EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Most people buy tea strainers to, well, strain tea. Not scientists. Apparently, they use everyday objects for purposes other than what the manufacturer intended. How do we know? Because scientists are now sharing their clever (and cringe-worthy) uses for these items in online product reviews. We collected a few to show just how mad—and ingenious—the scientific method can be.

T-Sac Tea Filter Bags. “These bags are fantastic for soaking small fish in formaldehyde. We write on the bag itself, drop the fish in, and place it into formalin (or ethanol) to preserve for later analyses. This way we can easily label many individual fish in the same jar.”

Reach Mint Waxed Floss. “Works great as noose to collect small lizards. Pretty durable but can snag on undergrowth. No comment from lizards on mint flavor.”

Chinese Takeout Boxes. “Ideal for weighing and transporting mice. Likely to confuse non-scientists who think you are carrying your lunch through lab.”

TashiBox 2 oz. Disposable Portion Cups with Lids. “Perfect-sized temporary containers for tiny poison frogs when you need to ID and process 100+ frogs in a morning. Some brands are more durable than others.”

Colgate Extra Clean Toothbrush, Soft. “Great for cleaning pottery, stones, animal bones and even ancient teeth!”

Sheaffer Skrip Ink Bottle, Blue/Black. “This is the ONLY ink that will stain Arbuscular mycorrhiza. I have tried several other brands and none stain or dissolve well in the acidified water. Great product.”

MaxFactor Glossfinity Nail Polish. “Must-have in any tropical rainforest first aid kit! Apply topically over entrance to bot fly pupae until maggot dies, then extract. Colored polish helps track infestation over course of field season. Also festive.”

Jif Creamy Peanut Butter. “Great for luring flying squirrels (and other rodents) into live traps. They love this stuff.”

DID YOU KNOW?

The ubiquitous Chinese takeout box was invented in the U.S. by Frederick Weeks Wilcox in 1894. Wilcox called it a “paper pail,” because he based the design on the wooden oyster pails used by fishermen at the time. The image of a Chinese pagoda on the side wasn’t added until 1970.

Estimate: The average American home has about $10 worth of pennies lying around.

MontoPack Bamboo Wooden Toothpicks. “Make perfect splints for injured songbird legs! Snip to size, wipe the leg with an alcohol swab, attach with superglue, and improve outcomes for that rare injury that occurs when bird banding or from a window strike.”

Ziploc Brand Containers, Medium. “Great for transporting queen bumblebees from the field for captive breeding. Ziploc is better than no-name option that tend to split when air holes are poked. Downside is humidity buildup. Disinfect by throwing in the dishwasher.”

Coleman Camp Oven. “Fits perfectly on a propane tank and brazier for drying monkey poop when you have no electricity. Get an oven thermometer to monitor internal temperature, and make sure everyone knows you’re not baking brownies.”

TePe Interdental Brushes. “Really excellent for getting the brains out of very small bird skulls.”

Bead Organizer. “Bought this for storing small bags of ancient human teeth. Box makes it easy to keep the teeth separate and transport them.”

Hard Plastic Champagne Glasses. “These are listed as party essentials & champagne glasses, but they’re really for suspending fecal samples in tidy packages of cheesecloth held by bamboo skewers to grow up and isolate parasite larvae.”

Knee-high Pantyhose. “Perfect for ‘burrito-ing’ (the technical term) bats in order to keep them still (and flightless) when weighing them. (Note: imagine the hose as the tortilla and the bat as the filling.)”

Hamster Exercise Ball. “A convenient chamber for isolating individual crayfish.”

Self-Adhesive Reinforcement Labels, Round. “Reinforcement rings, perfect for making wells of just the right depth for mounting whole bee brains for microscopy.”

TOOTHPICKS OF THE RICH & FAMOUS

Today’s toothpicks are cheap, single-use items. But in medieval England, toothpicks were a status symbol. They came in fancy cases, were made of gold or silver, and were even set with jewels. In 1570 Queen Elizabeth was gifted a set of six golden toothpicks. One of her most prized possessions, they were kept on display for all to see.

Action movie hero John Rambo was named after a variety of apple called the Rambo.