Lab Out Loud®

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Dr. Theo Gray

Our guest this week has some serious accolades that would make any geek proud: he has won an Ig Nobel prize (2002), been referenced in a Foxtrot comic, and owns the domain name periodictable.com.  Dr. Theo Gray talks to us this week about his tables, science experiments and safety, Wolfram Alpha, and even answers some student questions.

Links:

• TheodoreGray.com
• PeriodicTable.com
• Wooden Periodic Table
• Gray Matter (Popular Science Column)
• Wolfram Alpha – Computational Knowledge Engine
• Wolfram Research
• 2002 Ig Nobel Winner
• Interview on NPR

Books:

• The Elements (get it from Amazon.com)
• Mad Science (get it from Amazon.com)

Making Salt the Hard Way




Bacon: The Other White Heat




Direct download: LOL37.mp3

We’ve talked about laboratory safety in the past here at Lab Out loud, but we’ve never put our thoughts to song.

Fortunately, the folks at The Sounds of Science hit the right notes for us.

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In this episode, Maryann Suero and Ken Roy warn us of safety dangers lurking in schools – both in the science lab and beyond.  Dr. Suero is the Children’s Health Program Manager for the EPA Region 5 (Midwest Region), and Ken Roy is the Director of Environmental Health and Safety for Glastonbury Public Schools in CT, the Safety Compliance Consultant for NSTA, and a safety columnist for the Science Teacher and for Science Scope.

SC3: Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign
The Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign (SC3) aims to ensure that all schools are free from hazards associated with mismanaged chemicals. SC3 gives K-12 schools information and tools to responsibly manage chemicals.

• Fact Sheet (pdf)
  
• Green Cleaning (pdf)
• Partnerships with Industry (pdf)
• No More Methyl Something (ppt)

OSHA Lab Standard and HazCom Standards websites:

• Laboratories
• Reactive Chemicals
• Hazard Communications

Safety Links

• King County, WA (Seattle) “Rehab the Lab” Program
• Council of State Science Supervisors Safety Website
• Connecticut High School Science Safety Prudent Practices and Regulations (pdf)
• Conneticut Middle School Safety Prudent Practices and Regulations (pdf)
  
• National Science Education Leadership Association “Safe Science” safety articles for science teachers
• YouTube Video Warning of Consequences Playing with Thermite Grenades

For safety Issues in Schools – email NSTA’s Science Safety Compliance Consultant/Safety Columnist/Author: Dr. Ken Roy at Royk@glastonburyus.org

Direct download: LOL22.mp3

Flinn Safety Training Notes

Each month, Flinn Scientific provides “Science Department Safety Training Notes”.  This month’s notes are “Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations.”

From Flinn:

Chemical demonstrations can produce attention-grabbing results that dramatically illustrate chemistry in action–from making fountains of foam to creating kaleidoscopic colors, and generating flashes of fire. This month’s safety training reminds you that safety must always come first by providing important guidelines to consider before doing any chemical demonstration.

To receive Flinn’s Safety Training Notes, simply subscribe at www.flinnsci.com/contact_safety.asp.

Flinn also maintains an extensive MSDS database, with 2-page, printable Material Data Safety Sheets.

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This week we talk with Steve Silberman, contributing editor for Wired Magazine. Steve talks to us about the demise of the chemistry set (as related to his article Don’t Try this at Home) and what that might mean for the future of scientific curiosity in our children.

Preview from the Show:
In the last few years, a kind of perfect storm of concerns and legislation has arisen that has had the unintended effect of discouraging amateur chemistry.

Kids really want to fall in love with science. And I know how much the teachers really want to communicate their own enthusiasm about science to their kids. But with fears of liability, and these restrictive laws, and just a kind of general paranoia, instead what’s being transmitted to kids is some kind of combination of boredom and fear.

I would say that one of the reasons that I became a science writer was that I had a well stocked chemistry set when I was in elementary school, that contained many things that I am sure are now illegal.

If we’re cutting off the possibility of future generations of being interested in science – at the same time that the performance of American kids in science starts to go down around 12th grade, the number of science and technology related jobs in the world are going continually up – so we’re creating a gap here where we need people in science and technology, but we’re no longer giving them the access to the things that could help them become interested in the subject.

Links:

• Articles by Steve Silberman from Wired Magazine
• United Nuclear
  • see them on Wired Science in Dangerous Science
• Federal Hazardous Substances Act
• Thames and Kosmos C500 Chemistry Set
• 12 Angry Men: “Endangered Species – the Chemistry Set
• NYPD Seeks an Air Monitor Crackdown for New Yorkers
• Books
  • The Boy Scientist
  • Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
• Julius B. Cohen’s 1910 Practical Organic Chemistry
• sciencemadness.org
• TED Talks Video
  • 5 Dangerous Things Things You Should Let Your Kids Do

Direct download: nstalol11.mp3