Year: 2009

MAKE contributors at Pop!Tech

MAKE contributors at Pop!Tech

Here’s a channel NY1 report on the recent Pop!Tech conference in Camden, ME. The piece profiles three MAKE contributors, Reuben Margolin, Zach Debord, and Mike Gould. Reuben has shown his work and spoken at Maker Faire, Zach Debord’s BEAMbots have been featured in MAKE (and on the cover of The Best of MAKE), and Mike […]

Flammable ice

This awesome little chemical machine is from Mr. Kent’s chemistry page. Ice is laid in a Pyrex dish over a layer of calcium carbide. As the ice melts, the liquid water reacts with the carbide to produce acetylene gas, which of course is highly flammable. A match starts it off, and then it burns continuously on its own. My first thought was that the system could rapidly spiral out of control–more heat melts more water makes more gas makes even more heat. But it’s limited by the amount of oxygen that can get down into the pan, I think. My second thought was that maybe a bit of sodium metal down there with the carbide could make the process self-igniting…. (For God’s sake, no one try that.)

Remote control pumpkin

Remote control pumpkin

MAKE subscriber Ian writes in to share his Halloween project, a remote-control, color changing pumpking. To control the pumpkin, he built an infrared remote decoder, which allows him to use a regular TV remote to change the color of the pumpkin. The project also has an ‘angry pumpkin’ mode, which flashes a red color to […]

One Day: A Collective Narrative of Tehran

San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts is hosting a thought-provoking group exhibit that opens this upcoming Wednesday, November the 4th. From the site: Featuring the work of eight artists living in Tehran, Iran — Nima Alizadeh, Saba Alizadeh, Mohammad Ghazali, Ghazaleh Hedayat, Abbas Kowsari, Mehran Mohajer, Neda Razavipour, and Homayoun Sirizi — alongside new work […]