weird science

[...]... But science is never that easy.While the distinction between solid, liquid, and gas is easy to grasp, what about substances that don’t really fit into those categories? There are some weird substances out there that can act like both liquids and solids.There are also common substances, such as water, that can act pretty weird sometimes, too.Try the activities in this chapter to learn more about the weird. .. changing its shape) Slime molds are often difficult to find, so to learn more about them, you’ll need to get them from a specialty store Try this activity to see how weird they really are 14 Materials Slime Mold Growing Kit – (you can order these from a science store, such as Carolina Biological Supply Company [www carolina.com]; kit includes a single plate culture of Physarum polycephalum, petri dishes, agar,... then returns to the bottom of the lamp and the process can start again 20 2 WEIRD PLANTS Way to Grow 21 A ll living organisms are divided into kingdoms.The animal kingdom and the plant kingdom are two examples.The plant kingdom includes all of the various kinds of trees, bushes, and grasses that we see every day, plus a few weird things that may surprise you Plants grow in many strange and wonderful... kind of ice It’s called dry ice and is made from the gas we normally exhale, carbon dioxide (CO2) While it may share the same name as its water-based cousin, it acts more like a distant relative with weird actions So, try these activities to learn more about dry ice Materials aluminum pie tin paper towel candle ice cube matches winter gloves glass dry ice (available from many ice water companies) adult... gas will move down after leaving the glass The candle flame needs oxygen to burn When the carbon dioxide gas reaches the flame, it takes the place of the oxygen around the flame and the fire goes out The weird properties of dry ice that you experimented with in this activity have other uses.The visible fog that you formed can be used in movies and television to create a spooky-looking ground fog or to... water vapor to condense into clouds Because the fog is heavier than the air around, it will spill out of a container and settle to the ground PROJECT Slime Molds Later in this book, you’ll read about some weird animals, plants, and even bacteria, but there are other strange critters that don’t fit into any of these categories One example is the slime mold At some times in its life, it acts like a fungus,...1 WEIRD SUBSTANCES Slip, Ooze, and Creep 5 W e’ve all been told that there are three states, or phases, of matter—solid, liquid, and gas Solids have a distinct, fixed volume and well-defined shape A piece... slime molds They don’t eat humans! They are most commonly found in forests and occasionally on grasses or garden mulch Cellular slime molds start out as single cells But these cells are both special and weird. They can give off chemicals that let them communicate with each other.When the chemical message is sent, the cellular slime molds will move together into a tiny sluglike organism that continues to... that had a light in its base and gooey, colored blobs of liquid moving up and down in a clear or contrasting-colored fluid You can still find these lamps in some novelty stores and catalogs The effect is weird as the colored globs slowly move from the bottom of the other fluid to the surface, only to return to the bottom of the container where the journey begins again But how can you get one liquid to move... When you look at water in a glass, at first glance it appears to have a level surface But if you look closer, you’ll see that not all the water is on the level Try this activity to learn more about the weird behavior of curved water Materials tall, narrow glass jar (like one that is used to hold olives), clean and dried with label removed water paper towel penny eyedropper Procedure 1 Fill the glass . weird, and bizarre. How to Use This Book This book is divided into chapters based on types of weird things: weird substances, weird plants, weird animals, weird microbes, weird weather, weird. seems weird to me in one way or another weird, wonderful, and almost unbelievable! But mostly I’ve found weird science to be memorable. As a teacher I’d used stories of weird things in science, . the answers, Weird Science is the place to start. Science is behind many dif - ferent things that at first seem really weird. But the more you under- stand about the science behind weird stuff,