Prev What if I made a lava lamp out of real lava? What could I use as a clear medium? How close could I stand to watch it? Kathy Johnstone, 6th Grade Teacher (via a student) This is a surprisingly reasonable idea, by What If standards. I mean, it's not that reasonable. At the very least, I'm guessing you would lose your teaching license, and possibly some of the students in the front row. But you could do it. Just a warning: I'm going to be linking to a lot of videos of lava flowing and people poking it with sticks , so you may have a hard time getting to the end of the article without getting sidetracked into watching a bunch of them like I did while writing it. You have a few choices for transparent materials that could hold the lava without rupturing and splattering half the classroom with red-hot droplets. Fused quartz glass would be a great choice. It's the sa...