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!
On Friday, the Discovery Channel announced that Mythbusters stars Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are creating a new reality show where contestants duke it out by creating Rube Goldberg machines. Sounds intriguing! Discovery Channel announces UNCHAINED REACTION, a new series executive produced by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of MYTHBUSTERS. The duo also serve as […]
“Cash for gadgets” is the new “cash for gold”.
Very cool widget from British firm RTL Materials, who’ve figured out a trick for making composite tubes that are pre-stressed, like a tape measure, such that they want to roll up into a rigid round tube structure when unfurled from a flat, coiled state. Unlike a tape measure, however, these “bistable reeled composites” are also […]
One of my high school classmates is quadriplegic, and from meeting him and hearing about others with similar conditions, I learned that many people with disabilities canโt afford technologies that could enable them to communicate โ especially in places like Honduras, where I live.
Shape-memory metals get a fair amount of attention, but shape memory polymers exist, too. In fact, heat-shrink tubing is a familiar example of a simple shape-memory effect in a polymer. This video uploaded by MIT researcher Vikas Srivastava back in 2009 is a more impressive demonstration of heat-induced shape recovery. The plastic material is tBA […]
In 2003, my friend Tony, aka graffiti artist Tempt1, was diagnosed with ALS, a progressive disease that left him almost completely paralyzed except for his eyes. In order to help him continue to make his art, I collaborated with a group of software developers and hardware hackers to create a low-cost, open source, eye-tracking system that would allow Tempt1 and other ALS patients to draw and control a computer using just their eyes.
Have you ever made a robot that didnโt work right, at least at first? In hobby robotics this is no big deal, and it still isnโt the end of the world with industrial robots, but with surgical robotics, being one millimeter off can mean life or death โ or at least complications. Welcome to Carol Reileyโs world.
