10 Weird Science Tools That Are Real (And You Can Buy Them)
I’m a fan of science. In case my giant blog with around 1,000 posts didn’t clue you in to that fact. I wish I was able to spend years in school studying science from all over the world, but alas, I have to settle for research on the interwebs and toys I can find access to.
Science is sometimes boxed up in white lab coats and grant money, but other times, science is weird, just how I like it.
Science can be a toy, a tool, or a portal into the dramatic unknown.
These are 10 of the strangest, smartest, and most strangely real science tools you can actually buy.
For your brain, your kitchen, your lab, or your living room.
1. A Brainwave-Reading Headband (That Works)
Biosensing Meditation Headband
This slim headband reads your brainwaves, heart rate, breath, and movement to guide meditation.
It’s not just cool and chill vibes, it’s neurofeedback.
It helps you track when your thoughts drift, hear real-time cues when you relax or tense, or build focus and calm.
Muse bridges science and stillness, showing you what’s happening inside while the world spins outside.
What Happens to Your Body in Zero Gravity.
2. A Tesla Coil Plasma Ball
Plasma Ball Lamp – Lightning Touch Sensor
Remember the glass balls from science museums, well this is the home version, and the kind that brings me some serious nostalgia, as my dad had one we used to love (okay, I loved it more than my sisters, yes).
Touch it, and electricity dances toward your fingers, or play music, and it pulses in rhythm.
This is real plasma, not just a fancy light show, and it’s an incredible conversation starter for kids, guests, and midnight thoughts.
3. A DIY Solar Hydrogen Car Kit
Thames & Kosmos Hydrogen Fuel Cell Robot Science Kit
Forget batteries…this one runs on hydrogen separated from water.
You build the robot, charge the cell with solar light, and watch green energy roll forward.
Science class? Try future class.
Japan’s Plan for Solar Energy in Space.
4. A DNA Extraction Kit (with Actual DNA)
Bio-Rad DNA Learning Center’s DNA Extraction Kit
Use household ingredients to extract real strands of DNA from fruit or veggies.
Watch them precipitate in the test tube as you swirl it like a sci-fi scene. I did it while imagining all my future plans for when I take over the world. Spoiler: it’s pretty peaceful of a plan that involves planting more trees and trying to make everyone happy.
Suddenly after playing with this kit, the science behind DNA isn’t as abstract.
It’s living and breathing in your hands.
5. An Indoor Cloud in a Bottle
Cloud in a Bottle Science Experiment Kit
This kit simulates cloud formation and weather pressure, you create real fog in a sealed bottle.
It’s beautiful and strange, and a reminder that clouds aren’t just sky paint.
They’re physics in motion.
6. A Light Bending Laser Kit
Laser Optics Science Kit – Explore Refraction & Reflection
Uses actual laser beams to see how light bends, bounces, and splits, which also feeds that itch to play with lasers I know you secretly have.
You get lenses, mirrors, and guided experiments.
You might just realize, you’re not just looking at light, you’re sculpting it.
7. A Crystal Growing Tree
It looks like a paper cutout, but add solution, and it blooms into fragile crystals in under 12 hours.
It’s like watching a geology time-lapse in fast forward.
Perfect for kids, yeah yeah, but also perfect for adults who’ve forgotten what wonder feels like.
8. A Ferrofluid Magnet Dance Set
Ferrofluid in a Bottle – Magnetic Liquid Display
Ferrofluid is oil loaded with tiny magnetic particles, and when exposed to magnets, it forms eerie black spikes, waves, and dancing blobs.
It’s science meets art and chaos meets control. You’ll catch yourself playing with it instead of answering emails. On second thought, maybe don’t get this one if you have a lot of deadlines.
9. A Grow-Your-Own Glow Mushroom Kit
Bioluminescent Mushroom Growing Kit
Yes, it’s real.
This kit lets you grow glowing mushrooms in your home. If you’ve been here before you know I have an obsession with this kind of thing, so you should’ve seen it coming.
No batteries, no UV, just biology doing what it’s done for millions of years.
Light from life.
When Plants Glow, How The Future Might Be Glowing Plants Instead of Lights.
10. A DIY Lie Detector Kit
Snap Circuits Lie Detector Kit
This isn’t CIA grade and it could make some mistakes, but it’s a fun intro to skin conductivity sensors and stress response.
It lets you learn how galvanic skin response works and build your own circuits, while running harmless “truth tests” on your friends.
It’s silly science, but it’s also real science.
Want to Spark Curiosity?
Yeah, these are toys, but they make science touchable, because curiosity shouldn’t stop at age 12.
Discovery is a form of healing that I fully support.
You don’t have to be a scientist to fall in love with the physical world, you just need tools like these.
Science isn’t about credentials at the end of the day, it’s about wonder.
And wonder is also available on Amazon.
