Science reviews on amazon

[pendell]

As seen on Science alert

Last month, a zoologist left a four-star review on Amazon for a tea strainer, which he had been using to sift ants. No big deal.

The review sat quietly on the site until this week, when other scientists found it, shared it and instantly started a Twitter trend.

We present below: #ReviewForScience, an abridged collection.

Let's just say there are worse things you can put through a tea strainer than ants.

...
Tea strainers and colanders are one of the most-reviewed items, having been used to drain mashed testicles, sift bones out of cat feces and for "sieving parasites out of poop."

But there are really no limits. If someone has sold it on Amazon, or maybe anywhere, a researcher has probably befouled it in the name of human knowledge.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Eldan]

Can confirm. Just spent an hour washing lettuce seeds in a tea strainer. For science.

[Peelee]

How else do you expect to sift your ants?

[DavidSh]

Likewise, there should be reviews of centrifuges as to how well they serve for separating tea leaves from tea. I would expect the efficacy to depend on whether the tea is whole leaves or CTC-processed pellets.

[wumpus]

I've spent roughly a month typing up the inventory of all the electronic devices in a medical school (plus dental, nursing, and liberal arts buildings, but the medical school had the interesting items) after a flood/burst pipes. Unfortunately, if they weren't electronic, we didn't inventory them (presumably the staff gets to clean the tea strainers). Lots of weird and wonderful items.

[Brother Oni]

Likewise, there should be reviews of centrifuges as to how well they serve for separating tea leaves from tea. I would expect the efficacy to depend on whether the tea is whole leaves or CTC-processed pellets.

Depends on the rotation speed and time. Anything over a few thousand rpm and a couple minutes should give pellets - the higher the speed and longer the time, the more dense the pellet.

Nothing as interesting as in the article, but I've used pyrex casserole dishes to disperse rather expensive powders for content uniformity sampling.

[5a Violista]

Speaking of doing science with random things:

A couple of years ago I bought a cake tin to do figure-skating experiments, to determine how the material properties of the ice change when the blade impacts, during the impact.

While the ice was freezing, I put a piece of paper in the freezer that said "SCIENCE! happening. Do not disturb."

I should put a review on it about how well the bake tin withstands ice and impact.

[Eldan]

Depends on the rotation speed and time. Anything over a few thousand rpm and a couple minutes should give pellets - the higher the speed and longer the time, the more dense the pellet.

Nothing as interesting as in the article, but I've used pyrex casserole dishes to disperse rather expensive powders for content uniformity sampling.

Oh, come on. Pyrex doesn't count. Everyone uses Pyrex.

We currently have someone working in the lab I'm pretty sure could write extensive reviews of about 30 glue brands. They went through a lot of them to find the right one to keep their experiment sticking together.

[Brother Oni]

Oh, come on. Pyrex doesn't count. Everyone uses Pyrex.

We don't actually. We use Grade A borosilicate glass from Fisher (presumably as they were the lowest bidder) since we don't need to heat stuff.

About the only interesting thing I'm aware of (and can disclose) is the inventive use of popping candy for powder dispersal inside a patient.

[Eldan]

Mm, we have Fisher glass too, sure. But we have quite a lot of pyrex, too.

We once used a steam pressure cooker as an impromptu autoclave. Does that count?

[Dodom]

We use an artist light table to read clumping reactions. The quality of the light allows as much sensitivity as possible to the naked eye, paying a couple thousands to get one with the Thermo Fisher Scientific brand on it would not improve the readings.

But it comes with a downside: the hospital's policy is that the company must provide the spare parts. It's justified for the big analysers, since voiding a warranty would cost thousands of dollars down the line, and the service contracts cover replacement parts. But when it's a domestic grade device that costs fifty dollars to replace, trying to get the company to mail a replacement bulb is a big waste of time. They won't do it. No customer asks them to do it, the hospital is just being that one weirdo customer support hates and we spend a month with a half lit table until someone loses patience and sneaks a spare bulb from the art supplies store in.

[Phototoxin]

Not quite the same but back in the day pure ethanol was used to spike orange juice at the christmas party.

Or using the sonicater to clean jewellery, but they are normal uses for it.

[aspi]

Unfortunately, this is not based on my personal experience (one can dream, of course), but my all-time favorite is the use of sticky tape to isolate graphene layers.

[Dodom]

Not quite the same but back in the day pure ethanol was used to spike orange juice at the christmas party.

Oh don't tell me about it. We use denatured ethanol whenever possible to avoid the extra taxes and security requirements of drinkable alcohol, but we have doctors around. Doctors don't only know toxic doses - anyone does after a minute on google - but also trust in them. So we've had doctors who spiked their coffee with methanol.

[Peelee]

Unfortunately, this is not based on my personal experience (one can dream, of course), but my all-time favorite is the use of sticky tape to isolate graphene layers.

Isn't graphene that amazing substance that can do everything except leave the lab?