Arvind Gupta is an Indian science communicator who specialises in making toys from the sorts of stuff you probably have lying around the house. His website is full of terrific ideas and starting points, and his YouTube channel has hundreds of films like the one above.

Pretty much any of Gupta's ideas could be used as starting points for SciCast films. In fact, they're very similar to the things we used to do on CITV's The Big Bang, which was one of the inspirations for SciCast in the first place.

Get making!

Here's a terrific source of ideas -- the American Science Buddies website. They have a huge catalogue of project ideas, categorised by subject area, difficulty, how long they might take, and how much materials might cost you. There are also extensive links lists to source materials, to get you started.

Projects in the vast directory range from mucking about with yeast to making your own seismograph. There are about 700 ideas in there, so you should find something to your liking.

Great stuff.

I'm not sure this quite fits into the category of 'science demonstration,' but it sure looks like fun. And it might just spark clever ideas in some of you, so: how to make a bubble tube foam-erator.

(via Make)

Here’s another competition for you: Capture It!, from our friends at Films for Learning. Entry is open to schools affiliated with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, and there are excellent prizes on offer.

Be very very quick, though, as the deadline for this one is June 13^th.

Here's an experiment you probably shouldn't repeat at home. Not because it's particularly dangerous, mind -- more that it's going to really really hurt. Lots.

Tom Scott tests out the often-repeated notion that you can remove your fingerprints by soaking your hands in pineapple. His film is brilliant, even if the experiment... umm... isn't the most sensible I've ever seen.

Credit for dedication, though.

Nice post at leading UK environment blog Environmental Graffiti about our Vacuum Bazooka film, complete with amusingly tenuous link to low pressure weather systems. Come on, folks, you're just having fun knocking over plant pots, right?

Meanwhile: you may have noticed the total lack of films about environmental issues. Why? Simple -- nobody made any. Seems like a hole that needs filling, no?

Here's a terrific video of an elegant way of synchronising metronomes. More along the same lines here and here.

Remember, if you wanted to enter a film of this terrific and unusual demonstration into the SciCast Physics competition, you'd have to write an explanation of what's going on. Which should keep you busy for a while, I'd have thought.

(found via Kottke, who notes 'if you watch only one metronome video in your life, make it this one.')

[update 30/5/2008: YouTube-embedded video removed, on account of their suggestions for further viewing appearing to be... er... 'not suitable for all audiences.' The situation isn't as alarming as that description might suggest, but some readers here have expressed concerns that we've been taken over somehow. We haven't.

However, it looks like embedding video from YouTube is no longer an option for us, since we don't get enough control over what you see on this site, let alone at theirs. This is, of course, one of the reasons SciCast isn't built on YouTube in the first place.

Now would also be an appropriate time to remind everyone that we can't be responsible for external websites. We'd never knowingly link to anything offensive, but we can't guarantee that the pages to which we link will still be the same when you click through to them.

If, as here, you find something offensive, please alert us to the issue, either in comments, or by email. Our thanks to the readers who informed us of this situation.]