science experiment

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Feds Raid Teen Scientist's Garage Lab

17-year-old who was accepted to college at 13 says it was all a big misunderstanding

(Newser) - Federal agents in hazmat gear swarmed an Irvine, California home late last month but the teenager who lives there says they busted up a home science project, not a weapons lab. Seventeen-year-old Amalvin Fritz, who skipped high school, was accepted to college at 13, and is now nearing graduation from...

Cops Called on 9-Year-Old Girl Doing Science Experiment
Yale Honors Girl Scientist
Who Had Cops Called on Her
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Feb 4, 2023 4:40 PM CST

Yale Honors Girl Scientist Who Had Cops Called on Her

Bobbi Wilson's lanternflies added to university's collection

(Newser) - Yale University has honored the 9-year-old girl whose neighbor reported her to police for working on a science project. The October incident in Caldwell, New Jersey, "touched off a national discussion about racial profiling," per the Guardian , which reports Bobbi Wilson was spraying an insecticide outside her home...

Teacher Resigns After Science Experiment Goes Wrong

Cops say Texas middle school instructor put hand sanitizer in student's hands, set it on fire

(Newser) - A science experiment gone awry has left a 12-year-old in North Texas injured and a teacher out of a job. CBS News reports that the 37-year-old science instructor, who hasn't been named, resigned after a Friday incident at Granbury Middle School, in which authorities say she placed hand sanitizer...

Seeds Secretly Buried in 1879 Just Gave Us an 'Amazing Moment'

Seeds hidden in Michigan State experiment are still sprouting after 142 years

(Newser) - The world's longest-running seed experiment is still giving up greenery. A group of seeds buried in a secret spot at Michigan State University in 1879 have begun sprouting after they were dug up and planted in mid-April. The first sprouted April 23—"an amazing moment," per botany...

Experiment Started in 1879 Isn't Done Yet

Every 20 years, a bottle is secretly removed from the ground at Michigan State University

(Newser) - Three Michigan State University scientists have been let in on a secret that has persisted since 1879: the location of buried glass bottles that make up an experiment that has gone on for more than a century—and will likely continue until the dawn of a new century. NPR reports...

YouTube's 'King of Random' Dead at 38
YouTube's 'King
of Random'
Dead at 38
OBITUARY
Jul 31, 2019 7:41 AM CDT

YouTube's 'King of Random' Dead at 38

Jonathan Grant Thompson, known for wacky science experiments, dies in paragliding accident

(Newser) - Known for his "mad science" experiments on a YouTube channel with more than 11 million subscribers, Jonathan Grant Thompson was a sort of online "combination of Bear Grylls and MacGyver," per the Washington Post . Fans are now mourning the YouTube star known as "the King of...

The 'Rainbow Experiment' Went Wrong. Now, a $60M Payout

Ex-high school student Alonzo Yanes suffered 3rd-degree burns over 30% of his body

(Newser) - Anna Poole was simply trying to show her high school chemistry class the "Rainbow Experiment," which illustrates how mineral salts change color when an accelerant, usually methanol, is poured on. But the 2014 experiment went wrong, one of her students was severely burned by the resulting fireball, and...

80K People Beg School Not to Kill 4 Dogs

A Swedish university says it had little choice

(Newser) - Half a dozen labradors lost several teeth and then their lives as part of a controversial lab experiment in Sweden—and animal rights activists are howling, the Local reports. "These dogs could have been able to live their lives," says Malin Gustafsson of the Animal Rights Alliance. "...

NASA Just Lit a Big Fire in Space

The biggest one ever intentionally lit, as a matter of fact—all in the name of safety

(Newser) - NASA just started the biggest fire in outer space ever intentionally set—all in the name of safety, Space.com reports. The Spacecraft Fire Experiment , aka Saffire-1, took place Tuesday inside an unmanned Cygnus cargo vessel after it left the International Space Station, with what a press release describes as...

Museum's 'Smoke Tornado' Goes Horribly Wrong

13 injured at Nevada Discovery Museum

(Newser) - Eight children were among 13 people hurt when an attempt to create a whirling "smoke tornado" went badly wrong at the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum in Reno, Nev., yesterday. Initial reports said there had been an explosion, but a police spokesman tells the Reno Gazette-Journal that the...

Animal Gets Head Cut Off, Remembers Everything

Planarians mystify us with ability to regenerate body parts

(Newser) - Ever heard of planarians? These inch-long worms are famous for their remarkable ability to regrow body parts that get cut off. Slice one worm into three parts—head, body, and tail—and each part will regrow the rest of the worm. From one planarian, you get three! How they do...

Lab Experiment That Burned Teen Has Bad Track Record

Feds warned about 'Rainbow' last month

(Newser) - A 16-year-old Manhattan student was nearly burned to death this week in a school science experiment gone horribly wrong, reports the Daily News , and it turns out that the experiment in question has a long track record of such accidents. In fact, the US Chemical Safety Board issued a video...

Scientist Dies After 52 Years Spent Waiting for Drop
Scientist Dies After 52 Years Spent Waiting for Drop
in case you missed it
Aug 31, 2013 6:28 PM CDT

Scientist Dies After 52 Years Spent Waiting for Drop

John Mainstone was 'custodian of world's longest-running science experiment'

(Newser) - Last month we wrote about the pitch-drop experiment, which is meant to demonstrate the concept that pitch (a tar derivative) is actually a high-viscosity substance, meaning it appears solid but is actually slowly flowing. An experiment to prove just that has been running in Brisbane since 1927—and now comes...

Scientists Accidentally Create World's Best Water Absorber

Make 'impossible material' after leaving equipment running over weekend

(Newser) - Sometimes screwing up a science experiment isn't such a bad thing. Case in point: Researchers in Sweden accidentally left their equipment running on an experiment over a weekend, and ended up creating something awesome—Upsalite, the world’s most efficient water absorber, reports the Independent . This substance, prohibitively expensive...

Drop Years In the Making Caught on Camera

After 69 years, Dublin college captures tar pitch falling

(Newser) - Watched in isolation, the video doesn't look like much. A drop of tar slowly detaches from the beaker above it, settling gently atop the tar below it. You might not realize what the big deal is—until you notice the clock furiously spinning behind it, and realize that even...

Scientists Link Brains of Two Rats
Scientists Link Brains
of Two Rats
Feb 28, 2013 4:25 PM CST

Scientists Link Brains of Two Rats

Signals from one affect the other, say researchers

(Newser) - It is, in the words of Wired , a "rodent mind meld." A Duke neuroscientist planted electrodes in the brains of two rats and discovered that signals from one could control the actions of the other, reports the New York Times . In one experiment, the rats were trained to...

5 Insane Sacrifices Made for Science

Mars One plan, Bikini Atoll atomic testing top the list

(Newser) - With a Dutch company planning to send astronauts to Mars for life—and make it a reality show—no other scientific endeavor could ask more of people ... right? Well, the Wall Street Journal runs down the competition:
  • 90 people offered to work on ships near the Navy's Bikini Atoll
...

Secret to Dark Matter May Lie Under South Dakota

Large Underground Xenon experiment to be housed in town of Lead

(Newser) - Nestled nearly 5,000 feet beneath the Earth in the gold boom town of Lead, South Dakota, is a laboratory that could help scientists answer some pretty heavy questions about life, its origins, and the universe. Today part of the Homestake Gold Mine—opened in 1876 and shuttered in 2003—...

Ghost Town Being Built in New Mexico

'The Center' will have homes, roads ... but no people

(Newser) - If you think ghost towns are dusty places out West that have been abandoned for centuries, you'd be mostly right. But the latest ghost town to surface in New Mexico will actually be a brand new one. A tech company yesterday announced plans to build a 20-square-mile model of...

Obama Tapes Mythbusters Segment

He's rocking his inner geek, experimenting with Archimedes claim

(Newser) - President Obama says he'll be exercising his inner geek in an appearance on Discovery Channel show Mythbusters—but the myth he's busting has nothing to do with his birth certificate or whether he's secretly a Muslim. And unlike what usually happens on Mythbusters, he won't be blowing anything up. "...

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