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!
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…
On a visit to the Heidelberg Project outdoor art installation in Detroit, we happened across longtime Detroit resident and artist Tim Burke. Tim filled us in on the tragedy of, and artistic opportunity in, the destruction of some of Detroit’s most interesting and historic buildings. In addition to losing architectural landmarks, artworks within these buildings are also lost.
Engin Ayaz, Tak Cheung, and Doug Kanter created HeartWave, a tabletop device which uses water ripples to visualize the heartbeat of two people at once. The sides of the tank are equipped with Polar heart beat sensors, which actuate electromagnets to pulse a fin, generating each wave. According to Doug, “variations in liquid and lighting allow for a range of unique HeartWave experiences.”
A Spanish craftsman named Patelo skillfully designed and fabricated this tiny working V-12 motor from stock stainless steel, aluminum, and bronze for his grandchildren Sara, Carmen, Jose and Pablo. It took more than 1200 hours of work. Not counting the 222 screws, he machined all 261 pieces himself. The engine operates via compressed-air injection, has 12cm3 total displacement, 11.3mm cylinder heads, and a 10mm stroke on each piston.
What could sound easier than to make a regular construction from four paper equilateral triangles? One possible construction is the regular tetrahedron, which is pretty easy. Here is a different construction from four equilateral triangles. Each triangle is linked with the other three, like two links of a chain.
Instructables user bfgreen makes small, lightweight, waterproof containers like this by sawing off plastic soda bottle necks right below the lip, flattening the cut edges on a file, applying cyanoacrylate glue, and clamping. Since these bottles are usually PET, they could also probably be solvent-welded with acetone and other common solvent cements.
