Childrens Science Experiments

How can something so common as milk turn instantly into a hard ball? Alginate. This critical ingredient is in everything from casts to Tums to silk screening gear. It is also the magic powder dropped into this kitchen sink science experiment. So, what is alginate? Sodium al ...more

In a video released Tuesday, Microsoft arguably began to position the HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality as the future of education. A smart tactic meant to coincide with their other education-related announcements made on the same day. In an effort to take back the classroom ...more

Cavandoli Macrame (also called Tapestry Knotting) is an intricate form of knotting used to create geometric patterns. The Cavandoli style is done mainly in a single knot, the double half-hitch knot. Reverse half hitches are sometimes used to maintain balance when working left ...more

The connection between self-control and glucose is not unique to humans. A bunch of trained dogs were divided into two groups. One group was instructed to sit and stay for 10 minutes. Dogs in the other group could run around and do whatever they wanted. Then all the dogs wer ...more

An experiment was run by Walter Mischel with four-year-olds back in the 1960s. Each child was brought into a room in which there was an Oreo cookie. The child was told that s/he could have the Oreo right then and there—or if s/he waited 15 minutes, could have two Oreos instead ...more

Gather all Mad Scientists. Science doesn't have to be all about hitting the books and memorizing formulas. Sometimes it's closer to Frankenstein or Dr.Jekyll than you can imagine. It's time to turn tomatoes into glow in the dark orbs. Video producers ShootingEggs did not incl ...more

Impossible, right? Ahh, well science says fire and ice can and do coexist. The Science of this experiment:Dry ice at -109ºF, is frozen carbon dioxide (CO2), not water (H2O). Dry ice is also much colder than a freezer ice cube. To be exact it is almost as cold as Earth's cold ...more

For some, drinking raw milk is a way to get back to nature, improve family nutrition, and hedge against asthma and allergies. However, according to public health authorities, drinking raw or unpasteurized milk is a big mistake—even fatal. So what's the story? Animal milk prod ...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

Whenever I went to the grocery store on a mission for blueberries, I'd inevitably find myself staring at these weird little tomato-looking berries... and wondering what the hell they really were. Tomatoes? Berries? A weird science experiment? Then, I'd set a pint of blueberrie ...more

White rice is cheap, filling, and tasty. No wonder so many countries in the world rely on it as a mealtime staple, including most of East and Southeast Asia. Alas, because of its relative lack of nutrition and its high calorie count, consuming lots of white rice regularly also ...more

What Is Graphene? Graphene is a very thin layer of graphite. Graphite is made out of carbon (the mother of all elements), and is normally used in pencils. Graphite is also used for brake padding in larger vehicles, the batteries in laptops or portable gaming systems, and in t ...more

There are all kinds of theories—many supported by science—about what causes Alzheimer's disease. Tangles of protein called ß-amyloid (pronounced beta amyloid) plaques are prominently on the list of possible causes or, at least, contributors. An emerging theory of the disease s ...more

A lot of my hacks use salvaged parts from an old microwave, with the microwave oven transformer (MOT) being the most useful component. In this "Quick Clip," I'll be using a MOT again (a dual MOT stack) to make deadly flame-looking electricity jumping around midair. This scien ...more

In yesterday's tidbit, we learned that across the planet women seek material wealth in their mates. This stems from our hunter-gather past in which females depended on male hunters to provide them and their children the meat necessary to support their large brains. Women beco ...more

A vast number of studies ranging across time, continents, cultures, political systems, and religions show that when evaluating potential mates, women place significantly greater emphasis than men on material wealth, and that men tend to both display and exaggerate their financ ...more

We all know that DNA is pretty amazing, but it's not something that most of us get much hands-on experience with. Even though it's in every living thing around us, we never see it, so we rarely think about it either. A strawberry is one of the easiest things to extract DNA fr ...more

Michael Faraday was awesome. He discovered electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis, and he invented the Bunsen burner (before it was the Bunsen burner). Because of his work, we can make suits that can withstand 1,000,000 volts of electricity and cases to prote ...more

You can buy special utensils to do just about anything these days, and separating eggs is no exception. If you don't have (or want to buy) a fancy tool to do it, the classic method is simple—just crack the egg and transfer the yolk back and forth between the two halves. But ev ...more

Believe it or not, it's possible to make your very own lava—if you have a furnace capable of heating up to 1,200 degrees Celsius, that is. Bob Wysocki and Jeff Karson started the Syracuse University Lava Project to study basaltic lava and give students a hands-on way (hypothet ...more

While it's easy to make fun of water with "electrolytes," there's actually some science behind it. Despite the name, electrolyte-enhanced water isn't all that high-tech, it mostly means that it's been infused with vitamins and minerals such as potassium and sodium, which are v ...more

Need a way to prove your strength? Only superheroes have the power to tear metal, right? Wrong! Even the weakest nerds can shred metal with science on their side. Ripping through metal is easier than it sounds.  We have yet to discover a HowTo on getting your muscles into su ...more

Just like in the Spy Kids 3D movie, US soldiers may soon upgrade their mission planning from 2D to 3D. Welcome to the wonderful world of augmented reality, US Army. Natick, Massachusetts is home to the Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center (NSRDEC), who ...more

Legendary drum-and-bass artist Squarepusher, the Warp records labelmate of fellow electronic music legend Aphex Twin, is back with his fifteenth album called Be Up a Hello, which is set to drop on Feb. 1. To kick off the launch, the artist has just released an amazing new mus ...more

Parkinson's disease, a condition that can impair movement and coordination, affects over 10 million people worldwide. And with around 60,000 Americans being diagnosed every year, we're on track to see almost one million Parkinson's afflicted Americans by 2020. Thankfully, the ...more

In the wake of Apple and Google pitching augmented reality to schools, McGraw-Hill is stepping up its own augmented reality efforts for education. On Tuesday, the publishing powerhouse announced a partnership with Alchemie, an educational app startup that gamifies learning, t ...more

In the latest example of life imitating art, IBM has applied for a patent for a video censoring system that looks a lot like the "Arkangel" child monitoring system from the latest collection of modern sci-fi fables from Black Mirror on Netflix. For those who haven't seen the ...more

Thanks to Face Maker, a new app for the iPhone X, children everywhere can now avoid the trauma of face painting. Okay, maybe that needs some context. When I was in kindergarten, I had my face painted as part of an arts and crafts day at school. When my dad saw the results, he ...more

When Chan Mei Zhi Alcine chose her senior project, she thought outside the box by thinking inside the bottle. Along with a research team at her university, she found a way to combine health and enjoyment, while meeting a challenge not so definitively met before in alcoholic be ...more

German tech store Saturn is experimenting with an AR alien called Paula to push their products ... That's a sentence I never thought I'd write. The retailer is testing their augmented reality salesperson with customers in 20 select stores via a Microsoft HoloLens. 'Paula' wil ...more

Merge VR, a company mostly known for its virtual reality experiences, is moving into and creating an augmented reality experience that combines an iPhone or Android smartphone, a set of goggles to put your phone in, and a box about the size of a Rubik's Cube which looks more a ...more

Life has many perils: parasites, predators, and pitfalls. Eventually, any organism will succumb, and if that organism has not first passed on its genes, those genes will face extinction. So, we are designed to procreate while young. Some genes will help us early in life, but ...more

It wasn't Christmas, but for Amazon Prime members, it was darn close: Amazon Prime Day, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, came and went earlier this week. Unfortunately, there weren't many Prime Day-specific deals to be had for augmented reality fans, but that does ...more

Google's new AI-powered camera, Google Clips, seems to be targeted at parents of young children in its current form, but the idea itself has unique potential. Just set it up somewhere, then you'll never miss a moment trying to capture the moment — you'll have a robot photograp ...more

Considered by many (perhaps unfairly) to be a very public failure, Google Glass can add another plot point to its comeback story, this time as a tool to teach social skills to children and adults with autism. Enter Brain Power, a company that has combined neuroscience and aug ...more

For the first time, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved medication to treat children with a serious infection called Chagas disease, which stealthily infects and damages the hearts of millions of victims a year. Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Tryp ...more

Natural remedies used through the ages abound, especially in Asian medicine. The willow-leaved justicia plant, found throughout Southeast Asia, has traditionally been used to treat arthritis, but scientists have just discovered it contains an anti-HIVcompound more potent than ...more

Fighting fire with fire, scientists are harnessing the adaptability of helpful microbes to challenge the adaptability of deadly microbes. What are we talking about? Hunting with phages — viruses that attack and kill bacteria. Bacteriophages are small, skeletal viruses that at ...more

NextReality will be giving readers a rundown of the augmented and mixed reality news briefs from the preceding week that we didn't cover already. This way, you'll never miss anything of importance in the NextReality landscape, and will always know what's going on with new augm ...more

Sony has upped the ante for the promotion of Smurfs: The Lost Village, which was released on April 7 in the US, with a mixed reality experience via Microsoft's HoloLens. The experience in question is actually a children's game, and was created by media agency OMD and AOL's Pa ...more

Lightform might just be the thing to have at your next party. The San Francisco-based company just created the first computer ever able to connect to a projector and instantly scan 3D scenes to mix reality with projected light. Not only that, but Lightform just raised $2.6 mi ...more

We usually associate Salmonella bacteria with a dangerous type of food poisoning, but they actually are pretty good at seeking out tumors. That trait made the bacteria a great candidate to deliver a protein that would help knock tumors out. Jin Hai Zheng, from Chonnam Nationa ...more

The limitless applications of 3D data visualization will enable a more efficient approach to many of life's problems. Each day, developers exploring this technology are finding new ways to solve these problems in mixed reality; 3D modeling, easier house management, spinal surg ...more

The mention of Zika can strike fear in the hearts of pregnant women. With infections increasing around the world, including in the US, researchers are fighting the clock to figure out how the virus can have such horrific effects in some people. Don't Miss: A Zika Outbreak Pr ...more

Pickling isn't rocket science. In fact, anyone can make their own speciality pickles using just about any fruit or vegetable. For example, I've pickled everything from lemons, watermelon rinds, and apples to red onions, carrots, radishes, and cucumbers. Don't Miss: DIY Pickle ...more

The standard way to make pasta requires a lot of water, and it takes a long time for that big pot of water to actually start boiling. For these reasons, as well as my hatred for washing large pots, I don't cook pasta at home very often—at least not the traditional way. Believ ...more

Like many others, I like a good cocktail every now and then, and I've always been impressed when my cocktail enthusiast friends would come up with a new drink or even just remember how to concoct a Clover Club (FYI, it's made with gin, raspberry syrup, lemon, and egg white). T ...more

While you may look ridiculous doing the potty dance and crossing your legs back and forth, holding it in can be worth the discomfort when you've got an important decision to make. While it's well known that we make more impulsive decisions when under visceral states, such as ...more

We don't spend much time thinking about bicycles today, do we? Sure, they're a "green" alternative to driving everywhere in cars, but the vast majority of America has dismissed them as simply being too much work, or more importantly—too slow. That wasn't always the case, thoug ...more

Until recently, brainwave-reading devices have pretty much only existed in science fiction. Sure, electroencephalography (EEG), the technology that powers these devices, has been used in medicine and psychiatry since the late 1800s, but diagnosing people's brains and reading t ...more

Apps went from a novelty to the main way we control the functionality of our phones and tablets in what felt like an instant. Apps are ubiquitous, and you can find one for virtually every need. However, what's right for someone else isn't always right for you, and what's right ...more

You're reading this so you're probably already safely huddled up in your house or apartment, watching as the entire planet grapples with the unfolding coronavirus health crisis. But unlike some others, you're lucky enough to already have a couple of weeks of supplies and now i ...more

After more than two years of teasing, augmented reality startup Mojo Vision has confirmed that "invisible computing" means what we've suspected all along. That's right -- the company is working on smart contact lenses, and it claims to have a working model in testing. On Wedn ...more

Who's ready to let future Facebook augmented reality smartglasses read their brain? Well, ready or not, the tech giant is making progress in the area of brain control interfaces (BCI) by funding research. This week, Facebook shared some of the progress its Facebook Reality La ...more

According to Google at their 2018 I/O conference, Google Assistant is now available on over 500 million devices. Now that the assistant is available on iPhones as well, Google has to give iOS users a reason to switch to its assistant over the built-in Siri. Today, Google has e ...more

A recent study offers information that might help combat a deadly virus that affects an estimated 300,000 people each year in West Africa. In late June of this year, the World Health Organization reported an outbreak of Lassa fever with 501 confirmed cases and 104 deaths. The ...more

Cancer cells do a pretty good job of flying under the radar of our immune system. They don't raise the alarm bells signaling they are a foreign invader the way viruses do. That might be something scientists can change, though. A team of researchers has built non-infectious ar ...more

Flu vaccines can help prevent us from getting or suffering the most severe effects of the flu. But, each vaccine only protects us from three different strains of the flu. If we don't have a vaccine against all types of flu, it leaves us open for an epidemic with a flu virus we ...more

Colorectal cancer — cancer of the colon or rectum — is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the US. To reduce the chances of a diagnosis we are all urged to stop smoking, keep our weight down, decrease our intake of alcohol and red meat, keep active, and get screened fo ...more