In the preface Thompson tells about receiving his first chemistry set from his parents one bright Christmas morning in 1964. "It was a Lionel/Porter/Chemcraft chemistry set, and the exact model I’d asked for. The biggest one, with dozens of chemicals and hundreds of experiments. Glassware, an alcohol lamp, a balance, even a centrifuge. Everything I needed to do real chemistry. I instantly forgot about the rest of my presents, even the BB gun. I started reading the manual, jumping from one experiment to another," he explains.

Thompson, the author of Building the Perfect PC, Astronomy Hacks, and the Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders, also explains that he set out to write this book after a conversation with his friend and neighbor Jasmine Littlejohn.

"If Jasmine was to do more than make pretty colors and stinky smells, if Jasmine was to do real chemistry, she’d need more than just access to a lab. She’d need detailed instructions and some sort of structured plan to guide her through the learning process. She’d need to learn how to use the equipment and how to handle chemicals safely. She’d need well-designed experiments that focused on specific aspects of laboratory work. In other words, she’d need a home chemistry lab handbook, one devoted to serious chemistry rather than just playing around.

My first thought was to get Jasmine one of the classic home chemistry books published back in the 30s, 40s, or 50s. Some of those were excellent, but all of them required chemicals—such as benzene, carbon tetrachloride, salts of mercury, lead, and barium, concentrated nitric acid, and so on—that were once readily available but are now very expensive or difficult to obtain.

In one sense, that wasn’t really a problem. I already had most of that stuff in my lab. But even the best of those old books would have required some serious red-lining before I’d have turned Jasmine loose with it. One, for example, suggested tasting highly toxic lead acetate (also known as “sugar of lead”) to detect its sweetness. Others were a bit casual about handling soluble mercury compounds or contained experiments that were potentially extremely dangerous.

You can read the rest of Thompson's inspiring preface here.

Thompson's new guide is for responsible teenagers to adults, folks who want to learn about chemistry by doing real, hands-on laboratory experiments. It isn't for those who want to make fireworks or explosive.

I'm also giving away a free copy of the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry. All you have to do is post a comment about your favorite chemistry set and/or experiment and/or why you think hands-on chemistry education is important by May 12, 2008. You may be the lucky winner of my fair but arbitrary selection.

In other news, Kevin wins a copy "Google Apps Hacks" for posting his favorite Google app hack. Check out Kevin's winning hack and the all the other hacks here.

And for those looking for a deeper discussion about the Maker Faire phenomenon, check out O'Reilly editor Andy Oram's thoughts on the Radar blog:

I found many science projects at Maker Faire more aesthetically satisfying than the self-consciously mind-altering artworks I've seem at some contemporary art shows. Many artists seem to lose their intuition for balance and beauty when trying to make a point, and their explorations of the promising channels offered by technology can end up clogged in its pipes. There is some computer-generated and networked art that is beautiful, thought-provoking, or both, but I'm been disappointed too often by art shows. Maker Faire focused on the fun first of all, the achievement second, and the aesthetics third. Ironically, this worked better.

Read the rest of Andy's thought-provoking blog post here.

If you couldn't make it to Maker Faire, here's a terrific time lapse video from Maker Faire Day 1:

To get in on the Maker Faire action and the fun, head over to www.makezine.com!

Arriving at 4:30 this morning to set a 30-foot-tall sculpture entitled "Epiphany" on fire, McSweeny went on to see the life-size mousetrap complete with a bathtub and crazy stairs, with the "trap" being a 2-ton safe that crushes cars, motorcycles, and wedding cakes. Yes, the wedding cake from the first wedding ever happening at Maker Faire in the "Never Was Haul" mobile home that runs on steam.

From 6-foot long battle ships launching bbs at each other to robots hurling iron balls at each other, there will be no shortage of excitement at the event this weekend.

Check out the video from this morning's newscast on ABC 7 News, as well as makerfaire.com, for more information.

These three new robots -- based on the Disney*Pixar new movie WALL·E and the classic Tinker Bell -- will debut at Maker Faire. The Ultimate WALL·E is also MP3 compatible and features built-in speakers.

Come join us at the San Mateo fairgrounds for hours of fun this Saturday and Sunday. For more information about Maker Faire, visit makerfaire.com or view the press release.

For more information about the robots, see the press release from Disney Consumer Products.

Tim O'Reilly:

We created the first commercial website with a special dispensation from the National Science Foundation. We were interested in online publishing and we were thinking of how to get books online and then the web came along and we thought: 'Oh my god this is the answer to our prayers'.

The web was this promise of a universal platform for information and it was just transformative and so exciting to see that potential come into play.

The fact that Tim Berners-Lee gave it away was so critical to that. l imagine if someone tried to commercialise it, maybe it would have taken off but that was what Microsoft and AOL tried to do.

Free is such a powerful force in innovation.

Read the read the rest of Tim's interview and the other nine interviews here.

"This is the Wikimedia Foundation's first major public event of this sort," explained Jay Walsh, who heads up communications for the WikimediaFoundation.org. "We've been involved in our own, volunteer-powered conferences in the past, including the Wikimania Conference, this year in Alexandria Egypt."

At the Wikimedia Foundation/Wikipedia booth you'll find a terrific giveaway, the "Wikipedia Reader's Guide: The Missing Manual" by registered Wikipedia editor John Broughton. The giveaway from O'Reilly's Missing Manual division can help you get started on your Maker Faire entry.

So be sure to stop by Booth 108 Expo Hall to meet Wikipedia volunteers and members of the Missing Manual team. I'll be at Maker Faire, too, helping out with PR. I hope to see you there!

Maker Faire is May 3 & 4 at the San Mateo County Fairgounds. Find more info here.

But for the non-criminals among us—and those who go after the bad guys—Jonathan has done some amazing work, including the creation of a toolkit and detailed iPhone forensics manual that he provides free of charge to law enforcement pros. He tells how to get it in his webcast.

If you missed the webcast, you can download the recording now and watch it on your computer. It's a 200 MB .mov file, which means it takes a long time to download. If you click on the link, it will load into QuickTime in your browser window and take about 10 minutes before it begins to play with a good Internet connection. You can also right-click on the link to download the file to your computer and then watch it at your leisure.

iPhone Forensics Demonstration by Jonathan Zdziarski

Or, check out the YouTube Trailer

YAPC --yet another Perl conference--takes place June 16th-18th on the campus of Illinois Institute of Technology. It is an inexpensive ($100 US for 3 days) conference with its roots in the Perl Mongers Perl users groups.

But the early bird price ends at the end of April so don't wait to sign up.