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Bess Ruff, MA
Environmental Scientist
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Co-authored Articles (78)
How to Make an Explosion
Have a blast with these fun and safe ways to create an explosion at home To call it an experiment would be incorrect (you are doing a demonstration!) but no matter what you call it, an explosion is a great way to have fu...
The Complete DIY Guide to Making Activated Charcoal
Plus, convenient uses for activated charcoalActivated charcoal, sometimes called activated carbon, is useful for purifying contaminated water or polluted air. In emergency situations, activated charcoal can be used to re...
How to
Make Elephant Toothpaste
Making elephant toothpaste is an easy and fun science experiment that you can do with your kids at home or with students in the lab. It is the result of a chemical reaction that creates a large amount of oozing foam. The...
Thermite Formula: Ingredients, Tips, and Everything You Need to Know
A step-by-step guide to making thermite at home, complete with safety information Of all the do-it-yourself chemistry experiments found online, there’s almost nothing cooler—or maybe hotter—than a thermite reaction...
How to
Make a Dichotomous Key
A dichotomous key is a way of identifying specimens based on contrasting statements, usually about physical characteristics. By drawing a series of contrasts, you are able to narrow down the specimen until you can correc...
How to
Soften Rubber
If you’ve ever found a rubber band snapped free from its place around a pack of baseball cards, pulled out an old pair of favorite sneakers and found them stiff as a board, or had your vacuum cleaner break down because...
How Do You Neutralize Bleach? 5 Simple Neutralizers & How to Use Them
Learn which neutralizers to use on fabrics, carpets, or hard surfacesBleach is an amazingly cheap and effective disinfectant and clothes brightener, and it also comes in handy when stripping and cleaning wood. However, b...
How to
Set a Barometer
A barometer measures air pressure and can forecast the weather within a 12 to 24 hour period. Air pressure can be measured in inches of mercury, millimeters of mercury, or hectopascals, depending on where you live and th...
Four Ways to Make Salt Water Drinkable
Desalination methods for science projects or wilderness survivalDesalination is the process of removing salt from saltwater, which might be necessary due to a lack of clean drinking water in your area. You might also nee...
How to
Electroplate Household Metals
Electroplating is a process used to coat one metal with that of a separate metal. There are many objects in our everyday lives that have been plated with other metals: gold-plated jewelry, nickel and copper plated coins,...
How to
Read Wind Barbs
Wind barbs are simple visual presentations of wind speed from a given direction. Use this tool to figure out which way the wind is blowing, and at what speed. Meteorologists use these simple diagrams to interpret the cur...
How to
Anodize Aluminum
Anodizing uses acid to create a corrosion- and wear-resistant layer on top of a metal. The process of anodizing also changes the crystal structure near the surface of substances, like aluminum alloy, which allows you to ...
How to
Make a Microscope
Microscopes vary in type and power, but the most common type uses a combination of lenses to magnify an image. This allows you to see things that you wouldn’t be able to view with your naked eye. If you want to build y...
How to
Make an Animal Cell for a Science Project
Cells are one of the important building blocks of living organisms. If you're learning biology in school, your teacher might ask you to create your own model of an animal cell to help you understand how cells work. You m...
How to Grow Crystals at Home: A DIY Guide
''Investigate the chemistry of how crystals form'' Crystals are beautiful, eye-catching structures that are fun to look at and even more fun to grow at home. If you want to make your own, try making simple crystal struct...
How to
Make a Clinometer
A clinometer, also called a declinometer or an inclinometer, is an instrument that measures vertical slope, usually the angle between the ground or the observer and a tall object. A simple, or ''fixed angle'', clinometer...
How to
Make Oxygen and Hydrogen from Water Using Electrolysis
The process of splitting water (H2O) into its atomic components (hydrogen and oxygen) using electricity is known as electrolysis. This experiment has significant implications in terms of what these 2 gases can be used fo...
How to Write an Effective Conclusion for a Science Lab Report
End your lab report and share your findings with our formatting guideA lab report describes an entire experiment from start to finish, outlining the procedures, reporting results, and analyzing data. The report is used t...
How to
Neutralize Ammonia
Ammonia is a base compound that can be hazardous and toxic in high quantities. Ammonia is produced with the breakdown of animal and vegetable matter, including the breakdown of protein in urine. Pets and cleaning product...
How to
Calculate Porosity
Porosity is the value used to describe how much empty, or void, space is present in a given sample. This attribute is commonly measured in regards to soil, since appropriate porosity levels are necessary for plants to gr...
