I'll do experiments!

Hey, I'm a 'budding' scientist who recently stumbled across the time and resources to carry out some experiments.

I have everything a self-repecting scientist would have... including equiptment, a workspace, 'experience', and time.

The only thing I lack is motivation... what experiment should I do? I'd like to stay with either Biology, or chemistry... though I may consider physics and stuff too.

So, what have you wanted to try/figure out/test but have never had the chance to? Let me know, I'll see if it's reasonable, and I'll give it a shot along with documentation (photos, logs, etc) to bring back here.

p.s. I'd rather not do any experiments on any vertebrates... just ethical preference.

This is what mythbusters is for.

With these resources at your fingertips, you need to ask yourself "what am I interested in?" When you figure out a field of study that appeals to you, then determining what problems you want to test and possibly solve will become much easier.

I agree... but my problem is I have a broad range of interests. At first I really found engineering, architecture, and technology interesting... but now I've moved more towards neuroscience, biochemistry, and biomechanics...

There's too many interesting things out there... I figured I'd take some suggestions, and if they're reasonable I'd do them whether I think I like them or not... then after a few I'll start getting a better idea of what I enjoy doing.

You will always change what you are interested in, over time. Just pick some things. It doesn't have to be super specific. Then just stick to it, and enjoy it.

Hah I'm kind of an evil scientist myself. At least it's one of my many personalities ^^

A fun experiment would be making Hydrogen.

Buy some alluminium foil or (better) pure alluminium dust, buy some draincleaner (Natrium Hydroxide; NaOH)

-Dissolve some NaOH draincleaner in water, then add alluminium foil. This makes a reaction which releases Hydrogen gas
This should be done in a glass or plastic bottle. Right after the alluminium foil is added, place a balloon over the bottleneck. This way you can catch up the hydrogen in the balloon.

The balloon will float, better than a helium balloon. Also it is an extremely explosive balloon. So be carefull.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mindwanderer

including equiptment... 'experience', and time.

---

What kind?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SKA

Hah I'm kind of an evil scientist myself. At least it's one of my many personalities ^^

A fun experiment would be making Hydrogen.

Buy some alluminium foil or (better) pure alluminium dust, buy some draincleaner (Natrium Hydroxide; NaOH)

-Dissolve some NaOH draincleaner in water, then add alluminium foil. This makes a reaction which releases Hydrogen gas
This should be done in a glass or plastic bottle. Right after the alluminium foil is added, place a balloon over the bottleneck. This way you can catch up the hydrogen in the balloon.

The balloon will float, better than a helium balloon. Also it is an extremely explosive balloon. So be carefull.

---

That may be fun, buts what is the experiment? Hypothesis? Scientific question? None of those are present, so it's more just making hydrogen... thanks though!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shift

What kind?

---

Experience
- A Biologist of 25 years, majored in marine biology.
- A Chemist of 35 years
Equiptment
-Tons... I have all the 'basics', and some speciality stuff, and anything else I can DIY improvise, or borrow/order.
Time
-About 6 months

Hope that answers it...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SKA

Hah I'm kind of an evil scientist myself. At least it's one of my many personalities ^^

A fun experiment would be making Hydrogen.

Buy some alluminium foil or (better) pure alluminium dust, buy some draincleaner (Natrium Hydroxide; NaOH)

-Dissolve some NaOH draincleaner in water, then add alluminium foil. This makes a reaction which releases Hydrogen gas
This should be done in a glass or plastic bottle. Right after the alluminium foil is added, place a balloon over the bottleneck. This way you can catch up the hydrogen in the balloon.

The balloon will float, better than a helium balloon. Also it is an extremely explosive balloon. So be carefull.

---

That's pretty cool, I've done the same thing with powdered aluminum and hydrochloric acid (HCL), but it's really hard to get your hands on HCL even at a low molarity. I'll have to give that a try some time.

Find a novel (and as simple as possible) chemical system behaving like Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction