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!
That’s Museom of Design in Plastics, and their online collections are really outstanding. While there is some good online info on hornworking in the hobby community (especially the SCA), it’s mostly text with simple line art. I couldn’t find much photography of real artifacts and tools before stumbling on MoDiP’s online Nature’s plastic exhibit.
Our special contributor, Jon Kalish, drives into Missouriโs corn and soybean country in search of the Open Source Ecology project.
We’ve already had some great reader suggestions for Natural Materials month. The first that caught my eye this morning is from MAKE pal and Flickr-pool-roundup regular John Honniball, aka anachrocomputer, who directs our attention to the use of natural slate panels as insulators in vintage electrical equipment. Above, a beautiful example from the Canada Science and Technology Museum…
On January 5, 2012, Raul Oaida posted the following update to his blog: “On the 31st of December I launched the Black Sky project payload with two HD cameras. I recovered the rig ~240km awaydownrange (320km on the highway) in excellent condition from a hill in a remote area.” About a month later, he posted the embedded video to YouTube. The entry on his blog from that date kinda says it all: “This was all done by me.”
When we say “natural materials,” the mind leaps immediately to wood, stone, leather, natural fibers. But there are lots of interesting and more “exotic” materials from the natural world that we don’t tend to think of, right away, and digging these up and showing them off is one of the things I’m most looking forward to in this month’s theme. To kick things off, here’s a sampler of some of my personal favorite unusual natural materials from our archives, arranged in highly unscientific how-much-does-Sean-like-it order. There’s cool stuff here made from antler, acorns, fish scales, insect parts – even shark’s teeth! Enjoy!
It’s news to me that it’s possible to extract the DNA from your own cells with just a few household products such as bottled water, dish soap, food coloring, table salt, and isopropyl alcohol. You can learn how to see your own DNA in this fun video from PBS’s NOVA.
At the TED2012 Conference with Ayah Bdeir of littleBits, Gregory Gage of Backyard Brains, and Bre Pettis of MakerBot Industries
