobtainium? Chemists have a tool for just that. Litmus paper are small bits of filter paper saturated with a reacti ...more
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.
Cleanliness is next to godliness. My interpretation of that age-old adage means that keeping your house clean is just as un-fun and boring as being a goody two shoes. That's why they call things like laundry and doing dishes "chores," I assume. Yuck. Lucky for you, though, we ...more
Papaya trees are very vulnerable to transplantation shock. Seedlings tend to recover slowly and poorly after replanting in a new location under a sunny sky. Many internet articles advise that papaya trees should be transplanted without injury to their root systems. Keeping the ...more
It's nearly impossible to keep a stovetop clean when cooking, at least, in my experience. No matter what I do, liquid and solid food bits fall to the surface and around the burners every single time, creating a hard-to-clean mess. Scrubbing away the stains and crusty charred ...more
What Is Ferrofluid? Ferrofluid is a black, solvent-based liquid, that, in the presence of a magnetic field, becomes strongly magnetized. The fluid is made up of nanomagnetic particles coated with an "anti-stick" or surfactant compound, suspended in a "carrier", commonly an or ...more
A diamond ring is probably one of your most prized possessions. Like most possessions, it requires care to keep it as good as new. Learn how to clean a diamond ring with the folks from Martha Stewart's REAL SIMPLE. Diamonds are made to shine! But daily wearing can result in a ...more
The only thing better than successfully pulling off a new experiment is doing it with household materials. You get to laugh in conceit as professional scientists everywhere spend all their grant money on the same project you just accomplished with some under-the-sink chemicals ...more
OK, so you don't necessarily have to make ammonium nitrate to have ammonium nitrate — ammonium nitrate can simply be obtained from fertilizers and instant cold packs. Making homemade NH4NO3 can be much more expensive then buying it, but this method is not meant to be a viable ...more
Barbecue season: it's the perfect time to play with fire, produce your best burger ever (until next year, that is), and find even more ways to make beer a part of your daily life. However, even a grilling badass occasionally gets stumped by minor BBQ problems. No worries: We'v ...more
In this how-to video, you will learn how to make the Lewis structure for Ammonia. The formula for Ammonia is NH3. Now, write down H, N, and H in a horizontal line. Place an H under the N. Place two dots in between the spaces found in the H's and the N. Also place two dots abov ...more
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to make a mirror silvering solution from silver nitrate, ammonia, sugar, and sodium hydroxide. Glass surfaces can be given coatings of silver that make them into mirrors. WARNING: Perform the whole science experiment in ...more
There are many, many home remedies out there for relieving itchy mosquito bites. Everything from mud to banana peels and basil leaves to Alka-Seltzer tablets can help curb the itch. But before you even have to resort to any of those methods, you should be thinking about preven ...more
A lot of people have problems with their cats urinating inside the house, leaving behind the retched odor of cat pee. Others get frustrated when feral or stray cats pee on their porch, patio, or anywhere else outside of their house, as it's not the most welcoming odor when gue ...more
Blood stains can be tough. These tips will help you remove the toughest blood stains. Learn how to remove blood stains with the folks from Martha Stewart's REAL SIMPLE. Ideally, you'll tackle blood stains while they're still wet, which makes them easier to get out. But they're ...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
Watch this science video tutorial from Nurd Rage on how to test if a fertilizer has nitrates rather than urea or ammonia as its nitrogen source. The idea is quit simple, in a strongly acidic solution the nitrates will behave like nitric acid and dissolve copper metal releasin ...more
This free video science lesson from the Home Scientist demonstrates a simple technique for creating ammonium chloride from hydrochloric acid and ammonia. For all of the relevant details and detailed, step-by-step instructions, as well as to get started trying this experiment y ...more
Johnathan E. Stewart shows us how to remove blood stains from fabric in this tutorial. Your first step right after blood gets on your clothes is to rinse it with warm water and pat a wash cloth with soap and water on it. If the stain is more set in, grab hydrogen peroxide, soa ...more
It’s easy to make those telltale sweat spots disappear if you know what to use on them. Don't throw away those white shirts, learn how to get rid of sweat stains instead. You Will Need * Liquid laundry detergent * White vinegar or ammonia * Clean sponges * A clean, white clot ...more
Pretty much all of your cleaning supplies can be found in your kitchen or medicine cabinet for dirt cheap. White vinegar can be used to clean shower head deposits and your dishwasher on an empty cycle. Ammonia can be used to clean the gunk off your stove burner grates. And cit ...more
You can easily copy the aged look on old brass jewelry and hardware. Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, oxides naturally. But you can encourage the process to go faster by using vinegar and salt water, or a rag soaked in ammonia. Use these techniques to mimic an antique patina.
Earlier this year, NASA reported on findings that might point to water, and microbial life, on moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn. Named Europa and Enceladus, those moons contain large oceans under their icy surfaces, which many speculate could hold microbial life. On Earth, l ...more
While it is easy to create and maintain your compost pile, you can enjoy it more knowing a few basic tips. International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) is May 7 through May 13, 2017. First launched in 1995, ICAW is a great opportunity to share enthusiasm and awareness of the b ...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
Depending on what state you are in will have different laws on the amount of tint that is legal to have on your car window. If your tint is too dark for the state you are in there is a way that is not too difficult for you to remove the tint yourself. You will have to heat up ...more
Some bacteria can already do it—generate electric current, that is—and those microbes are called "electrogenic." Now, thanks to the work of a research group from the University of California, Santa Barbara, we know how to easily turn non-electrogenic bacteria into electricity ...more
I love my laptop. It goes wherever I go. Unfortunately, that means that it also gets pretty grubby after a while. The screen gets dusty. The frame gets smudgy. The spaces between the keys fill up with crumbs of questionable origins. And my desktop? That thing is a dust bunny m ...more
Hydrazine sulfate has many uses, but most notably, it's been used under the trade name of Sehydrin, a treatment for anorexia, cachexia and some even think cancer. But for we DIY chemists, it's useful for something entirely different— as a substitute for the more dangerous pure ...more
This video is a tutorial on how to remove blood stains on the carpet. The first step is to mix 1 teaspoon of dish detergent with a cup of water in a spray bottle. Spray your mixture on the stain and blot gently with a rag. Be careful not to soak the stain so it doesn't go thro ...more
One thousand feet under the ground, extremophile microbes that have not seen the light of day for four million years are giving up some fascinating facts to scientists who go the distance. Geomicrobiologists are scientists interested in life at the crossroads of geology and m ...more
Wash your window blinds with a minimum of mess. Howcast presents you with tips on how to effectively clean your window blinds. Blinds can be tricky to clean, so pay attention. You Will Need: * A dust cloth or a vacuum with a brush-head attachment * Towels or a drop cloth * A ...more
Don't let ants ruin your next outdoor outing. Picnics are a wonderful way to share yummy food in the great outdoors. Ants think so too! You can keep pesky ants away with just a few simple actions. You Will Need: • An outdoor insect fogger • Soap and water • A sponge • Garbage ...more
In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to clean a Hummel figurine. The materials required for this task are: light fluid or ammonia, warm water soft cloth and a toothbrush. Begin by mixing the fluid into some warm water and dipping the cloth into the water. With the wet clo ...more
In this video, we learn how to add a zipper to a latex garment. First, apply glue to the zipper, using an ammonia based adhesive in one coat. Next, take a small paint brush from any store and apply a thin layer of adhesive to the zipper. The top will take about 45 minutes to d ...more
Getting a fish? The first thing you'll need to learn in order to keep it alive, is how to prepare your aquarium and its water. Ensure a healthy, balanced environment in your aquarium by following this simple process. You Will Need: • A fish tank • A filter • Hardy fish • ...more
Exposed to hormones, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals, the beautiful wild fish in Canada's Grand River have taken on some pretty odd characteristics—they're turning into females. A long-term study suggests using bacteria to manage polluted water could turn the tide for fem ...more
To grow beautiful flowers and plants in an outdoor garden, you need to feed your soil the right plant food – a fertilizer that will help your plants thrive. Watch this video to learn how to choose plant fertilizer. Step 1. Test your soil Test your soil to find out what nutri ...more
Great Cleaning Products that Won't Leave You Feeling Dirty! After that delicious organic meal you served, you probably head to your kitchen to start washing your dirty dishes. Now before you reach for that dish soap, read whats on the back of its label. That bacteria killing ...more
Clean your basement like a champ. The hardest part of cleaning a basement is working around all that stuff you’ve stuck down there. This game plan will help. Check out this Howcast video tutorial on how to clean your basement. You Will Need * Sponges, both natural and nylon ...more
In this Autos, Motorcycles & Planes video tutorial you are going to learn how to clean your car windows so they are streak free. You will need ammonia solution and a mixing bottle. Mix one part ammonia with ten parts of water in the mixing bottle. Make sure you take sufficient ...more
Dust is everywhere. Here are some novel ways to remove it. You Will Need * A slice of bread * Fabric softener * A car window ice scraper * A vacuum with a soft brush attachment * An old shaving brush, flannel sheets, or a chamois cloth * Two wet socks (optional) * 1 c. warm wa ...more
Sick of the dog or neighborhood raccoon tearing up your trash and making your house or yard a mess? This video will teach you to use ammonia to keep pesky animals out of the trash can. Keep pesky animals out of the trash can. Click through to watch this video on tricklife.com
Whether your palate runs to domestic or imported, a piece of cheese can be a real treat for the senses. Its smell, taste, and texture are all parts of its appeal. A big part of what makes that savory wonderfulness comes from the microbes in and on the cheese. Thanks to a team ...more
Dyeing your hair is a great way to change your look. But if you don't do it right, the results can be pretty ghastly. If you seek a new do without the harsh chemicals, these steps will give you the locks you’ve been looking for. You Will Need *A natural hair-dye kit *An old ...more
If your diamond ring has lost some its sparkle, it might time to clean it. Diamonds might be expensive, but you can easily clean them with simple household products. Follow the steps in this video and that rock will be shining again in no time! Step 1: Soak Soak the ring for ...more