Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments

Experience the magic of biology in your own home lab. This hands-on introduction includes more than 30 educational (and fun) experiments that help you explore this fascinating field on your own. Perfect for middle- and high-school students and DIY enthusiasts, this full-color guide teaches you the basics of biology lab work and shows you how to set up a safe lab at home.

The Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments is also written with the needs of homeschoolers firmly in mind, as well as adults who are eager to explore the science of nature as a life-long hobby. To get the most from the experiments, we recommend using this guide in conjunction with a standard biology text, such as the freely downloadable CK-12 Biology (ck-12.org).

• Master the use of the microscope, including sectioning and staining
• Build and observe microcosms, soda-bottle worlds of pond life
• Investigate the chemistry of life from simple acids, bases, and buffers to complex carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, enzymes, and DNA
• Extract, isolate, and observe DNA
• Explore photosynthesis, osmosis, nitrogen fixation, and other life processes
• Investigate the cell cycle (mitosis and cytokinesis)
• Observe populations and ecosystems, and perform air and water pollution tests
• Investigate genetics and inheritance
• Do hands-on microbiology, from simple culturing to micro-evolution of bacteria by forced selection
• Gain hands-on lab experience to prepare for the AP Biology exam

Through their company, The Home Scientist, LLC (thehomescientist.com/biology), the authors also offer inexpensive custom kits that provide specialized equipment and supplies you’ll need to complete the experiments. Add a microscope and some common household items and you’re good to go.

See if I can make good on those funny album covers:

Do you recognize the toy the naughty joke is refering to?  I do.  In fact, my father has a set of red clackers hanging on his book case.  It was a fun toy.  You make the balls hit then shoot up and hit again.  Clack! Clack! the only problem was the acrylic balls shattered and hit people, mostly kids, in the eye. 

Well, now that I know I can put pictures up, let me share my day with you.  I must apologize for not blogging earlier this weekend   I have been down in the lab, my lab, and it isn't on line.  All I have is my phone to get on the web and it's not the best.  But here I am!

Friday I usually make breakfast for H's work.  Cinnamon rolls, home made.  I am a wizard with a bread maker.  Not all of the ladies can eat the sweets so I also make pigs n' a blanket, with those little breakfast sausages.  Read my food blog to see the cinnamon rolls.  I have had the FDA audit  me all week.  They didn't come in Friday so I had time to catch up on the paperwork on my desk.  I came home ready to party! For us, its Thai take out for H and the oldest.  MacDonalds for me and the youngest.  We pack a six pack and make the run, I sit in the back with the dog and the youngest rides up front, running the tunes. The beers and food put me to bed by nine.

Early to bed, early to rise.  I got up as early as I do during the week. I made coffee in the lab and did a lot of reading.  I have several books I am reading through.  One on environmental chemistry.  Another basic biology text.  A manual for an ion trap mass spectrometer.  The book 'Outliers'. And a book on the Ebola outbreak in Africa.  Do you know how Ebola/Marburg virus works? Trust me, it is a horrible way to die.  Your body starts decomposing before you die.  Those are the books I study.  A chapter each.  Then I read that 'Goals' book I mentioned in my last blog. The one my boss wants me to read.  Finally, with all my commitments out of the way, I read the book mentioned in the title of this blog.  This guy is a science hobbiest.  The book is full of ways to do science with common items.  He made an ultra centrifuge out of a dremmel tool.

The youngest came down to the lab to work on logrythms.  He is failing his algebra class. We worked through some problems until he got the idea.

We pulled down all the Christmas decorations from the attic.  H puts um up.  We just move the crates.  She has a dozen or more. I made a grocery run to get lettuce for H.  She won't eat Mexican without lettuce. A sixer of Dos XX for H, Bass Pale Ale for me. Coke for the boys.

As you can see, I made chile renos (pablano peppers roasted then stuffed with chicken and cheese then fried), tostados (I make my refries with chorizo), and crispy tacos. The green sauce is made out of tomatilios, and the one jalapeno I put in it was very hat as hell.

In this next picture I have added sour cream and home made salso.  I put six of those hot jalapenos and two halabenro peppers in it.  It was so hot, I sweated my way through the meal.  I'm sharing one of the Bass ales and half of the hot sauce with the senior chemist at the lab.  He loves hot food and beer, strange for a guy from Belgium.  His wife is Hispanic.  She just happened to mentioned what a blessing my family, and my salsa was to them.  H wrote her back, telling her to expect some mucho calante chile.

After dinner I sat with my oldest in his room.  He has the mother-in-law suite downstairs.  He runs sports on one monitor and plays games on the other.  I set a laptop up for myself, so I can surf the web and read e-books while we watch the sports. Me and him made a batch of cookies to eat during the game. Last night the Spurs beat the Memphis Grizzlies in overtime.  Again, the beer and food got the best of me, this time, I had a killer headache.  It put me to bed by ten o'clock.

I got up early and made coffee in the lab again.  Vietnamese in a French press.  That is some strong fucking coffee.  They like it with chicory, just like those Cajuns in Louisiana do.  I did my reading and wrote a little fiction until ten thirty.  Took an hour walk, as I usually do on Sundays.  I have a routine, no shit.  I walk a different street every day, 'cept Saturday.  I take Saturdays off.  Check out this house on today's route.  What made the sprinkler system spit out all this rust.  Its all over the fucking house.  

Notice the headphones? I listen to audiobooks on my walks.  Today it was 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline. Cool book but why does it always have to be a dystopian future? 

 I saw a lot of Christmas decorations, but this Dr. Seuss one made me think of you, Johnny Boy.

When I got home, I made the family a big country brunch.  Its everything you get with a big country breakfast, only there is fruit.  I am going to put it on my food blog, so go there to see it.

Then the youngest came down to the lab to work on more algebra, this time, graphing circles.  After that, the older boy and I went across town to the Asian market for decent Ramen and spring roll sauce.  H loves the spring roll sauce on chicken. We also get lots of Asian cookies.  I had made a Thai steak salad earlier today, so the family ate salad and Ramens for dinner. I'll get the steak salad on the food blog too.

We all love the Asian market, even this little guy:

We'll do a TAO next time.  I want to get those food blogs up.  All the best, my friend.  Remember, life's not hard if you take it easy. ..and don't take yourself too serious=>