Australia's Science Forum

We take ours to the local tip for recycling. Check with your council.

Small amounts such as from spotting plates are fine to go down the sink.

I did it too - so good!

Ten of these lighters plus ten flint refills from Hampdon Industries for $53 including shipping! Yippee!

They look amazing. Do they also sell replacement flints?

I forgot to mention - when I have silver waste, I add 1M NaCl to the waste. Give it a stir, and wait. When the solution goes clear, decant the clear stuff down the sink, and silver salts remain at the bottom. It cuts down on the volume that needs to be collected as waste.

Yeah, I wouldn't be chucking out silver nitrate either.

Thanks, bigmack. Approximately 0.05g. Or, a bit on the tip of a spatula one cm wide. Start off small and add more until you get to the right colour.

For this prac, I follow the intsructions on page 136 of "The Laboratory" by Barbara Dungey. Boil the agar, add the sodium hydroxide, stir constantly, blah blah blah. But instead of wasting my life adding the indicator drop by drop (who has time for that? It's ridiculous), I add a tiny bit ...

Sodium alginate is expensive but buying it in Gaviscon may be a false economy. We bought 100g and it's lasted several years.

high voltage power supply Potential hazards POSSIBILITY OF ELECTRIC SHOCK AND ELECTROCUTION; check cable, cable entry and plug before each use. Level of risk depends on output voltage and current. Standard handling procedures Inspect regularly for signs of damage to cord, cord loose in plug, cord lo...

Don't bromine water, cyclohexane etc. have to be used in a fume cupboard? How will that happen? This prac is ridiculous.

We got some from Haines a while ago.

I doubt it's "cornflower". It may, however, be cornflour.

Oh they're for glass pipettes. Not for me then. Thanks anyway - and good to see you didn't just chuck them in the bin.

Are they for micropipettes? Sorry I can't open the attachment. Would love a few if so. Happy to pay postage.

What did you end up using?

Zinc oxide changes colour at around 8000 degrees Celsius, so if you can get that organised I'd be most impressed.

Used silica gel will change colour on heating. Hydrated CuSO4 will turn from blue to white on heating due to water loss. I can't think of something that will change back on cooling apart from thermochromic dyes which I'm pretty sure schools don't usually have on hand. Good luck!

From "The Laboratory". Dissolve 27.8g of iron(II) sulphate in distilled water containing 15mL of 0.1M H2SO4 and make up to 1L. This will give you a strength of 0.1M iron sulphate. Obviously just change the amount of iron sulphate for a different strength.