Sign of the times: A children’s chemistry kit sold by a company called Elenco boasts “60 fun activities with no chemicals” on the box. Amazon description: “There is no fear of working with dangerous chemicals or poisons. The topics covered in the kit deal with chemical reactions, acids and bases, chromatography, crystal growing, surface tension, solutions and colloids, expansion of gases, magnetism, optics, growing plants and more. Simple experiments are performed using the contents of the kit and common household items.” (Presumably, such potentially hazardous substances as vinegar and baking soda must be obtained from one’s own home.)
MAKE’s Sean Michael Ragan nails it: “I post this not so much in the spirit of “shame on such-and-so” for creating this astounding oxymoron of a product, but rather to lament the general state of affairs we have come to thanks to litigiousness, chemophobia, and flagging scientific literacy.”
