The New Class Of NASA Astronauts If Finally Gender-balanced: 50% Are Women. What’s More — This Class

I grew crystals in my fridge last night. They are also lavender scented. Here’s how I did it: About 2 cups of lavender scented Epsom salts. A glass jar. 1 cup of hot water (microwaved the water) ½ cup of additional hot water with food coloring of your choice (I used green) A fridge to put the jar of melted Epsom salts in over night.

Directions:

The ½ cup water, get it hot then you are gonna mix food coloring in it and set it aside.

Put your Epsom salts in the glass jar.

Take the full cup of hot water and pour into the jar over the Epsom salts. Stir for two minutes.

Take the colored water you had put aside and add it to the jar. Stir it up and then put the jar in the fridge (24 hrs)

When it is time to take the jar out of the fridge, it won’t look different at first do not get discurged! You have to get rid of the remaining liquid, once you do, the result will be your very own crystals grown by you!

These colourful flames are awesome! Mixing different compounds with flammable substances causes the different colours… just don’t try this at home.

The simple discovery that a piece of wire mesh can stop a flame in its tracks saved the lives of thousands of miners.

This demonstration shows how a simple lamp made of gauze could contain the open candle flames that miners used before 1815. With the safety lamp, any potential explosions would stay contained and never escalate to dangerous levels (although mining remained an extremely dangerous occupation).

Watch the whole demo and hear the full story here.

The new class of NASA astronauts if finally gender-balanced: 50% are women. What’s more — this class might be the one that gets to fly to Mars. (📷: @glamourmag)

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⚗️ styrofoam + sulfiric acid ⚗️

Using the classic baking soda and vinegar demo to blow up a balloon.

Today’s Illustrated Women in History is a written submission by James Purvis.

Caroline Herschel 1750 - 1848

Caroline Herschel was an astronomer and singer, and was the first woman to be paid for her contribution to science.

At the age of 22 Herschel, who had received training in music against the wishes of her mother, left her home in Hanover to join her brother William, who had established himself as an Organist in Bath, England. Herschel soon distinguished herself by becoming the principal singer in her brother’s Oratorio concerts, and received offers to perform across the country.

Alongside his musical career, William Herschel’s interest in astronomy grew, and with the assistance of Herschel he was eventually offered the position of court astronomer to King George III. At this time, Herschel chose to leave her singing career and become her brother’s scientific assistant, although some of her later writings suggest that this was perhaps not an easy decision.

Her skill as an astronomer was formidable, and in her obituary, the Royal Astronomical Society praised her ‘indefatigable zeal, diligence and singular accuracy of calculation’ as being significant contributors to her brother’s astronomical success. Herschel was awarded a salary by the court as an assistant astronomer, becoming the first woman to be paid as a scientist.

Her work included the grinding of mirrors for reflecting telescopes, taking observations of stretches of the sky, and detailing the precise timings and positions of the observed astronomical objects, as well as a great deal of calculation in order to translate these times and positions into usable data.

Between the assistance that she rendered to her brother’s work, Herschel found time for her own research, discovering a number of comets, as well as previously unobserved nebulae and star clusters, and compiling catalogues of the stars.

Herschel was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, and was later made an honorary member. Today, she is commemorated by a crater on the moon which is named after her.

If you would like to submit a biography of a woman in history to be illustrated and featured, please send me a message!

Materials: 1. A wooden skewer 2. A clothespin 3. 1 cup of water 4. 2-3 cups of sugar 5. A tall narrow glass

Steps: 1. First, clip the skewer into the clothespin so that it hangs down inside the glass and is 1 in from the bottom of the glass. 2. Next, remove the skewer and clothespin and put the aside. 3. Then, pour the water into a pan and boil it. 4. Next, pour ¼ cup of sugar into the boiling water and stir till it dissolves. 5. Then, keep adding more sugar, each time stirring until it dissolves. 6. Next, remove the heat and allow it to cool for 20 minutes. 7. Then, ask an adult to pour the mixture into the jar to the top. 8. Next, submerge the skewer into the glass so it is hanging straight down the miss without touching the sides. 9. Finally, put it somewhere where it would not be disturbed and wait for the sugar crystals grow over the next 3-7 days.

Lesson: When you mix water and sugar, you created a saturated mixture, which means that the water could only hold the sugar if it was very hot. As the water cools, the sugar turns into crystals on the skewer.

Stepping on Lava

GIF made by Sixpenceee. Original video via YouTube.