Spherification

Isn't it amazing to see water droplets to form a sphere? Here it is. The reaction of sodium alginate and calcium chloride will do this magic.

These sphere can be eaten too. First, you can use any juice to mix with the sodium alginate powder. However the pH of the juice cannot be below pH 4, so syrup water should works well.

The concentration of the sodium alginate is 2% (i.e: 2g of sodium alginate powder in 100 ml of water/juice). It needs to be blend in a blender for about 1-2 min to mix it well.

Prepare 1% calcium chloride solution (calcium lactate will be better as it will not have a bitter taste).

Then use a dropper to drop the sodium alginate solution into the calcium chloride solution. Then you will see the sphere forming.

This is tried again using tap water but it does not work, which mean it needs the calcium ion in the water to help it form a layer to create a sphere.

Here is the picture of the sphere that  has been drained out. If you want to eat the sphere, please rinse with water before consuming it.

Here is the video! Happy watching!

Experiment to view stomata under microscope

Hi all, here is a new experiment I encountered for viewing stomata under a microscope.

You may wonder how to view a stomata under a microscope where the leaves is opaque and will block the light of the microscope. Then normal dissecting microscope can only view up to 80x magnification. Here is the method where you can view the stomata at 400x magnification.

All you need are light microscope, clear nail polish, clear scotch tape and a leaf.

Paint a thin layer of nail polish on the back of the leaf. Wait for about 5 min for it to dry. Then use a clear scotch tape to stick onto the leaf where the nail polish is. Then pull up the scotch tape to allow the nail polish imprint to stick onto the scotch tape. Then stick the scotch tape onto a glass slide and happy viewing your stomata imprint.

Here are the imprint I made.