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!
“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 world’s 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!
At issue is free public access to scientific information gathered using tax dollars. Which, in the US, is about a third of it. If you’ve ever been hot on the trail of a technical lead and run up against a robot demanding $40 to download one four-page, thirty-year-old journal article, you know what I’m talking about.
