Your Basement Chemistry Lab

Just the other day, I thought about how neato my basement would look with a laboratory set up like Dr. Frankenstein, with beakers and burners and electrical gadgets. Now Wired has a how-to video on just that!
They don't make chemistry sets like they used to -- no more uranium or explosives. What's an aspiring mad scientist to do? Go DIY. In your own smoking, bubbling lair, you can make everything from bouncy balls to rocket motors. Here's a catalyst to get you started.

Link

My mother (a retired chemistry professor)has long bemoaned that the day of making significant discoveries in your basement chemistry lab is long gone. Now-a-days it takes isolation chambers and government grants.

You go girl! Prove her wrong.
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If you fossick about on the net you can find a scan of The Golden Book Of Chemistry Experiments, which though banned was actually really good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Book_of_Chemistry_Experiments
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Just keep in mind that the glassware is now considered "drug paraphernalia" and that it is illegal to own in some states, must be registered in others. And that doesn't even begin to address the issues of the chemicals themselves.

Here's a depressing, though informative, read on the issue:

http://memepunks.blogspot.com/2006/06/americas-war-on-science.html?dupe=with_honor
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I was going to say... if for some reason a cop or some such came to know about (or suspect) such a lab, they'd probably think it was for making meth or crack or something and then come search your house and break/take your science stuff.
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Don't worry about police suspicion. At worst they will drop by for a look-see. The couple of times it has happened to me, I offered them a soda and bored them to tears describing my work.
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