Growing crystals at home

What is a crystal?
Crystals are regular structures formed by a regular repeating pattern of atoms or molecules.

These structures grow by a process called nucleation. During nucleation, the atoms or molecules of what we want to transform in a crystal (solute) are dissolved in a solvent. The particles of the solute will tend to cluster together, forming subunits of atoms or molecules. These larger particles will also group with each other and eventually become large enough to "pop out" the solution (crystallize).

Other solute molecules will continue to adhere to the surface of the crystal, causing it to grow until equilibrium is achieved between the solute molecules in the crystal and the solution.

Growing crystals
Three factors that can influence the growth of "home" crystals:

• A good/poor solution saturation- The first stage of home crystal growth is a saturated solute. In a saturated solution the probability of molecules colliding with each other in order to form a core for initiating nucleation is greatly increased.

• Surface type-A rough surface tends to be more attractive for nucleation. It is more likely that a crystal is formed on a piece of rough rope than the in the smooth walls of a glass.

• The presence of deposits in the bottom-This occurs when the solution is not scrambled or means that too much solute was added to saturate the solution. The presence of these deposits create areas for optimum crystal growth however prevents crystal formation in the "target."

Lets see how to grow sugar crystals, these crystals can be sucked and eaten like a lollipop. This demonstration may take up to 3 weeks.


We will need:

• 3 cups of sugar, we have to adjust this quantity, we want to saturated at 100% but no precipitate,
• cup of water, to boil,
• food coloring,
• small jar,
• small bowl,
• wood stick, or rope,
• kitchen paper or paper filter.

How to:

1. Boil the water, careful with burns!;
2. In the bowl, mix the boiling water with the sugar;
3. Stir the water until all the sugar is dissolved;
4. If you want to give sugar some color, now it's the time, add the food coloring;
5. Place this solution in the jar, attention! wash the jar really well to avoid nucleation in it's walls;
6. Avoid any amount of sugar precipitate in the jar- any not dissolved sugar-, this sugar will be a good nucleation "start point";
7. Suspend the stick or rope in the solution, do not wash those, we want this to be a suitable "start up" spot for nucleation;
8. Chose a nice and quiet spot to place your jar for at least 3 weeks;
9. Wait until the solution cool and cover it with a paper filter. 

What happens?  
After cooling the solution will use nucleation spots to form crystals.

NOTE: You must check the jar on daily basis, if you see any nucleation in jar walls, change the jar;

Wait about 3 weeks for excellent results.

Go further:

• Follow the growing crystals with a graph;
• Use salt and compare the growing velocity with the sugar;
• Use 3 jars, in the first one use boiling water, in the second tepid water, and in the last one repeat the essay with cold water;
• Try to dissolve the sugar/salt/other while the water is boiling;
• I am sure you can remember other ways to change this demonstration into a experiment...

 Source: about.com; squidoo.com; buzzle.com
Et Voilá!
Science you can eat!  

Enjoy!

Princess Rashid- Art with science

I found Princess Simpson Rashid while I was googling in Internet about the Periodic Table of chemical elements, her paintings just popped up when I asked google to see "images".  My first thought was "wooo this is soberb, I have to post this". I found it so amazing that, for the first time in "Mentes Irrequietas/ Restless Minds Boosters" blog history, I felt I should write the artist before I post it, and so I did it, Princess Simpson Rashid answered me next day giving Restless Minds permission to post her work, thats why for the first time- of many more, I hope- the image has the "used with permission" statement.

Princess Simpson Rashid is a passionate with science. She is a Bachelor in Physics- Georgia State University-, and she studied printmaking and painting at the Escuela de Artes Plastica in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Science-Inspired Abstraction, Modern Sport-Fencing, and Expresssionistic Landscapes are the main themes she turns to in her work. Today we are going to see only a small part of her work, the Science-Inspired Abstraction.
If you like the images you are going to see next, I strongly advise you to check Rashid website, her work is "super restless" and full of color and good energy.
At this moment Rashid lives in Tampa, Florida, USA, and in her own words:

"My current body of work explores the relationship between abstract art and math, color and music, composition and perception. I use line and color to convey movement. My painting technique often involves dripping and pouring paint until I’m satisfied with the composition. My artistic goal is to capture the individual energy and essence of the subject matter by whatever means available to me. Color, texture, design and energy are the components that make up all of my work.." in http://www.foglefineart.com/artists/profile/rashid-princess/

In this paintings Princess Simpson Rashid is a true art scientist, or "sciencartist" if you want, she uses the elements of Periodic Table, the x's and y's from math and even Pi constant from geometry (the famous 3,14). Super Restless uh?

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Periodic Table-2",  Acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 60 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Periodic Circles 2",  Acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 36 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Composition B",  Acrylic on Canvas,48 x 24 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Composition A",  Acrylic on Canvas,48 x 24 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Periodic Circles 1",  Acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 36 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

©Princess Simpson Rashid, "Pi-1",  Acrylic on Panel, 24 x 24 inches. www.princessrashid.com,  Used with permission.

For more informations please consult Rashid website, and her blog.

Sources: 
http://www.foglefineart.com 
http://princessrashid.com

Et voilá!
Science and art holding hands!

Enjoy!

Nature finds a way- light labyrinth

It's amazing how the sentence "Nature finds a way" is incredibly correct, everyone knows at least one story about animals saving people or about animals doing thousands of  km despite the unimaginable difficulties- like monarch butterflies or salmon going up the river.

Nature follows a small set of rules that allow ecosystems to function in equilibrium theoretically "ad eternum" if they are not disturbed by the "human hand".

Today I bring you a demonstration of how nature always finds a way to overcome the difficulties.
The test is very simple allows direct observation of the struggle for life.

We will need:

• potato;
• small plastic container/pot, like a cup,
• soil,
• shoe box,
• wooden blocks, legos®, or other small obstacles.

How to:

1. Allow the potatoes a few weeks at room temperature, so they can germinate, this procedure should be done in dry conditions, with light and warm. This procedure can take up to 6 weeks; 
2. Take the potatoes and place them in the container with the "little eyes" facing upwards;
3. Cover the potatoes with moist soil;
4. In the narrow side of the box make a round hole the size of a small coin;
5. Put the pot inside the box at the opposite end to the hole that opened in the box;
6. build small walls and obstacles using the legos®;
7. Place these obstacles inside the box, make sure that there is at least one free path to the hole, don't close the hole;
8. Close and seal the box, make sure no light can get in except from the hole;
9. Place the box somewhere with direct light with the hole facing the light source;
10. Wait 3 or 4 days and observe.

What happens?
After a while the potato will grow in light direction, sprouts will naturally go around obstacles in light direction

Why?Because the plant needs light to produce food, and thus growth will always be towards the light.
 
Go further: 
Repeat this with other plants.
"Do all plants grow in the same way?" 
you can use dry beans, onion.
 
Et Voilá!
Nature finds a way!

Enjoy!

Recycled lanterns, DIY project

For Christmas, Halloween or any acasion, handmade lanters with cans! Its a great way o reuse and recycling metal can's thats would end in trash can..
I found this super restless idea here and i think the final result is great. 
this project needs adult supervision and I fond it to be a bit more difficult o execute then it appear.


What we need:

• cans, sausage cans, mushrooms, peas ... in short, those who we often have around in the kitchen,
• hammer, careful with your fingers,
• nail, it will look better if you use a thin nail,
• water, enough to fill up the cans,
• dishcloth,
• freezer, ya the one in refrigerator,
• candles, as many as the cans;
• indelible marker.

How to:

1. Fill up the cans with water;
2. Place then in the freezer;
3. Wait about 24 hours;
4. With the indelible marker draw the form you want to illuminate in the can, you can draw it in a piece of paper and secure it with tape to the can;
5. Cover a table with a cloth, make sure the table is resistant;
6. With the nail and the hammer punch some holes along the drawing lines, those must be equally spaced;
7. Place the can in the sink, wait until you can remove the ice block;
8. Dry the can; 
9. Now you can paint it like they did here; 
10. Place the candle inside.

Et voilá!
Light effects!

Enjoy!

Paper clip hearts, so lovely, so simple

Mother's day is almost here and today we will see how to bend a paper clip in a heart shape.
I saw it here for the first time and it was love at first sight.

You can bend your hearts using any size or paper clip color.

Et voilá!
Thank you Tais for this wonderful restless idea. Very simple and very restless

Enjoy!

1+1 sometimes is not 2

This is one of the greatest math problems, side by side with the one that states that 0 is different than 0. But this demonstration is not about math, is about Archimedes' Principle.

Archimedes' Principle states:
" a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid"

In other words, when we place a body in a fluid, like water, the volume of the object equals the volume of displaced water.

The simplest example is a bath. If we fill the tub with water up to the top and we lay down inside it, the water will exit, and your bathroom will be a very wet place similar to a lake. The amount of water that came out equals your body volume. You can, with some time and work, calibrate the tub to find out your body volume, 1L=1dm3.
In this example 1+1=2, but sometimes 1+1= "not sure" 

What we need :

• glass container,
• tape, one you can write on
• pen,
• sugar,
• glass container with a scale,
• paper towel,
• straw,
• spoon,
• hot water.

How to:

1. Clean the container;
2. Apply a vertical strip of tape in the container;
3. Fill the scaled container with hot water (container A);
4. Pour the water in the other container (container B); 
5. Use the pen on the tape to mark the water level in container B;
6. Fill the container A again and add the water to the container B
7. Use the pen again and mark the water level in container B;
8. Reject the water;
9. With the paper towel clean and dry container B;
10. Repeat step 3, 4 and 5;
11. Now fill up the container A with sugar;
12. Add the sugar to container B;
13. Use the spoon to mix the solution;
14. Use the pen to mark the level;

What happens?
1 volume of hot water + 1 volume of sugar it's different from 2 volumes of hot water.

Why?
Water molecules are organized like a net. This net is stable and cohesive due to hydrogen bridges. When this net is formed some hydrogen atoms link to neighbor water molecules by a "false" bond with the oxygen, those are called hydrogen bridges. When this happens some "blank spaces" are left between the molecules- in the net. This spaces are as big as the molecules are excited, thats why we used hot water- more empty space makes dissolution more efficient.

When we add the sugar the sugar molecules occupy the empty spaces between water molecules, thats why:

1 sugar unit+ 1 water unit doesn't equal 2 water units

This is a demonstration, but you can make it an experiment:
Go further:
Try with 1 unit of water+ 1 unit of sugar. Does that equals 2 units of sugar?
Try with cold and ice water, what happens?

Et Voilá!
Now you can teach some stuff to your math teacher

Enjoy!

Why eat seasonal fruit

Eating strawberries or cherries in December is a small but expensive luxury brought to us by development. Nothing is better for the soul then smell the summer through the out of season fruit, it's like a beach walk in a hot day.
But nature is always right, and we don't have cherries in December for a reason. 
We can eat cherries all year but there is a reason that cherries grow on spring/summer and not in December. Past generation lived in tune with season, knew all the natural cycles and ate what the land gave them, was unthinkable eating persimmons in August or figs in March. Many things were conserved in several ways, primarily by cold, to be available all year, but these were limited resources.

Today we have at our disposal all we want, when we want, like we want. I even think that satisfying pregnant women wishes with never ending trips is now a myth, all we need to do is going to the market.

But eating season fruit and vegetables bring advantages to the health, the planet and to economy.
Some of the products we eat are brought from the other side of the world, some of them are season products there but they are out of season here. As a result they are picked green so they can ripe during the trip. This fact makes the fruit and vegetables poor in nutrients, the formation of sugar is linked to the sun exposure, and the vitamins are very degradable in this conditions.  

Scientists from Consumers Association of Austria confirmed that vegetables picked and frozen at the right season are richer in nutrients than the ones that were transported off-season! in http://bodyecology.com/articles/benefits_in_season.php

Of course we can not be extremists, not everyone has the opportunity to eat fruit "directly from the tree" or pick carrots "directly from the soil," it is clear that without the greenhouses we could not produce food for all inhabitants of the planet (even with them is hard). 
Another important concept is food manipulation, this is just one more tool we can use to feed people, perhaps without it we would never be able to feed half of the people we are feeding now, in most of the cases most of us confuse manipulation with selection, both are valid, both are important, and both bring food to your table.
Some parts of the process we can't control, but we can try to assume control on the last bit of the process: What to buy, when to buy, and how to buy. 

Eat only 2 to 3 fruit pieces a day, fruit is rich in fructose, fructose is sugar, more then 3 pieces will mean you are ingesting to many sugar. Eating seasonal fruit is more satisfying, the fruit is sweeter, fresh and the body asks for it. It's no accident that nature produces cherries on spring and persimmons on fall, there's always a reason, for example a evolutionary reason related with the nutritional necessities of the all animals during the different seasons.


The fruits/vegetables season table is different for each globe zone, the one here is for the US territory, other tables can be found all over the internet:

Making children eat fruit and not cake as a snack, even if the fruit is out of season looks like a good habit and strategy, with more benefits then losses.

Et voilá!
Eat your vegetables... on season! its cheaper and tasteful!

Enjoy!