DIY science is the perfect way to use your creative skills and learn something new. With the right supplies, some determination, and a curious mind, you can create amazing experiments that open up a whole world of possibilities. At home-made laboratories or tech workshops, makers from all backgrounds can explore new ideas by finding ways to study their environment in novel ways – allowing them to make breathtaking discoveries!
“He had a clear vision of how digital technology could help indigenous people, who were making the transition from the Stone Age to the Internet Age.”
Rebecca Moore is a computer scientist at Google, where she started and now manages the Google Earth Outreach program. As part of this program, she has worked with indigenous tribe of the Amazon to help them map their land and protect it from de-forestation.
“I was side-tracked by a really good chemistry teacher.”
Co-founder of Wolfram Research, Inc, Gray studied chemistry in college before discovering that computer science was “what I was really good at.” He has remained fascinated with chemistry, however, as an amateur. In his shadowy double-life, he writes the Gray Matter column for Popular Science magazine, and has recently published a book of collected columns under the title Mad Science.
The Industry City Distillery in Brooklyn, NY, distills its own sugar beet vodka using equipment they built in-house, with the help of The City Foundry, a “research and design group focused on improving small-scale manufacturing processes through the blending of science and art.” [thanks, Rich]
In this, the fourth installment of Engineer Guy Series #4, Bill, Patrick, and Nick show off the engineering that accounts for three key characteristics of laser light: single wavelengths, narrow beams, and high intensities. Highlights include laser retinal surgery, the difference between phosphorescence and fluorescence, and a rather more sophisticated treatment of laser physics than is common in popular science.
Last week, I had the pleasure of testing out Oru Kayak, the worldโs first origami kayak. It was wonderful! Anton Willis, the designer, and I met at the Berkeley Marina to put his latest iteration to the test. I had been watching Anton construct the kayak for months at TechShop and had always bugged him […]
Playing around with mathematics using the ubiquitous hula hoop.
In this off-the-cuff video, MIT prof and MAKE pal Gregory Charvat shoots Nerf darts into the beam of an old X-band Doppler radar gun with its output hacked into a linear power supply, a preamp, and finally into Greg’s living room stereo system. The signal sounds like a cartoon sound effect!
