Mood Rings
How do mood rings work? (they're made of liquid crystals that change color by temperature)
Chameleon Plastic
A non-toxic polymer that changes color when heated to specific temperatures.
Salty Ocean
How did the ocean get salty? (from rocks on land that get dissolved by rain and washed into the sea)
Feather Analysis
Analyzing the chemical isotopes in feathers to track bird migration
No-Cal Sugar
How can sucralose be made of sugar and not have any calories? (Tongue recognizes it, but not receptors in the gut.)
Water Sentinel
Algae that live in water reservoirs can serve as biosensors for bioterrorist attacks.
Caffeine Pesticide
Caffeine can act as a pesticide to frogs, snails, and slugs.
Fish, Bugs and Robots
Sweating mannequin, microchips in salmon, and caterpillar bug repellent
Ginseng Berries
The ginseng berry has a high concentration of a compound that lessens symptoms of diabetes.
Fire-Eaters
Why don't fire-eaters burn their mouths? (Saliva absorbs heat, use cool-burning fuel)
Staling
Why do crackers get soggy and bread gets crisp when they go stale? (Gluten absorbs or loses moisture)
Roasted Peanuts
Roasting peanuts makes them more likely to trigger peanut allergies.
Ozone Sanitizer
Ozone and water can kill harmful bacteria on fruits and vegetables.
Food Contamination Test
A biosensor for food poisoning pathogens that works like a pregnancy test.
Boarding Pass Bomb Detector
A mass spectrometer that can scan boarding passes for explosive materials from passengers
Radioactive Sub
The nuclear material from the sunken Kursk submarine doesn't seem to be contaminating the surrounding waters
Mercury Sunrise
Mercury accumulates in arctic regions because of unusual chemistry in the atmosphere
Tagging Proteins
Watching how cancer drugs affect proteins marked with a green fluorescent dye
PNA Ladders
Using artificial DNA, called PNA, to imitate a step of photosynthesis
Designer Soot
Creating a chemical identity for soot (by designing a standard soot) to study it.
Icy-Cold Beverages
Why do some bottled beverages stored in the freezer a few minutes not get ice in them until they're opened? (they're supercooled-- removing the pressure raises the freezing point so it can freeze)