Boom! : 50 Fantastic Science Experiments to Try at Home with Your Kids

This amazing book from the famous Naked Scientists offers a fun way to introduce science to kids, with 50 simple experiments that produce spectacular results.

Want to know how to create fireworks from a bag of chips? Turn rice into quicksand? Generate a cloud in a soda bottle? How about build a toaster-powered hot air balloon, or work out the speed of light using margarine and a microwave? The results will amuse, astound, and educate in equal measure, whether you're 8 or 80.

Most of these activities can be performed with commonplace materials that are probably lying around the house. Concise scientific explanations are included on how and why the experiments actually work. Each activity is straightforward and manageable, yet impressive enough to get anyone interested in science.

So whether it's racing jelly jars, making a bowl invisible, or instantly freezing soda before your eyes—with the Naked Scientists' help, you'll never have a dull rainy day again!

Dr Chris Smith is a Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge as well as a microbiologist working at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. Dave Ansell is the Naked Scientists' Kitchen Science specialist who now works full time promoting the public understanding of science.

The Naked Scientists are a media-savvy group of physicians and researchers from Cambridge University who use their award-winning radio shows, live lectures, and one of the world's most downloaded science podcasts to strip science down to its bare essentials, and promote it to the general public.