Someone I know (not me) has recently had problems with bed bugs. I have advised him his best bet is to (1) Buy a kick-ass steam cleaner and nuke the brutes from orbit, (2) get a professional pest controller in, and (3) Stop buying second hand furniture in future! But being an inventive sort, he ...

Recently I was reading through the owner's manual of a washing machine; notably, the warnings in the front of the booklet. One warning stood out to me; it said that if the hot water in your house has not been run in a few weeks H2 can build up in your lines. The warning of course stated that this...

In movies cool guys don't need a matchbox − they just light a match by scratching it on whatever hard surface − concrete walls, wooden bar tables, leather belts, etc. Is it just a movie trick, or is there actually a type of matches you can do that with? So far I've tried scratching usual matches...

This morning I was boiling carrot dices. And saw something quite interesting happening to the dices. The water is not boiling. But before it boils, the dices started gathering at the center of the pot. Any one has any answer as to why this happened?

This recipe for home-made handwash (liquid soap) consists of bar soap, water, Epsom salts, and coconut oil. The author specifically warns against using 'artificial' Epsom salts, preferring the naturally occurring type, because the 'artificial' type is supposedly contaminated by heavy metals incl...

I heard that there is a standard about cleaned glass, namely Chemically clean glass supports a uniform film of water, with no hanging droplets visible. I tried to clean my dishes at home using detergent. After several efforts, the ceramic-made dish looks like a uniform film of water just af...

If I start with a small amount of a substance, and I dilute that substance with billions of gallons of water, what is the scientific explanation for there being no (actually zero) remaining molecules of that original substance? This question is related to the practice of homeopathic dilutions. I...

Whenever I brush teeth, there are some kind of bubbles sticking inside the cavity and that's uncomfortable, it should be SLS as found on the internet. Does anyone know how do I get rid of those bubbles things easily? Eat\Drink sth ? Tell me if anything is wrong. Any help would be appreciated, t...

Say I have a soft, possibly porous object. I want to coat it with a material, Resistant to boiling water and some scraping Not hazardous, at least after the coating Largely transparent The idea is to take, say, a fruit with the insides removed and to make a cup or a vase out of it. Is there ...

I have a practical question: today I have to clean the oven, and it doesn't have self cleaning burn down mode, nor an official scraper I can use... It's full of charred grease and sugar. I managed to remove 98% of the charred grease with cold grease remover. But it seems that reagent has no effe...

Fish oil, is susposed to suffer from rancidity(i.e. oxidation) when stored improperly , for example in hot temperature. I'm interested in buying fish oil from abroad(usa) it will be shipped by air and won't be kept in a cold chain,i live in a mediternean nation(climate wise). How should i ch...

When is described: "In normal conditions, viscose absorbs 11 to 14% of water vapour. In liquid water, they swell and can absorb 80 to 120% of water." (Clothing Technology) What do they mean with 'normal conditions'? In open air?

Does anyone know if the Casein/Whey Cows Milk Protein can be found within processed lactose ? Some background to this is our 4 month old baby was given teething granules. She was then presented with a rash, screaming etc etc. When we checked the teething granules (called teetha) we found they co...