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!
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 didn’t work right, at least at first? In hobby robotics this is no big deal, and it still isn’t the end of the world with industrial robots, but with surgical robotics, being one millimeter off can mean life or death — or at least complications. Welcome to Carol Reiley’s world.
History is full of quirky tales of scientists who were first in line to try their own experiments. So are comic books, although super villains are more likely than superheroes to be self-experimenters. When the subject of scientific research becomes the researcher herself, that’s self-experimentation, a gray area in academic science that continues to find strong interest among amateurs.
Junk artist extraordinaire Jud Turner is an old favorite here at MAKE. He’s just moved into a bigger studio and completed his largest piece, ever—a life-size Columbian Mammoth skeleton made from “95% recycled materilas, mostly old farm equipment and agricultural tools.” He’s also posted some cool work-in-progress shots here. [Thanks, Jud!]
This longboard features a tablet computer, Kinect, and 800-watt electric motor, and reaches a max speed of 32 MPH. Chaotic Moon Labs’ “Board of Awesomeness” is intended as a technology teaser to show how perceptive computing can turn around the way we look at user experiences. The project utilizes a Microsoft Kinect device, Samsung Windows […]
What would a tree sound like if a cross section of it were played like an LP? Bartholomäus Traubeck attempts to find out.
