It looks like our Insta-Snow® or (Instant Snow as many people call it) is showing up on lots and lots of “Top Gift Ideas” lists that are prevalent on so many blogs. Just add water and the powder instantly erupts into amazing artificial snow that looks and feels like the real thing. Technically, it’s a superabsorbent polymer (if you really want to know), but it looks and feels like the real thing. It’s so realistic that it’s being used in indoor snowboarding parks and by special effects artists in movies. Once you start playing with the stuff, you just can’t put it down.
Here’s how it works… Just mix a cup of water with a scoop of Insta-Snow polymer and within seconds, the liquid turns into a solid and then erupts into a fluffy white, snow-like material (no mixing required). Watch in amazement as it instantly expands up to 100 times its original volume. It’s not sticky like the Insta-Snow imitations. UnIike real snow, Insta-Snow doesn’t melt, which makes …
Today’s customer service call-of-the-day focused on a product that we don’t even sell. The product in question is actually an imitation or knock-off of our popular Insta-Snow ® product, but no matter how much we tried to explain that she purchased an imitation of the real instant snow powder, she just didn’t understand. She continued to yell, “This is not snow… it’s goo… it’s slush… but it’s not snow!” After lending a listening ear, Lisa asked, “Does it say ‘Insta-Snow®‘ or licensed by Steve Spangler Science on the package?” “No,” she replied. “Well, let me send you a jar of the real stuff.”
The unfortunate thing is that this call is not an isolated incident. As Insta-Snow® (the original Instant Snow) grows in popularity, so does the number of companies who try to produce imitations that fall short in so many ways.
We might like to play the same game during the holidays… Guess which toy the kids will play with the most after everything has been ripped open and the house is a disaster. That’s the criteria we used in selecting this year’s Top 25 Holiday Gift Ideas from SteveSpanglerScience.com. If you’re looking for a toy or gift that makes the person receiving it say, “This is so cool!”, you can’t go wrong with anything on the list.
Fun Fly Stick
It’s an ingenious, battery-operated static electricity generator that allows you to float cool tinsel shapes on a cloud of electrons. Bring the family over for Christmas, pull that tinsel off the tree and get ready for the applause… it doesn’t get much better than this. Oh, and if you don’t want to tear apart the Christmas decorations, the Fun Fly Stick comes with five tinsel shapes that are ready to fly.
Spangler introduces Tim and Megan to Insta-Snow and "reverse helium"
The news anchors at Fox 4 News in Dallas wanted to see if I could find a few ways to make science fun on their Good Day show. Let’s see… I could show them pictures of my science project from 3rd grade… or discuss freezing point depression… or make it snow and change their voices. I’ll pick door number 3. As you’ll see in the video, we covered the interview counter with erupting Insta-Snow and allowed Tim and Megan to experience the “reverse helium” effect using sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).
If you’re a fan of the Ellen Show, you know that the show recently moved to a new set on the Warner Bros Studio lot. The new studio is huge… great for exploding clouds of liquid nitrogen! Watch the video, but keep reading to learn what happens behind all of those clouds.
I’ve mentioned this before, but it deserves a second mention. Ellen DeGeneres and the people who make up her staff are absolutely top-notch, first-class, amazing people who love their jobs. From the moment we arrived on the lot, there was someone ready to help us with anything we needed. And unlike a normal guest, I have a bunch of weird stuff to set-up backstage. The request list that I turned into the producers for this segment included rain coats, fire extinguishers, liquid nitrogen and a huge jar of pickles. With lots of stuff comes lots of set-up time backstage and probably more interaction with the Ellen Show crew than most guests get.
Aside from having a great time, the big take away for me during this visit was the way the Ellen staff does …
