Crazy Concoctions: A Mad Scientist's Guide to Messy Mixtures
Providing invaluable guidance for any young experimenter aiming to become a "Wizard of ooze," science educator Brown offers instructions for about two dozen kitchen chemistry concoctions, from "bogus barf" and various sorts of glop to homemade pickles and Jell-O that glows eerily in black light. Along with a continual emphasis on careful preparation and safety, he clearly explains the physical and chemical processes that each project illustrates, introduces such phenomena as polymers and "non-Newtonian" fluids, and adds historical sidebars with headers like "Oops! Accidents in Chemistry." Capped by a set of terrific general challenges, such as making something that looks disgusting but smells nice, and festooned with entertainingly silly cartoon illustrations and interpolations from supposed ex-cowriter Dr. Viskus von Fickleschmutz ("If at first you don't succeed, don't skydive"), this is hard science with a smile or, more accurately, maniacal laughter. --Booklist