Comments on: Chemistry Set Generation

By: Clark

Clark — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:32:46 +0000

Scientific American used to have some nice readers back in the day which my dad used to get for me when I was very young. I’d only “get” maybe 1/4 of what was in it. But there were some great pictures and explanations. Sadly I’ve not seen those sorts of collections from SA for quite some time. Certainly not since it changed its appearance.

It is amazingly sad how “dumbed down” science literature for kids has become (when you can even find any). I’m glad there are shows like Mythbusters showing a rudimentary scientific method that kids pick up on. But clearly there could be so much more…

BTW – if you let your kid browse the web send him over to New Scientist which has some nice things. Once again he’ll probably not understand everything but it’s amazing what sinks into young kids minds.

By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:06:35 +0000

My ten-year-old had taken up an interest in nuclear bombs, and kept asking me questions that I would answer. As his interest continued and strengthened I thought I would get him some sort of “A Boy’s First Book of the Nucleus,” but it doesn’t seem that such a thing has been written in the last 40 years. I didn’t think a half-century-old book from back when such things were produced would quite do the job. I settled on Jeremy Bernstein’s “Plutonium: A History of the World’s Most Dangerous Element.” It’s a tough book for a ten-year-old, but we’ve been reading it together, a page or so at a time, and he’s been enjoying it, though feeling overwhelmed at times (which isn’t a bad thing if properly managed in non-fatal doses).

The current children’s books on electricity seem so flashy and unsubstantial compared with what I used to find in my elemetary school library.

By: Susan W S

Susan W S — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:47:49 +0000

My husband had a chemistry set when he was in high school. One Sunday he was sitting in church in his nearly new corduroy suit. He noticed a funny spot on his knee and scratched it. To his dismay, the corduroy disappeared there, and soon he noticed spots all over his pants were disintegrating. He says that before the meeting he had been working on an experiment with sulphuric acid and apparently it spattered on his Sunday suit. Fortunately he didn’t hurt himself.

By: W. V. Smith

W. V. Smith — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:56:13 +0000

Oh man. You struck a chord. I remember my several chemistry sets well. I suppose that what I did with them was not exactly kosher. Chlorine gas (I got pneumonia). I made nitric acid and made some really cool green gas by adding some copper. It went right through the 4 or 5 layers of paper towels I put over the beaker. My parents were gone a lot. I was fascinated by science and those chemistry sets were just cool. I almost talked my dad into a real bunsen burner. Good thing he didn’t go for it. Days of innocence. Brrrrr.

And take a look at the geekazoid in the link. Wow.