Sciencemadness Discussion Board - google science fair

google science fair

Rogeryermaw - 7-5-2014 at 12:15

Anyone signing up or even noticed this yet? Any collaborative efforts in the works? Just curious what you all think of this as an opportunity to demonstrate the legitimacy and even necessity of our hobby to the masses. NO IDEA THEFT!! Any idea presented here should be granted the same respect as any other proprietary information.

edit: added link https://www.googlesciencefair.com/en/

Aaaaaaannnndd...GO!!

Yes I searched first. Mods feel free to move or merge as you see fit.

[Edited on 7-5-2014 by Rogeryermaw]

[Edited on 7-5-2014 by Rogeryermaw]

Töilet Plünger - 7-5-2014 at 12:54

I tried signing up for our local science fair, but the research was never completed due to material issues.

I don't know if I'm still eligible, and at this point I'd rather be doing my research under the auspices of a university.

aga - 7-5-2014 at 14:04

What was the research TP ?

Oscilllator - 8-5-2014 at 04:01

Quote:

Don't use hazardous chemicals, ever.

How do we define a hazardous chemical? Easy. It’s any substance known (or even suspected) to lead to disease, discomfort, disability, or that big “D” word: death. If you aren’t sure whether a chemical you want to use is hazardous, please talk with your teacher, parent or guardian about it first. You can also refer to these resources provided by Columbia University and OSHA.

Well that rules out almost anything interesting. Baking soda and vinegar aint gonna change the world

plante1999 - 8-5-2014 at 04:04

That is where chemophobia led us, chemistry can't be part of science fair really, anymore. Time changes.

Mailinmypocket - 8-5-2014 at 04:43

"Discomfort"? Sigh... If discomfort and hazardous are synonymous to these people then I suppose vinegar may not be allowed. Hurts like a b**** in the eyes!

Fantasma4500 - 8-5-2014 at 07:04

i recall feeling a slight discomfort as i was held under water and nearly blacked out
also, its a known fact that at winther times it gets .. cold
and i happened to be coming home from school, then realizing that i didnt remember keys to the house, parents were away for 4 hours or so it turned out
after the first 30 minutes i felt ... slightly discomforted

so a reaction using anything past 20*C temperature would be outruled aswell? because then we are really limiting it

would be even better if they would refuse to let you use 'chemicals' as everything around is either chemicals or elements

glad im not the only to laugh at chemphobia in our oh so smart modernized societies

Manifest - 8-5-2014 at 07:22

Quote:

Don't use hazardous chemicals, ever.

How do we define a hazardous chemical? Easy. It’s any substance known (or even suspected) to lead to disease, discomfort, disability, or that big “D” word:

Dick?

gdflp - 8-5-2014 at 07:58

I thought it was dumbass

The Volatile Chemist - 8-5-2014 at 08:13

I've seen some Science fair entrys in the past that have to do with chemistry on google. Most are the technology aspect, though. One kid made a new kind of spectrophotometer... But the only aspects of chemistry they seem to not cringe at is chemistry. Submit anything with "Nitrate" in it, and you'll get a lot of questions asked too.

Etaoin Shrdlu - 8-5-2014 at 10:21

Quote: Originally posted by Oscilllator

Quote:

Well that rules out almost anything interesting. Baking soda and vinegar aint gonna change the world

...what in the name of common sense. "Hazardous" apparently means anything with any "hazard rating" (I'm assuming this means NFPA but Google only knows) above 1. Citric acid-based catalysis for green synthesis of anti-cancer compounds? Nope. Lemon juice could kill all your incompetent asses dead on the spot.

Quote:

Only the specific bacteria and molds listed here are permitted. Other bacteria, molds, and fungi are not allowed. All such cultures must be maintained in their natural environment. Growth of these organisms in a petri dish is not permitted, because of possible contamination of the cultures with unintended and dangerous bacteria and mold.

Really, Google? REALLY? Bread is less likely to be contaminated than a sterile Petri dish?

Töilet Plünger - 8-5-2014 at 12:12

Quote:

Water can cause death very quickly when inhaled in small amounts. Thus, water is banned. (It also contains a stoichiometrically perfect mix of hydrogen and oxygen, which is extremely flammable.)

My research is in this thread:

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=27265

Brain&Force and I are the same person.

Texium - 8-5-2014 at 16:07

This is extremely disappointing about the hazard rating stuff… I can't think of anything I've done in the past 6 months that hasn't required at least one chemical above a 1 rating (if they are indeed referring to NFPA), much less anything interesting (or at all important).
I'm curious to see what the winners for chemistry end up being with such restrictions as that.

numos - 8-5-2014 at 16:52

Lately a lot projects category wise fall into microbiology and aerospace, wing design, lift, all that stuff. Mainly because those subjects are asked for in todays world, a lot of special awards are giving cash prizes to those specific categories. Its sad but even most "Chemistry" projects are borderline chemistry.

Also agree on the hazmat thing, because it's just so vague. Just because something is pure and is labeled by its actual name doesn't make it any less hazardous than if found somewhere else.

Texium - 8-5-2014 at 17:06

Quote: Originally posted by numos

Also agree on the hazmat thing, because it's just so vague. Just because something is pure and is labeled by its actual name doesn't make it any less hazardous than if found somewhere else.

Well, it's not based on whether it's OTC or not. Whether you're using NaOH from Sigma or Home Depot they'll still DQ you.

AJKOER - 9-5-2014 at 06:04

On the topic of 'safe' chemicals and a hot demo for a science fair, I recently read about the benefits of dry powdered NaHCO3 over other less environmentally friendly dry fire extinguishing agents.

Note, the thermal decomposition of Baking soda is endothermic (absorbs heat) releasing CO2 which also reduces the availability of oxygen:

2 NaHCO3 ---Heat--) Na2CO3 + CO2 + H2O

One can heat up dry powdered NaHCO3 in a frying pan and find it cool to the touch (well, at least, initially).

A more advanced observation is the apparent ability of very fine NaHCO3 to be a superior fire suppressant. However, strangely, the highest effectiveness of fire suppressance is obtained within a certain small particle size range and does not improve with further reduction in particle size.

Also, KHCO3 is better for addressing flammable gases than NaHCO3.

Now, one would think fine powdered NaHCO3 is safe for the user, but however there are respiratory exposure risks.

Those interested in exploring this topic for a Science Fair can further explore/research the topic themselves.

[Edited on 9-5-2014 by AJKOER]

It's not like it used to be

Xenon1898 - 5-6-2014 at 19:12

Society has changed so much over the last few decades, it's amazing. Sometimes I wished I lived back in at least the 1960's or earlier. I think starting around 1970 OSHA and a lot of environmental regulations were created, and society started hitting the Green movement hard, the word chemical got a bad rap.

I wonder if there will every be any "recovery" back to a time when kids can take a little risk and blow some stuff up while exploring chemistry? I honestly don't think so. This has to have a negative impact on the chemistry field at some point, with less discoveries and so on, don't you think?

bismuthate - 6-6-2014 at 02:47

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1742632993/heirloom-che...
Well it appears that some people want to help bring back the golden days of home chemistry.\
I guess I won't be doing this science fair with my projects having "discomforting" chemicals. I mean they just excluded all strong acids and bases plus who knows what else.
http://www.dhmo.org/ is the roinish hydric acid banned too?

MrHomeScientist - 6-6-2014 at 05:06

I supported that kickstarter, and posted about it in the Legal subforum a while ago. It's an extremely worthwhile cause, and I applaud him for undertaking it. I funded it at the level where I got all the chemicals, and they are quite nice. It came with a CD full of MSDS's and the full Golden Book of Chemistry, which is what the set is trying to recreate. There's a couple oddball items (logwood dust, cochineal insect parts, etc.) but for the most part they are all very useful chemicals. Includes CCl₄! If you watch the kickstarter video though, he sounds more proud of his fancy hardwood box than the actual contents of the kit, lol. Definitely worth the investment though.

ScienceHideout - 11-6-2014 at 18:19

I am actually a finalist for the Intel: International Science and Engineering Fair; 2013.

My research: Reducing diammine silver into elemental silver using different saccharides, and then seeing how the properties of the saccharide affect the properties of the sugar. It is actually pretty neat. Sugars with larger molecular masses, like maltose and lactose, produced silver colloids with a small particle size, while pentoses produced large particles, and hexoses in the middle, with aldohexoses making slightly larger particles than ketohexoses. The cool part- anomers like dextrose and galactose produced particle sizes nearly the same! In my study I did use microscopy, both visual and TEM (with help from a buddy at Wayne State University

), but because particle size in a colloid seems to be inversely related to conductivity, I mostly took conductivity measurements and compared those rather than making a million particle measurements and averaging them.

It was a pretty neat study, and I did a lot with it. I even got to meet Harry Kroto! He was fascinated with my molecular models for some reason. I got his autograph on the back of an ISEF pennant and he drew a fullerene on it, too!

But my research is pretty promising, because it shows that you can control the production of nanoparticles with specific sizes, just by choosing the right reducer!

I didn't win any money

, but I did win a helluva good time in Phoenix with Dr. Kroto (even though he got into a religious argument with me and this girl. We are Lutherans and Kroto is a HUGE atheist who can't go five minutes without telling people this), and also I 'supposedly' won a scholarship to Wayne State.

[Edited on 12-6-2014 by ScienceHideout]

[Edited on 12-6-2014 by ScienceHideout]

The Volatile Chemist - 11-6-2014 at 19:02

Congrats SH!
MHS, I wouldn't call logwood (Hematoxylin, haematien) oddball. I have some from an old chemcraft kit, it's a great and very useful indicator, I use it all the time.

Brain&Force - 11-6-2014 at 19:24

That's an AWESOME project ScienceHideout. I tried entering the science fair in our area, but the research never got off the ground - it's all detailed in the terbium compounds thread. (WAY too much Fe contamination.) I actually have been thinking of doing some sort of project with producing copper mirrors, similar to how Tollen's reagent produces silver mirrors. (And maybe even gold. If I can find some.)

Etaoin Shrdlu - 12-6-2014 at 10:03

Congratulations, ScienceHideout! That sounds fascinating.