GeekDad Review: The lllustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments

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GeekDad Review: The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments
http://blog. wired.com/ geekdad/2008/ 06/geekdad- review.html
Today is the DIY era, and we don't need a set to learn about
chemistry. All we need is the internet and the Illustrated Guide to
Home Chemistry Experiments by Robert Bruce Thompson.
In the book's introduction, Thompson makes two basic points: that
commercial chemistry sets are dying, and that science education is
getting worse. He tells the story of Jasmine, his young neighbor who
told him that her middle school only teaches 15 minutes of science
per day. He thought he'd let her use the pro-quality chemistry lab he
has in his basement, but without a guidebook she'd be lost in all the
possibilities. It was this situation that induced him to write the
book.
The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments is a hefty tome
with over 400 pages. The initial chapters focus on preliminaries such
as maintaining a laboratory notebook, safety, as well as two huge
sections on equipping a home laboratory with glassware and chemicals -
- remember, you can't rely on a set to give you everything you need.
Next comes a laboratory skills chapter, covering measurements,
filtration, separations, and so on.
…It goes without saying that the section on lab safety is as robust
as it is necessary. However, Thompson took it a step further by
making a conscious decision to leave out any illegal content such as
explosives and meth labs. "Obviously, there's a very real danger
involved, and I'd feel terrible if a kid blew himself up," Thompson
explained. And of course, in today's world, an author has to pay
attention to legal liability issues, both for himself and the
reader. "Back 40 years ago when I was a teenager, the local cops
pretty much looked the other way when kids played around with
explosives. Making explosives nowadays is a sucker bet. You're going
to get caught, and you're likely to face federal charges. It just
isn't worth the risk."
…And then Thompson jumps into the experiments. They start off easy --
the author targets middle schoolers with the initial projects. Here
are my favorites:
10:1: Reduction of Copper Ore to Copper Metal -- smelt'em if you
got 'em! I always wondered how this was done.
16.1: Produce Hydrogen and Oxygen by Electrolysis of Water -- never
again worry about running out of rocket fuel and air on those long
space voyages.
However, one of the most tantalizing sections is the one on forensic
chemistry. The final chapter, it's kind of a sneak peek at Thompson's
next book, which will be about home forensics experiments. It
includes such experiments as detecting blood, testing for drugs and
revealing latent fingerprints.