biology experiments for adults

Fun Science Experiments For Adults

Science experiments are a part of the education that many of us receive. They help children put the science information learned from books and lectures into practice. Adults can take part in fun science experiments as well, by themselves or with their kids.

Temperature

One fun science experiment for adults demonstrates how heat causes things to expand and cold causes things to get smaller. To begin, place an empty soda bottle in the freezer for one hour. Take it out of the freezer. Wet the top of the bottle with water. Put a penny on the top of it so that it covers the opening to the bottle. Make certain that there are not any leaks. Place the bottle in the freezer again for one hour. Remove the bottle from the freezer and hold it with both hands, one on each side of the bottle. Hold onto the bottle and wait for about one minute. The penny will blow off of the top with quite a bit of force.

Another science experiment that adults can do is one that demonstrates what happens when clouds form in the sky. Put about 2 tbsp. of water in a medium-sized glass jar. Place a latex glove into the jar with the fingers of the glove pointing down. Stretch the top of the glove, the mouth of it, over the top of the glass jar. Gently insert your hand into the glove. With your hand still in the glove, quickly pull your hand out of the jar. Take the glove off of your hand. Light a match and drop it into the glass jar. Place the glove back into the jar and wrap the mouth around the top again. Put your hand into the glove again and then quickly pull it out. The clouds will form when you put your hand into the jar and disappear when you pull it out.

An entertaining science project for adults is making a tornado in a jar. Take a medium-sized glass jar and fill it with water. Add approximately 1 tbsp. of dishwashing liquid. Put the lid tightly on the glass jar. Shake the jar, turn it upside down and create bubbles. Swirl the jar around, which creates a mini whirlpool that looks like a tornado.

• Science Project Ideas: Bottling a Tornado

Cite This Article

Damme, Yvonne Van. "Fun Science Experiments For Adults" sciencing.com , https://www.sciencing.com/fun-science-experiments-adults-6134400/. 28 March 2010.

Damme, Yvonne Van. (2010, March 28). Fun Science Experiments For Adults. sciencing.com . Retrieved from https://www.sciencing.com/fun-science-experiments-adults-6134400/

Damme, Yvonne Van. Fun Science Experiments For Adults last modified August 30, 2022. https://www.sciencing.com/fun-science-experiments-adults-6134400/

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How to Win Science Fairs as a Grown-Ass Adult

Bonus: You won't set your house on fire.

Unless you’re gainfully employed as a scientist, you probably haven’t done much science since high school other than work on your own reproductive biology. That’s a shame, because while you head to the farmer’s market or carefully consider what bar to spend your paycheck on, you could be spending less than $20 holding your own science fair at home. Why leave the joy of basic science experiments to children and President Obama ? Be the scientist you know yourself to be, regardless of whether you remember the periodic table or not.

Here are six experiments to try out, some of which involve alcohol and some of which can be done while simultaneously consuming alcohol. Perform at your own caution, and don’t sue us if you screw up.

Make a Cloud in a Bottle

Clouds: You know them as puffs of tiny water vapors and ice crystals in the sky and the things sometimes you think look like animals . Make your own pseudo-cloud at home using a bike pump, rubbing alcohol, plastic bottle, and wine cork. These instructions come from the helpful YouTube show, Household Hacker .

Instant cloud!

Pour the rubbing alcohol into the plastic bottle and swirl it around until the entire inside is covered. Grab your wine cork, drill a hole down its middle, and attach it to your bike pump’s valve (that’s the part you put in the tire) — this is now your plug. Take that cork attached valve, and fit it into the top of the bottle.

Now is when the magic happens: Slowly pump four or five times, then pull the plug out. Wha la the drastic temperature change will cause the alcohol vapor and air molecules to stick together, creating yourself a cloud in a bottle.

Make Magic Mud

It’s very likely that you made magic mud in second grade. If so, good for you; now you can do it while drinking a gin and tonic.

For this experiment, you’ll need potatoes, tonic water, a strainer, a food processor, and two big bowls (if you don’t have potatoes you can also use corn starch). Get to business — these directions are courtesy of YouTuber Grant Thompson . Chop the potatoes into the smallest pieces possible with either your food processor or a knife. Slide those bits into a large mixing bowl and then use enough hot water to cover them completely.

You’re going to then stir them around for a few minutes before straining the potato bits from the water. The water is what you want — take that and let it sit for about ten minutes. That’s when you’ll notice the water has separated into normal looking water and a white layer. Pour out the water so you only have the white layer, flush it out with some clean water, and then dump out that water so you only have your goop. Let that sit around for two days; it’ll turn into a white powder.

Spoiler: This is what you're making.

This is where the gin and tonic come in: Get the tonic and pour it onto your crumbly powder to turn the potato gunk into magic mud . Because tonic water contains quinine, and quinine becomes fluorescent under black light , your magic mud also turns fluorescent. If you mess with it and constantly roll the magic mud, you’ll find that it acts and feels a lot like pizza dough. If you stop, it collapses into a goo. That’s because this mixture is a suspension of two states of matter — when pressure is applied it acts like a solid, and when that pressure is released it flows like a liquid.

Make Handheld Fireballs

First of all, be careful with this experiment. The whole idea is that you can hold the fireball you’re about to create, but let’s be real: How certain are you that you won’t mess up? Be extra safe the first time you try this by wearing flame retardant gloves and perform the whole experiment away from flammable materials.

That said, the whole gimmick behind this thing is to hold fire in your bare hand. To do so, cut a two- to six-inch piece of fabric from a material that won’t catch fire at low temperatures, like cotton or wool. Roll that piece of fabric tightly up, thread a needle into it, and sew it tightly into a ball. Then you’re going to wet the ball with a lighter fluid like Naphtha or a heater fuel like Kerosene.

This is probably a different fireball than you're used to.

Put the ball onto a fire-safe surface, douse it with your lighter fluid, then set it aflame. You should be able to pick it up from its side and hold it for a few seconds, like an everyday Human Torch. Because vapors are burning all over the ball you can hold it without getting burned.

Mess Around with Fluorescein

Fluorescein is what you’re after — the stuff that’s inside highlighters and what Chicago uses to dye its river green on St. Patrick’s Day. YouTube channel NightHawkInLight advises this experiment be done outside and with a hot plate to avoid any danger.

For this experiment, you’ll need 15 highlighter markers. Unscrew the bottom of the markers to pull out the tube of bright yellow coloring — that’s your fluorescein. Now you’ll need a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a quarter-inch hose top. Drill this top into the lid of the bottle, so that it’s easier to squirt out the alcohol. You need this to extract the fluorescein from the tubes — hold the tube over a bowl and pump the alcohol into the tube to flush out the fluorescein. When you have your bowl of fluorescein mixed with alcohol, put that into a sauce pan, place it on your hot plate, and set to a low simmer.

That’s the dangerous part — alcohol vapors are flammable so you want to make sure you’re in a very well ventilated area with nothing flammable nearby. The alcohol vapor will evaporate out of the pan, leaving you with a syrupy burnt orange concoction of fluorescein. If you pour this into a bowl of water and shine a black light on it, you’ll see it spiral into spectacular lime green pillars.

Fluorescein will  change from orange-red to green-yellow.

Make a Noodle Rocket

This experiment also comes from the YouTube channel NightHawkInLight . Here you’re making your very own hybrid rocket fuel engine — the sort of rocket engine that is a combination of a solid fuel source and a liquid or gaseous oxidizer. Your solid fuel source in this experiment is also what you can make for dinner later: ziti macaroni noodles. The oxidizer will be pure oxygen gas.

Take that Elon Musk.

To make this oxygen gas, you’ll need hydrogen peroxide and active dry yeast. Before you get into that, take the lid and drive a tiny hole in the center of it. Then fill the canning jar three-fourths of the way with hydrogen peroxide and then throw in a quarter of a teaspoon of yeast. This is going to start bubbling — put on the lid but do not screw on the seal that usually comes with canning jars; you need the lid to be able to pop off if it all becomes too pressurized.

Now grab your safety glasses ya’ll, because science is happening. Place your pasta so that a bit of it has gone through the hole in your lid. Then light the top of the ziti up. You’ll see a steady fire burn through the core of the pasta, because a flow of oxygen is being pushed up towards it. Because the heavy weight of the oxygen source and the lack of any nozzle, your jar isn’t going to go flying. But you are recreating how many advance rockets work . Take that, Elon Musk.

10+ Simple Scientific Experiments That Even Adults Will Find Astonishing

Our homes contain many things that can serve as equipment for staging exciting science experiments for our kids . Well, maybe not just for kids. A few discoveries of the ’’why have I never noticed this before?!’’ variety won’t pass by without interest from grown-ups, as well!

Bright Side offers you a selection of awesome experiments that will entertain your friends and kids.

1. Lava lamp

What you’ll need : Salt, water , one glass of vegetable oil, a few food colourings, a large transparent glass or jar.

Experiment : Fill the large glass 2/3 full of water. Pour the vegetable oil into the water. The oil will float on the surface. Add food colouring. Finally, slowly poor one teaspoon of salt into the glass.

How it works : Because oil is lighter than water, it floats on the water surface. When salt is added to the glass, the salt grains drag the oil to the bottom. Then, once the salt grains have dissolved, the particles of oil are free once again to rise to the surface. The food colouring helps to make the experiment visually exciting.

2. Homemade rainbow

What you’ll need : A container filled with water (such as a bath tub or a washbowl), a flashlight, a mirror, and a sheet of white paper.

Experiment : Fill the container with water and place the mirror at the bottom of the container. Aim the beam of light of the flashlight at the mirror. Make sure that it reflects off the surface of the mirror onto the sheet of paper. If done correctly, a rainbow should appear on the paper.

How it works: As it passes through water, a beam of light splits into its component colours. As a result, a rainbow appears.

What you’ll need : A tray, a small plastic bottle, sand, food colouring, baking soda, vinegar.

Experiment : Use clay and sand to mould a  volcano shape around the small plastic bottle — to add ambience to the experiment. To make it erupt, pour two tablespoons of baking soda into the bottle, then add a quarter of a glass of warm water. Put in some food colouring. Finally, add a quarter of a glass of vinegar.

How it works : When soda comes into contact with vinegar, a violent reaction occurs, causing an emission of water, salt and carbon dioxide (CO2 bubbles being the force that drives the contents of the ’’volcano’’ upwards).

4. Growing crystals

What you’ll need : Salt, water, a piece of wire.

Experiment : To grow crystals, you need to prepare a super-saturated salt solution. The concentration of salt should be such that, if you add any more, it won’t dissolve. Make sure that the solution remains warm. To make the process run more smoothly, you’d better use distilled water. When the solution is ready, pour it into a new container — to get rid of dirt traces that are always present in salt. Now you can take a piece of wire, make a small loop at one end, and lower it into the solution. Put the container in a warm place, so that the liquid won’t cool down right away. After a few days, beautiful salt crystals should grow on the wire. If you get the hang of it, you can grow quite large crystals and even make patterned handicraft by twisting the wire into various shapes.

How it works : As water cools down, the solubility of salt decreases. This leads to precipitation, with salt crystals forming on the container walls and on the wire.

5. Dancing coin

What you’ll need : A bottle, a coin large enough to cover the bottle’s mouth, water.

Experiment : Place the empty uncapped bottle in the freezer. Keep it there for a few minutes. Take the coin and dip it in water. Remove the bottle from the freezer and put the coin on top of the bottle, so that it covers the bottle’s mouth. After a few seconds, the coin should start jumping on the bottle’s rim, accompanied by curious clicking noises.

How it works : Hot air takes up more space than cold air. When you take the bottle out of the freezer, the air inside the bottle begins to warm up and expand. It rushes out through the bottle’s mouth, making the coin ’’dance’’.

6. Multi-coloured milk

What you’ll need : Whole milk, food colourings, liquid detergent, cotton swabs, a plate.

Experiment : Pour some milk onto a plate. Add a few drops of food colouring. Take a cotton swab; dip one end of it into liquid detergent. Next, press the detergent-covered swab to the centre of the plate. The milk will begin to swirl, forming colourful patterns.

How it works : The detergent reacts with the milk’s fat molecules, setting them in motion. That’s the reason why using fat-free milk for the experiment just won’t do!

7. Fireproof banknote

What you’ll need : A ten dollar banknote, tweezers, matches (or a lighter), salt, an ethanol and water solution (50% ethanol / 50% water).

Experiment : Add a pinch of salt to the ethanol and water solution. Dip the banknote into the solution, making sure that it’s completely soaked. Use tweezers to retrieve the banknote from the solution. Allow excess liquid to drain from the banknote. Set fire to the banknote and watch it burn without burning up.

How it works : Burning ethanol produces water, carbon dioxide and heat (energy). When you light up the banknote, only the spirit part of the solution burns up. The resulting heat is not enough to evaporate the water soaked up by the paper banknote. In the end, the flame goes out by itself, leaving the note undamaged, if slightly damp!

8. Walking on eggshells

What you’ll need : Two egg cartons holding ten eggs each, a garbage bag, a bucket of water, a bar of soap, and — a few trusty friends!

Experiment : Spread the garbage bag on the floor and put two egg cartons on it. Check the contents of the cartons and replace any cracked or broken eggs. Make sure that all the eggs are facing the same way inside the carton — either the pointy, or the rounded end upwards. Place one bare foot on the nearest carton, making sure that your weight is spread evenly across all ten eggs. You may want to ask your friends to steady you, before putting your other foot on the second carton. If you do everything right, you’ll be able to stand and even walk on eggs. To ensure that one careless movement doesn’t turn a brilliantly-planned experiment into a wacky cooking show, place a thin plank or tile over the eggs. This way, nothing will spoil your stroll to scientific glory!

How it works: Eggs are easy to break — everyone knows that. But, in reality, an eggshell is very tough and can withstand serious weight. An egg’s ’’architecture’’ is such, that, provided the pressure is applied evenly, the tension is distributed across the entire shell and the egg remains intact.

9. Fireworks in a jar

What you’ll need: An empty jar, drops of food colouring, warm water, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

Experiment: Fill the jar about 3/4 full with warm water from the tap. In a separate bowl or dish, place 3 tablespoons (approx) of vegetable oil. Carefully put drops of food colouring into the oil. Mix it all gently with a fork, just enough to disperse the food colouring a little bit. You’ll notice it doesn’t mix with the oil, it just breaks up into smaller dots. Now pour the oily and colour mixture into the warm water in your jar. Watch as the coloured drops sink down into the water and mix together creating a firework effect.

How it works: The food colouring will dissolve into the water, but the oil won’t. By mixing the oil and food colouring together first, you slow the mixing process that would normally happen with the water and the food colouring. The food colouring drops down into the water (because it is denser than the oil) while the oil stays on top of the water (water is also denser than oil). When the food colouring eventually starts to mix with the water, it creates a tiny explosion, like a firework.

10. Making a cloud in a jar

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The Experiment Archive

Biology experiments

Gummy bear osmosis

Taking the pulse

Yeast and a balloon

Leaf pigments chromatography

Fish dissection

Aristotle's illusion

Dental impression

Color changing flower

Strawberry DNA

Homemade yogurt

Lung volume test

Human reflexes

Water bowls

Rubber chicken bone

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20 Awesome Science Experiments You Can Do Right Now At Home

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We can all agree that science is awesome. And you can bring that awesomeness into your very own home with these 20 safe DIY experiments you can do right now with ordinary household items.

1. Make Objects Seemingly Disappear Refraction is when light changes direction and speed as it passes from one object to another. Only visible objects reflect light. When two materials with similar reflective properties come into contact, light will pass through both materials at the same speed, rendering the other material invisible. Check out this video from BritLab  on how to turn glass invisible using vegetable oil and pyrex glass.

2. Freeze Water Instantly When purified water is cooled to just below freezing point, a quick nudge or an icecube placed in it is all it takes for the water to instantly freeze. You can finally have the power of Frozone from The Incredibles on a very small scale! Check out the video on this "cool" experiment. 

3. Create Oobleck And Make It Dance To The Music Named after a sticky substance in a children’s book by Dr Seuss , Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid, which means it can behave as both a solid and a liquid. And when placed on a sound source, the vibrations causes the mixture to gloopily dance. Check out these instructions from Housing A Forest  on how to make this groovy fluid funk out in every way.

4. Create Your Own Hybrid Rocket Engine With a combination of a solid fuel source and a liquid oxidizer, hybrid rocket engines can propel themselves. And on a small scale, you can create your own hybrid rocket engine, using pasta, mouthwash and yeast. Sadly, it won’t propel much, but who said rocket science ain’t easy? Check out this video from NightHawkInLight on how to make this mini engine.

5. Create "Magic Mud" Another non-Newtonian fluid here, this time from the humble potato. "Magic Mud" is actually starch found in potatoes. It’ll remain hard when handled but leave it alone and it turns into a liquid. Make your own “Magic Mud” with this video.

6. Command The Skies And Create A Cloud In A Bottle Not quite a storm in a teacup, but it is a cloud in a bottle. Clouds up in the sky are formed when water vapor cools and condenses into visible water droplets. Create your own cloud in a bottle using a few household items with these wikiHow instructions .

7. Create An Underwater Magical World First synthesized by Adolf van Baeyer in 1871, fluorescein is a non-toxic powder found in highlighter pens, and used by NASA to find shuttles that land in the sea. Create an underwater magical world with this video from NightHawkInLight .

9. Make Your Own Lava Lamp Inside a lava lamp are colored bubbles of wax suspended in a clear or colorless liquid, which changes density when warmed by a heating element at the base, allowing them to rise and fall hypnotically. Create your own lava lamp with these video instructions.

10. Create Magnetic Fluid A ferrofluid is a liquid that contains nanoscale particles of metal, which can become magnetized. And with oil, toner and a magnet , you can create your own ferrofluid and harness the power of magnetism! 

12. Make Waterproof Sand A hydrophobic substance is one that repels water. When sand is combined with a water-resistant chemical, it becomes hydrophobic. So when it comes into contact with water, the sand will remain dry and reusable. Make your own waterproof sand with this video .

13. Make Elephant's Toothpaste Elephant’s toothpaste is a steaming foamy substance created by the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, which sort of resembles giant-sized toothpaste. Make your own elephant’s toothpaste with these instructions.

14. Make Crystal Bubbles When the temperature falls below 0 o C (32 o F), it’s possible to freeze bubbles into crystals. No instructions needed here, just some bubble mix and chilly weather.

15. Make Moving Liquid Art Mixing dish soap and milk together causes the surface tension of the milk to break down. Throw in different food colorings and create this trippy chemical reaction.

16. Create Colourful Carnations Flowers absorb water through their stems, and if that water has food coloring in it, the flowers will also absorb that color. Create some wonderfully colored flowers with these wikiHow instructions .

17. "Magically" Turn Water Into Wine Turn water into wine with this  video  by experimenter Dave Hax . Because water has a higher density than wine, they can switch places. Amaze your friends with this fun science trick.

18. Release The Energy In Candy (Without Eating It) Dropping a gummy bear into a test tube with potassium chlorate releases the chemical energy inside in an intense chemical reaction. That’s exactly what's happening when you eat candy, kids.

19. Make Water "Mysteriously" Disappear Sodium polyacrylate is a super-absorbent polymer, capable of absorbing up to 300 times its own weight in water. Found in disposable diapers, you can make water disappear in seconds with this video .

20. Create A Rainbow In A Jar Different liquids have different masses and different densities. For example, oil is less dense than water and will float on top of its surface. By combining liquids of different densities and adding food coloring, you can make an entire rainbow in a jar with this video .

There you have it – 20 experiments for you to explore the incredible world of science!

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