(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best science education supplies

Sure, the one I'm about to write ;)

The physics of using vapor distillation are pretty straightforward. You have two miscible substances together in one container, in this case water and isopropyl alcohol. We start by looking up the boiling points of the two compounds, in this case water boils at 100C and isopropyl alcohol boils around 81C, so all we have to do is heat our mixture to a temperature at which the thing we want (isopropyl alcohol) will evaporate at a higher rate than the thing we want to separate it from (water). We capture the isopropyl alcohol vapor in something called a "condenser" which attaches to the sealed container of mixed water and isopropyl alcohol and water, goes up a way, then curves downward into a coil that eventually opens up into a second container where our cooled, higher concentrated alcohol will be deposited.

To do this in a lab you'd probably use a regulated heat source, a flask with a rubber stopper, a condenser unit, and a beaker like you see here. Thankfully, since what we're working with doesn't require much heat, and our end product doesn't need to be exceptionally pure, we can get by with materials that can be easily obtained from a local hardware store for considerably less money.

Here's roughly what you'll need:

2x glass canning jars, one of them will need to have a lid which you can drill a hole into.

1x metal cook pot

1x electric tea kettle

A length of tubing with which to build a makeshift condenser (the thing between the flask and the beaker in the image I linked to)...

--If you can get copper tubing, that will be ideal as it conducts heat exceptionally well. You'll want to get enough that you can wrap the tubing around something like a broom handle or rolling pin to make a coil, and still have enough left over that you can make a gradual bend on one end.

--If you can't get copper tubing, flexible plastic tubing will work too, but it will work a lot better if you can supplement it with a length of pipe large enough that you can push the tubing inside of it to make a coil. You'll want to make sure that your pipe has a large enough inside diameter that the plastic tubing can coil without pinching or kinking. If you're taking the plastic tubing inside of a pipe route, you'll probably also want to wrap a flexible ice pack around the outside of the pipe to aid in cooling the vapor.

Once you've got your condenser sorted out, you'll want to drill a hole in the lid of the canning jar that you'll be putting the source material into and insert the part of the condenser that has the bend into the hole. Seal the hole up with something that can withstand temperatures of around 100C (hot glue would work for this particular application). You'll then want to find something sturdy enough that it can withstand the temperature of a pan of near-boiling water and will also elevate your flask high enough that the condenser can come down at an angle into your distillate beaker on the right (reference the Amazon link if this is confusing).

The linked set up is meant to be used with an open flame like a bunsen burner or similar but we're NOT going to be using an open flame for two reasons. The first is safety; isopropyl alcohol and its vapors are quite flammable and you don't want to run the risk of starting a fire. The second reason is that an open flame would provide a lot more heat than we really need since the temperature range we'll need is really only what you'd consider ideal for a hot cup of tea and if we heat the source liquid too much it will mean that a greater percentage of water will evaporate into our condenser and our end product will be less concentrated than it otherwise could be.

Your assembled setup should look like this:
Currently empty cook pot on top of your elevated platform with the sealed jar of dilute isopropyl alcohol sitting inside of it on the left.
Your makeshift condenser attached with the bent end plugged into the top of the sealed jar, and angling down to your distillate beaker on the right.

Make sure everything is nice and sturdy, then start your teapot. Let the teapot come to a boil and then simmer down to a point in which it is hot, but no longer boiling and then VERY CAREFULLY start to pour the heated water into the cook pot. Canning jars are meant to withstand heating, but they are far from lab grade tempered glass so you'll want to make sure that you bring the jar slowly up to temperature, otherwise it might shatter.

If you're using copper tubing, you'll just have to be patient and wait for little drops to start coming out of the distillate end of your condenser. If you're using clear plastic tubing, you'll actually be able to see the process at work in the parts of the condenser that aren't hidden by your pipe--the hot side will start to accumulate what looks like steam, and you'll see droplets forming on the cold side which will start dripping into your distillate beaker.

Let the process continue until there are no longer droplets coming out of the cold side and the liquid in the right hand distillate beaker should be mostly pure isopropyl alcohol.

Disclaimer: If you do this and you hurt yourself, it's not my fault. Taking makeshift chemistry advice from random people on the Internet may not be the best idea, although I've tried to make this as safe as possible. I should also add that while I have distilled things using this general principle, it has been done with proper lab equipment in a lab setting back when I was in school. I cannot guarantee that your setup will be anywhere near as effective as what can be done with professional tools. Generally speaking, if you want professional results, you should spend the money on professional tools.

Wear personal protective equipment: gloves, goggles/face shield, apron, etc. If you do things incorrectly there is a reasonable chance that you could spill boiling water on yourself or break a glass jar and you really don't want to have to deal with the physical injuries that either of those things can result in.

Finally, do NOT ever use a setup like this for anything you plan on putting in or on your body. Plastic tubing, when heated, is liable to leech chemicals into the distillate that are not good for you, and the copper tubing that you buy at the hardware store may not necessarily be food safe. (In other words, don't try to make moonshine or gin or something.)

I think that's everything, let me know if you need any clarifications.

Periodic table with samples of stable elements ~$180, make sure you're getting the one with the actual element samples in it if you go with this, some just have pictures which are neat, but not as good.

Glass Klien Bottle $65

Blue Morpho Butterfly $50

Fun fly stick $25

Megan Lee Studio's Art Prints $5 - $600, she has a lot of great prints if your friend has some favorite scientists. Great decor for home or classroom.

Which science discipline does your friend teach/ majored in?

Oh boy! Watercolor is beautiful and relatively easy to get started with, but the medium has a unique character that people find difficult to master. I find that instead of learning to control watercolor, I learn to work with it.

This book is one of my favorites, and youtube has a lot of excellent videos which will show you how to approach painting. Just search for 'Watercolor Speed Painting' or 'Watercolor Tutorials'.

If you have no experience with them, start with a cheap set of tube paints, and any heavy paper. Get a set of real-hair watercolor brushes, or a couple decent synthetic ones. Bigger is better! Get at least an 8 and a 12. If you want to buy better individual paints, start with a minimal palette like one of the two mentioned here.

Practice, practice, practice, and keep asking questions :) Good luck!

Their super cheap on Amazon

I'd like a larger one myself. Maybe double this size. But it works really well. My best time is around 14 minutes on this surface untreated. If that helps at all. Enjoy it man. I love mine.


Edit: Here is a pic for size comparison. I don't know why I'm telling you all this. I guess I would've wanted to know when I was looking around.

OP left out some of the decent printers: [knockoff replicator 1 for half the price](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008CM2TCU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008CM2TCU&linkCode=as2&tag=myhupa02-20">FlashForge 3D printer, dual extruder w/2 ABS spools</a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=myhupa02-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B008CM2TCU) - Dual extruder, compatible with makerware, 5 star rating from 84 reviews and a decent build volume.

Afinia H series I'd personally put this in the "overpriced" category, but only marginally; it also has reasonable build quality, it's assembled and in general it doesn't suck.

Type A series 1 One of the best printers in the world. Seriously.

Disclaimer to keep the mods happy: I have a firefox addon that adds amazon affiliate codes. I can't be bothered to remove them.
I don't spam my website here, but if you buy these I'll make something like 4%.
Apparently this is a big deal.

Ok man... here we go I got a plan for you. You should build a time machine and you could go into the future and spend that $50 on some trees when they were available...

The Plan

You need

• 2718 x 72" Hex 303 Stainless Steel, Cold Finished, Annealed (Might just want to get an even 3000 for replacements and such)
  
  
  
• 200m of high voltage, high temp copper cable, silicon coat is ideal
  
  
  
• 7 x 5L Dewer Flasks with welded handles (And source of LN2)
  
  
  
• 32 x Concave Mirrors
  
  
  
• 32 x Optical Glass Lens Set, 50mm (Half Double Convex (20, 30, 50cm FL) and half Double Concave (20, 30, 50cm FL)
  
  
  
• A well stocked home depot
  
  
  
• An envelope
  
  
  

  The Time Machine
  

  
  
  Take the money you have NOW for the trees and place it in an envelope, and put the envelope somewhere safe. You will be taking this envelope into the future with you. Now, take all the other stuff and go build a time machine.
  
  
  One of the two things will happen
  
  
  

• You fail to build the time machine, but when there are trees around and for sale you can go retrieve those $50 from the envelope and buy them. Who needs a time machine when you got green anyways??
  
  
  
• You successfully build a time machine and become the first human to achieve time travel. Who needs trees when you a have a time machine???
  
  
  The way I see it, its a win win.

Personally, I've made good use of this, which can be purchased here. As well as providing a decent indication of different brain areas (both cortical and subcortical), it also maps out all 12 cranial nerves, the ventricles, the blood vessels and arteries, as well as the circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid.

One thing to note is that it won't map out brain areas in the same direct fashion that Brodmann's areas do. Instead, it'll tell you which brain area is in contact with each artery. It's a bit more finnicky, but still pretty useful. Overall, I think it's a great chart. Its strength lies in that, in addition to the brain areas themselves, this chart presents all the other important systems (CBF, blood vessels/arteries, ventricles, cranial nerves) that most other charts ignore - and it's arguably these things you'll find most challenging to memorize.

edit: typo

They're all pretty much the same. Don't buy the expensive one they recommend from Barnes and Noble. You can get just as good of a set from Amazon for like, $20. This is the one I used

Hahah, I want to say this octopus just because I'd be really surprised to see it. But I'd be plenty pleased with a book so you can have enough funds to give other people toooooooo!

GOOD LUCK.

I thought the same thing but reverse google image search found the same poster on amazon laminated already at a size of 24x36. Wish it was a little bigger but I think this may be my best bet so far.
http://www.amazon.com/Male-Muscle-Diagram-Andre-Potvin/dp/0973941111/ref=sr_1_2?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1421272134&sr=1-2&keywords=male+muscle+poster
edit: just realized its not the exact same image, but its close enough

Collect the shit.

Collect ALL the shit. Yours, your wife's, your kid's. Hell, go to town and put out a kinky Craigslist ad and reap the brown gold rewards. Make an unbreakable friendship bond with a septic tank trucker.

Drain a portaloo of the bounty it offers.

Get the collected contents and let it dry out ever so slightly to a firmer consistency.

Then Amazon.


Go Roman conquest on their home and bury them alive.

There are cheaper ones (this one is $20, I got the $8 one) but here's a link if y'all are interested. The pyramid one looks pretty cool too



https://www.amazon.com/StayMax-Dispersion-Decoration-1-33inX1-33inX1-33in-3-4x3-4x3-4cm/dp/B07QHF7F37/ref=sspa_dk_typ_pt_comp_3/141-5224236-4657454?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07QHF7F37&pd_rd_r=adec3e85-c855-4b5c-a273-5480ed5f1329&pd_rd_w=6nqh1&pd_rd_wg=PRNbq&pf_rd_p=0412d930-f756-4db1-84d7-01dbac4fd9bd&pf_rd_r=PP2XYYRVC38HBXYP2PJS&psc=1&refRID=PP2XYYRVC38HBXYP2PJS

If you want to make this yourself without spending a fortune on real tanks, cases, etc., you could probably fake it easily enough.

For your tank, get a couple acrylic display dome cloches and spray them with metallic paint. If the strapping doesn't have to match the item in the photo exactly, use a third strap to cover the seams where you glue-weld them end to end. https://www.amazon.com/Acrylic-Display-Cloche-Collectables-Specimens/dp/B07DN3WZSS

For the power source, seems like you could use a tea tin or something similar: https://www.harney.com/products/black-empty-tea-tin-8-oz

Flex conduit is easy to find. Maybe spray painted or heat-shrink the surface: https://www.homedepot.com/p/AFC-Cable-Systems-1-1-2-x-25-ft-Flexible-Steel-Conduit-5506-22-00/202262403?MERCH=REC-_-PIPHorizontal2_rr-_-206741568-_-202262403-_-N

The hardware components look a little harder to come by for me. Maybe others will be more help. Seems like you could cobble some stuff together (hinges and gate springs, etc) that look somewhat similar.

Depends on if its amazon or a 3rd party seller. You can always pay extra to get it faster shipping but that may be double or triple the cost of the model set.

Edit: Model Kit from Picture

Looks like March 5th - 8th if you do free shipping, but possible march 1st at fastest

| | |
|-:|:-|
|title|Earth Days|
|plot|The story of our growing awareness and understanding of the environmental crisis and emergence, during the 1960's and '70's, of popular movement to confront it.|
|consensus|This engaging and well-organized eco-doc maps the successes and failures of the American environmental movement, thanks to sharp interviews and remarkable archive footage.|
|released|14 Aug 2009|
|director|Robert Stone|
|writer|Robert Stone|
|actors|Denis Hayes|
|language|English|
|awards|3 nominations.|
|links|movie on amazon, earthdaysmovie.com|
|tags|documentary|
|metrics|youtube plays: 1,723,474, radd.it score: 7.5|


Please downvote this comment if this data is incorrect!
I am a bot by radd.it data services. I have been requested to post these reports.

I went to a Vo-Ag high school where we had an entomology class for river and stream management (yes, we went on fishing field trips!!). We would go to the local tail waters with a net like this and would stick it in the water down stream of us and kick around the rocks and let everything flow in to the net. Then we would put the insects in vials like these, which allowed us to study them. You can even fill them with formaldehyde and bring them with you to make a permanent collection. If you used the links to buy those items you’ll save a ton of money that you can spend on tying materials etc. That’s just my 2 cents.


Edit to add: this net is more suitable

I setup what I thought was a wonderful gag for my freinds.

I removed the label from an old vinegar bottle and filled it with hot water. I refrigerated a gallium spoon and moved it into the drawer just moments before my presenation (gallium has the wonderful property of being a solid metal at room temperature and melting at just above room temperature or 85F).

I invited my friend and his wife into the kitchen to show them a trick with "hydrofluoric acid". I opened the cupboard and very very carefully brought out the bottle of "acid". Using both hands I gingerly lowered the vessel onto the counter where they were sitting. I then grabbed a thick clear glass from the cupboard. I took a moment to assure them that the glass was completely inert and there was absolutely no danger; the "acid" couldn't possibly melt through the glass. I carefully unscrewed the metal cap from the bottle, making sure to keep my fingers far from the edges. I set the cap down on the counter and I cautiously began to pour the "acid" into the glass. I did so slowly "I don't want to spill, it will eat right through the granite" I noted. I filled it almost to the very top. At this point my freinds started to look distressed so I assured them again that I had done this before, there was no danger. I then reached into the drawer and pulled out the gallium spoon. I pushed the glass of "acid" closer to them and invited them to watch closely. I inserted the spoon into the "acid" and stirred - almost immediately the spoon melted. For greater effect I held the spoon handle just above the glass and allowed a drop of molten metal to fall back into the "acid" and sink to the bottom.

"Holy shit that stuff is strong!"

"That's nothing, you should see how it reacts to something organic."

I swung around as if to grab something from the refrigerator and I knocked the glass of "acid" into their laps.
That's when the hilarity ensured, at least for me. They jumped up, faster than I thought any human could, and began to scrape the "acid" from their clothes. I yelled "Don't get it on your hands!". They then began a frantic jazz hands act trying to shake off the "acid". "Oh god, I got some in my mouth!" my friend's wife screamed.

Preoccupied with their imminent disfiguration they didn't notice my braying laughter. I stifled my joy just long enough to reveal to them that is was only hot water. It took them quite a while to appreciate the humor.

I went with these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EPQ9UK6

And this tape:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WVNRKBG

I got the Finebest version which is an unbranded Z3. It was Saturday free shipping prime.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018UEVVI2

So, fingers crossed that everything works out well. :)

So for the total count you're gonna need:
Carbon: 23
Oxygen: 13
Nitrogen: 2
Hydrogen: 34

carbon is generally the black balls, oxygen is usually red, nitrogen is green, and hydrogen is white/gray depending on the kit.

So you just gotta make sure you have enough. The biggest problem I'm seeing here is the hydrogens.

This is the model kit I myself actually have: http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Models-Piece-Organic-Stereochemistry/dp/B005TKTHLO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1419030742&sr=8-4&keywords=molecular+model+kit&pebp=1419030948460

It's got a ton of white pieces (hydrogens) but it lacks a bit in black pieces. You're pretty much just gonna have to search for a kit that has all the pieces you need. make sure the blacks are "tetrahedral" cause that's what you're gonna mostly need.

Sorry I can't find a specific set for what you need, but you may need to just buy two sets and combine them.

The official cardboard lenses are 30mm biconvex lenses with a focal length of 45mm. If you cant see the edges of the screen (I cant) you could swap larger lenses with the same focal length to get a better field of view.

Maybe these would work? A cardboard shim might be needed since the focal length is 50mm.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EPQ9SO4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

this would be better, you want a minimum of 34mm diameter. Longer focal length shows more of the screen.

http://www.amazon.com/Ajax-Scientific-Double-Convex-Bi-Convex-Spherical/dp/B00EPQ9SO4/ref=pd_sim_147_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=31fQ4P7mxYL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL320_SR240%2C320_&refRID=0AQNKQJ6H2VY6X2S23W1

How about $7.44 for one at Amazon

Or a pack of 5 for $10.38 also from Amazon

Edit: 48mm is a very odd diameter for a non-custom lens. You are much more likely to find 50mm, 100mm, 200mm.

Also focal lengths will be limited selection, but 100mm is easily found if that will work for you.

Sophomore undergrad class? You don't need a $93 one. There are plenty of sub-$30 on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Models-Piece-Organic-Stereochemistry/dp/B005TKTHLO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1453322844&sr=8-4&keywords=organic+model+kit

This one seems nice. For your purposes, they're basically all the damn same. You'll just need to make some cyclohexanes, basically.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gllium

The stuff isn't that expensive at all. Unfortunately, the spoons weren't available when I posted this comment. I'd like to get one!

Edit - Apparently they are. You can buy a kit that includes the gallium and make the spoons for yourself.

Here's the kit if you want to make a spoon yourself.

This is what I use currently but I plan on making one of [these this year] (https://youtu.be/GsE77b4tn30)

RotoMetals Complete Disappearing Gallium Spoon Kit: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PG3KUT2

Or... someone bought the gallium spoon kit

Ask and ye shall receive.