Reagents

• 2 PhD Students (this case, b and T)


• empty science lab devoid of supervisors and OH&S reps


• Friday Evening


• 1 Eppy Tube


• 1 plastic box (superstrengh, doesn't even melt when heated to 120 degrees C, eg empty tip box)


• 1 box of dry ice

Protocol

• Make PhD students lethagic and silly because it is 6pm friday


• PhD student b gets a bucket of dry ice and walks back to lab bench and ponders out loud to PhD student T if he have mixed detergent and dry ice.


• PhD student T replies then asks "yep, but have you made an eppy bomb?"
  


• PhD student b opens her eyes widely, says no and asks for an explanation.


• PhD student T explains the concept of an eppy bomb (see results)


• PhD student T places one piece of dry ice in an eppy tube, seals it, laves it on the bench.


• A few seconds later PhD student T is worried about the impact of the eppy bomb and places it in an empty superstrength plastic tip box


• Carry on with your work until you hear a bang


• Dispose of any evidence of non productive science work carefully

Results
The eppy tube lid had been forced off, there was no sign of dry ice, and the eppy tube had pierced the side of the plastic box. There was a large loud noise and the eppy tube remains went flying.

Discussion
The bomb exploded because of the pressure from the dry ice building up in the tube.

Because of the size of an eppy tube (1.5ml) not much damage was done. A plastic tip box is replaceable. It was a rather loud bang noise and definitely would startle an unsuspecting student, supervisor, post doc or research assistant. PhD student T said it could be placed in a lab coat pocket of someone you don't like, or of someone who used the last buffer without making more, or the last enzyme without ordering more, or you could even place under their desk to give them a fright. However, because of flying bits and pieces, I probably would not recommend this as you will find yourself in deep shit with OH&S, supervisors, bosses, institute and university.

PhD student b and T did have a good laugh.

Conclusion
Imagine what type of explosion could happen if you used a 50ml falcon tube!
and don't try this at home.....rantspace will not be held liable for any type of damge resulting from eppy bombs or the likes.

Supplemented Visual Material (because not everyone is a scientist!)

This is an Eppy:

This is a Falcon:

This is a Tip Box: