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!
We covered Flickr user yamamo2’s (and his father’s) first high-performance double pendulum build back in 2009. The first version would swing for about 10 minutes, without added energy, after being started. The latest version swings for fully twice that, as the embedded videoโall twenty-two minutes of itโthoroughly demonstrates. I haven’t seen any info about the design changes required to achieve this level of performance, unfortunately.
We push the boundaries of binder clip assembly and offer a number of novel constructions.
This past Thursday in Vancouver, artists got together to display works that dealt with energy in some way. Hosted by eatART, Art With Energy was in a gallery-setting, with giant kinetic sculptures and interactive displays interweaving the crowd. You can learn more about the artists’ work on the Art with Energy Blog, and check out the photos below.
To celebrate the release of our latest publication, the Make: Ultimate Kit Guide 2012 (and its companion website), we’re giving away at least one of the cool kits reviewed in the issue each day during the holiday season.
If, like me, you’re a fan of Henry Petrowski’s book The Evolution of Useful Things, or are interested in the history of technology in general, you will probably enjoy Derek Thompson’s quick biography of the ubiquitous plastic drinking straw over at The Atlantic.
One of the many cool open source initiatives we’ve been keenly following here at MAKE is the Open Source Ecology project and their Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). They’ve been on our radar ever since they won our Green Project Contest at the beginning of the year.
Here’s a clip of Liquid Robotics founder and CTO Roger Hine talking, at the most recent Bay Area Maker Faire, about the innovative design of his company’s Wave Glider robot boat, which converts the up-and-down motion of waves at the surface into energy for propulsion. More technical details are available on Liquid Robotics’ site. On November 17, Liquid Robotics launched four…
