Just get your hands on the $6.95 U-Fizz kit, a box of baking soda, some vinegar and a couple of soda bottles, and you can make everything from carbonated juice drinks to more offbeat concoctions like CO2 loaded Jell-O. Hmmm… That gets me thinking… I wonder what would happen if you dared to put some Diet Coke and Mentos in this contraption? Maybe the world would explode.

Now from what I can tell, the U-Fizz (aka the Soda Shaker) looks like about 50 cents worth of plastic tubing and bottle caps, so the markup seems a little excessive. But who among us has time to run out to the neighborhood scientific supply store to buy all the stuff you need to make your own? I certainly don’t.

So head on over Edmund Scientifics and tell us about the craziest carbonated concoction you come up with. Me? I’d like to see what happens when I make my own Starbucks bubbly half-caff no whip 120-degree grande macchiato mochacinno- extra bubbly, please.

For those of you science geeks out there, here’s a handy presentation on the subject called “How Carbonation Works“. I’m definitely using that PowerPoint deck at my next business meeting.