Science Experiments - MFW

Here are a few shots from our recent science experiments

The first one was about cell structures and involved soaking an egg for a few days in white vinegar. The vinegar dissolves the calcium in the eggshell, leaving behind just the membrane under the shell. Apparently, with the right egg, you can actually see through the membrane and see the yolk, but ours didn't come out that clear. 

 The egg is now soft and spongy (and pickled) and  translucent, so you can see light through the egg.

Still a neat result, though.

Next, we learned about osmosis and how cells can pass water through the cell walls without breaking them

Firs, we cut a potato in half and scooped a "cup" in each half.

We boiled one half to kill off the cells. Once it was boiled, we set them both on shallow plates with a little water in each one.

We put a teaspoon of salt into each cup and sat back to wait.

After 20 minutes, the one we hadn't boiled had draw water up from the plate, through itself and to the cup to dissolve the salt.

The dead one just sat there and did nothing about the salt.