I was in Talkeetna, Alaska when I received a call from my television producer. “Have you seen the Mentos video yet?” I asked which one she was referring to and she said, “The one with the two guys and 102 bottles of Diet Coke.” I quietly snuck out of the hotel room with my laptop - I was on a mission to find a wireless connection. Thirty minutes later (after lots of snooping), I was watching the amazing video by Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz. The first time we did the Mentos Diet Coke experiment on 9NEWS in Denver was March of 2002. We featured variations on the Mentos experiment four other times (different ways to drop the candy into the bottle… warm soda vs. cold soda… brand name vs. generic). But the Eepybird.com video was a stroke of genius.

As a tribute to their video, we gathered a few of our instructors and staff from the Hands-on Science Institute and taught viewers how to make their own trigger device. We filled the back of the SUV with 52 bottles, about 300 Mentos, a cordless drill and a pile of pipe clearners. Here’s the Spangler video at 9NEWS…

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Believe it or not, research scientists have actually concluded that Diet Coke produces the best stream of flying soda (much to the joy of the Mentos Experiment enthusiasts). I received an email from Dr. Joe Maglaty, Director of Education Outreach from the Merck Institute for Science Education with this information:

I recently came across an article that you may, or may not, be aware of. In the April issue of the Journal of Chemical Education, a chemistry professor from Illinois State Univ. took on the analytical process for showing gas solubility in aqueous solution - that is, how much carbon dioxide (CO2) is released from soda (pop) using ultrasonic energy. Read the rest of this entry »

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The recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that the marketing gurus at the Coca-Cola Company are not all that excited about the pop culture phenomenon. “It’s an entertaining phenomenon,” said Coke spokeswoman Susan McDermott. “We would hope people want to drink (Diet Coke) more than try experiments with it.” According to the article, Coke could use some extra buzz right now. Sales volume of Diet Coke in the U.S. was essentially flat last year, as consumers switch from diet sodas to bottled water and other noncarbonated drinks. But McDermott says that the “craziness with Mentos … doesn’t fit with the brand personality” of Diet Coke.

If the truth be known, both Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke work much better than generic sodas. In the original video posted on 9News.com, both name brand diet sodas were used just so we wouldn’t get in trouble by favoring one over the other. But when VH1 included the video on the second episode of Web Junk 20, the bloggers started calling it the “Diet Coke-Mentos Experiment”.

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In a recent phone interview with a newspaper reporter, I speculated that the makers of Mentos, Perfetti Van Melle, were distancing themselves from the Mentos phenomenon. This was based on our numerous attempts to reach the marketing gurus at Perfetti Van Melle, starting back in January of 2006. Well, based on the article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the folks at Mentos are “tickled pink” by the online buzz.

The popularity of the videos - Mentos says it has found some 800 online - is producing a gusher of free publicity for the candy maker, a unit of Italian confectioner Perfetti Van Melle. “We are tickled pink by it,” says Pete Healy, vice president of marketing for the company’s U.S. division. The company spends less than $20 million on U.S. advertising annually. He estimates the value of online buzz to be “over $10 million.”

Our goal in contacting Healy was to share the “buzz” that started back in 2001 when thousands of teachers started doing the science demo in their classrooms as a way to teach some cool science concepts. Over the past five years we’ve collected hundreds of emails with variations from teachers and students. Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to share some of the history of the Mentos phenomenon with the marketing people at Perfetti Van Melle. Read the rest of this entry »

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These television news shows just can’t seem to get enough of this. I’ve been away in Alaska on a family vacation and the phone keeps ringing. Television producers are all asking the same questions… “Why does this work and why are people so drawn to posting videos on the internet?” Well, we can help out when it comes to explaining the science behind the reaction. As for the reason why people like to post videos on the internet, I’ll leave that up to you.

The latest Mentos sighting was on Good Morning America this morning.

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Let’s just cut to the chase… You have to see the Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments video at eepybird.com. These guys take the Mentos Fountain demo to a brand new level. I just took out stock in Diet Coke and Mentos candy because these creative geniuses have inspired a whole new level of soda bottle adventures. I know that many of you are already asking… are they going to be a part of the new Mentos book? I’ve contacted the “eepybird scientists” and we’ll see what happens next.

The original video went viral after it was played on VH-1’s “Web Junk 20.” Now everyone is experimenting with this own fountains and publishing them on the web. It has gotten so crazy, the videos have been mentioned on MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal Online, CNET News.com and even National Public Radio.

How did the eepybird.com scientists rig the bottles? From the info on their website, it looks like they’re using the “beads on a string” method… Read the rest of this entry »

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I received a call from Steve Silberman who is a contributing editor for Wired Magazine, and he had some interesting questions about how teaching science had changed over the years. Specifically, Steve wanted to know about teachers using chemicals in the classroom for an article called Don’t Try This at Home. We talked about advice that I had received from Don Herbert (you know… Mr. Wizard) early in my television career. This lead to the story of what happened when the Wild Goose Science Company teamed up with Restoration Hardware to recreate one of Mr. Wizard’s original chemistry sets. Silberman does a great job in the article of capturing the many ways that teaching science has changed over the years (from a consumer’s standpoint). But the best part of the article is the story of Joy White and Bob Lazar who own United Nuclear and how police officers and federal agents stormed their business in search of chemicals used to make fireworks. The article is fascinating.

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