Tune into Food Network’s Unwrapped to get a peek inside the Spangler Science labs as Steve shares the science behind the Mentos Geyser all of that exploding soda. Back in December, I mentioned that a crew from Unwrapped on the Food Network wanted to get the real scoop on the popular Mentos and soda reaction. The crew spent an entire day grabbing the reaction from every angle and trying to understand how all of those tiny bubbles produce such a huge fountain of soda. The episode is scheduled to air on September 24, 2007. Consult your local listing for time and channel.

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If you’ve ever enjoyed wearing a bottle of Diet Coke after dropping in a roll of Mentos, you know that the reaction is immediate. I’ve always thought that it would be cool if you could slow everything down and really look at the reaction. I shared the idea with our friends at Mentos and they shot this slow motion video. There are a few frames where you can see the carbon dioxide gas coming out of solution being attracted to the tiny pits (nucleation sites) on the surface of the mint. For the tech-nerds in the audience, a Phantom 9.0 high-speed digital camera from Vision Research (2,000 frames per second) captured the slow-motion footage.

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Thousands of science teachers found their way to St. Louis for the 2007 National Science Teachers Association convention, and we wanted to make sure they had something to take back to their students. So, we loaded our trucks with experiments and products from the website along with 5,000 rolls of MENTOS stuffed into plastic test tubes and headed for the Gateway City. We were fortunate to have 14 teacher ambassadors from the Hands-on Science Institute join us in the booth to each share their favorite science activities. Aside from 500 bottles of Diet Coke and a mountain of MENTOS, all eyes were on the 18 foot tall soda eruption chamber. We were demonstrating the new Geyser Tube by triggering a MENTOS geyser as fast as we could set-up a launch (about every 2-3 minutes for 3 full days). At the end of the convention, the soda was gone, the rolls of MENTOS were in the hands of 5,000 teachers, the truck was cleaned out… and we all had a blast. It’s back to the classroom for the 14 ambassadors to start working on cool stuff for next year’s NSTA in Boston.

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We’re excited about the official launch of our new Spangler Geyser Tube. Think of it as the perfect Mentos loading device to trigger a 30 foot geyser of soda. Just load the Mentos candies into the tube, lock the nozzle in place and pull the pin. Okay, it’s bes

t to pull the pin and then run away. The Mentos drop into the bottle triggering the reaction and the powerful soda geyser comes shooting out the top with enough pressure to reach an incredible height of 30 feet. Onlookers scream, “Do it again!”… and you do.

The Geyser Tube retails for $4.95 and is currently only available at www.SteveSpanglerScience.com However, as a result of our licensing agreement with the maker of Mentos (Perfetti Van Melle), the Spangler Geyser Tube will be released into mass market distribution (all of the major toy stores, print catalogs and online stores) in June 2007.

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I’ve always been a fan of Apple Computers (now Apple Inc.). From my very first Apple IIe to my current MacBook Pro (and about a dozen in between), these computers and products have helped me and our employees to do some very amazing things over the years. That’s why it was an honor to be invited to visit Apple last week and speak with a group of their employees about my experiences running our business on a Mac platform. During my visit, we also taped some online seminars that will be posted on apple.com/business in the near future.

Okay, the secret is out… we’ve been in business for 16 years and never had a PC in the office. Read the rest of this entry »

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Our new Geyser Tube toy made it’s first public appearance at the Toy Fair in New York this morning. If you’ve ever tried to do the Mentos Geyser experiment, you know that it’s tough to a handful of Mentos candies into the bottle of soda before it starts to erupt. The Geyser Tube is a trigger device that holds a stack of Mentos candies directly above the opening of the bottle. Just pull the pin and the Mentos instantly drop into the soda and the soda geyser shoots up through the nozzle at the top of the tube.

Over the past year, we’ve come up with many ways The Geyser Tube attaches to the top of any 2-liter bottle and holdsof sodatrigger device that suspends a stack of Mentos candy above the open bottle of soda. When you pull the pin, the Mentos drop and the erupting soda is funneled updevice that holds

Steve Spangler, a science editor for a Colorado TV station and a toy maker on the side, this week demonstrated his “Geyser Tube” at the Toy Fair in New York. His toy is a plastic tube that can hold nine Mentos candies. A pin holds the candy in place while the tube is screwed to the top of the soda bottle. The opposite end is a narrow opening that acts like a nozzle.

A string is attached to the pin and when pulled, the Mentos plop to the bottom of the bottle, triggering the reaction. The Geyser Tube retails for $4.95 and can be purchased online at Stevespanglerscience.com.

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Just the thought is scary… but I’m talking about the popular show Unwrapped on the Food Network. Producers from the show called to see if they could get a better look at the science behind the Mentos Geyser Experiment and to see if they could get a sneak peek at our new line of Geyser Tube toys. Not only did they get an up close view of the spewing soda geyser, the crew learned how to cook with 20 liters of liquid nitrogen.

I forgot to mention to the photographer, Andy McDonald, that he and his expensive HD camera would disappear in a giant cloud of smoke when I poured out the liquid nitrogen. The good news is that no one died when we wrapped up the day with a round of exploding, self-carving pumpkins.

We’ll let you know when the Food Network announces the air date.

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