Magnetic fields are everywhere– you just can’t see them*.

Here we introduce some basic and inexpensive visual tools, as varied as iron filings and Arduino, pre-school toys and OpenGL, for getting to know your local fields. It’s not exhaustive, but might provide you with some useful starting points for your own exploration.

(*Unless you count the magnetic field inside those photonsthat you use to see things.)

Continue reading Start seeing magnetic fields →

The shadow opposition effect is one of the most common optical phenomena, and once you know what it is, you might start seeing it everywhere.

Continue reading Opposition Effect →

Ask any group of mad scientists how they plan to take over the world, and one of the answers that you just might hear is “With giant monsters!” And rightly so. Mucking with the workings of life itselfis one of the key skills in the mad scientist’s arsenal.

Of course, we need to start small. The easiest way to begin is by experimenting on plants. Not only is it much less expensive, but your laboratory will remain more pleasant to work at, since PETP protestors tend to be fewer in number than those from PETA.

Plant growth, in all of its different aspects, is regulated by a complex system of hormones (signal chemicals) that are responsible for phenomena as complex as geotropism and phototropism, rooting and branching, dwarfism, and seed dormancy. It turns out that many of these chemicals are actually used in horticulture and are relatively easy to obtain.

One of the most interesting chemicals to play with is Gibberellic acid, a well-known and easily available plant hormone that can be used to stimulate growth. It is available in liquid form from United Nuclear, and can induce frankly absurdgrowth in many types of plants.

In order to see results quickly, it’s nice to start with a plant that grows quickly. We chose to experiment with mung been sprouts, which ordinarily reach maturity (from a particular salad-eater’s perspective) in about five days.

Continue reading Mad Science 101: Inducing giantism in living organisms →