For small colleges, the use of invertebrates in undergraduate learning laboratory experiments may be a valuable alternative to the use of vertebrate species. This article describes a habituation experiment using terrestrial hermit crabs. All of the materials required are inexpensive and readily available. What makes this experiment unique is that…

Modern visualization techniques in science education present a challenge of sorting out the contributions of perception to understanding science. These contributions range over degrees to which perception is influenced by belief (including systematic sets of beliefs which comprise scientific theories) and social setting. This paper proposes a…

We show that the treatment of pendulum movement, other than the linear approximation,may be an instructive experimentally based introduction to the physics of non-linear effects. Firstly the natural frequency of a gravitational pendulum is measured as function of its amplitude. Secondly forced oscillations of a gravitational pendulum are…

Kuhn underlined the relevance of Galileo's gestalt switch in the interpretation of a swinging body from constrained fall to time metre. But the new interpretation did not eliminate the older one. The constrained fall, both in the motion of pendulums and along inclined planes, led Galileo to the law of free fall. Experimenting with physical…

One way in which archaeologists locate a site to dig is to use a resistive survey. This can be modelled simply and instructively for students in the school laboratory.

Whereas research in MicroSystems Technology (MST) has grown rapidly over the last twenty years, the education of engineers at postgraduate level is still in its infancy. The number of dedicated MST research institutions, companies and university laboratories worldwide has grown at a dramatic rate and all require trained individuals who can be…

For pupils of both sexes and all ages from about six upwards, the subject of Astronomy holds many fascinations--the rapid changes in knowledge, the large resource of available IT packages and above all the beautiful pictures from Hubble and the large Earth-based telescopes. This article, however, stresses the excitement and importance of naked-eye…

This article presents methods for the isolation and culture of epithelial cells from the bovine oviduct for use in both research and the teaching laboratory and provides examples of ways that an oviductal cell culture can be incorporated into an undergraduate research program. Cow reproductive tracts are readily available from area butchers, and…

Rats were runway trained with sequences of rewards that changed in 3 phases. In Phase 1 (24 days), the sequences were NP', SNP', and P'SNP' (n = 3), or NS', PNS', and S'PNS', where P and P' refer to 4 and 8 plain Noyes pellets, and S and S' are 4 and 8 sucrose pellets. N was a 30-s confinement in the goal without reward. In Phase 2 (14 days) the…

Positron emission tomography (PET) cameras are now in widespread use in hospitals. A model of a PET camera has been installed in Stockholm House of Science and is used to explain the principles of PET to school pupils as described here.

Methamphetamine is an extremely dangerous drug with long term and permanent effects. Increasingly users are not electing the path of abuse. Their choice is being made for them by their parents, friends and relatives--these users are the children. In this article, the author provides insights from children who are living in methamphetamine…

A modified experimental procedure for the one-step synthesis that is suitable for the undergraduate organic lab is presented. In the course of work towards the more routine use of air-sensitive organometallic complexes such as the Grubb's catalyst, the natural product (E)-4-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl) but-2-en-ol, 4, was synthesized.

Dynamic NMR makes use of the effect of chemical exchanges on NMR spectra to study kinetics and thermodynamics. An advanced physical chemistry lab experiment was developed to study the intramolecular exchange processes of EDTA (the disodium salt of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) metal complexes. EDTA is an important chelating agent, used in…

Experts have mixed horseradish root with hydrogen peroxide or calcium peroxide in laboratory studies to get rid of the problem of odors from farm manure. Researchers evaluated how well the system reduced the concentration of volatile fatty acids, indole and skatole, compounds that are also associated with the stink of animal manure.

The S[subscript N]2 reaction of 1-bromohexane and 1-bromobutane with potassium acetate is introduced to address the shortage of suitable laboratory experiments in organic laboratory. The experiment offers a review of some common laboratory techniques including the use of infrared spectroscopy to identify functional groups, the use of GC-MS…