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!
Happy International Year of Chemistry! And this is also the 100th anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Marie Curie. To commemorate the occasion, the magazine, Chemical and Engineering News asked several chemists to contribute essays about the achievements of chemistry. Well worth reading is Naomi Pasachoffโs essay on Curie. Truly, has there ever been a scientist as courageous as Madam Curie?
Pleats created in pieces of fabric to create geometric patterns are known as Shadowfolds. Here’s how to fold your own.
Explore the power of microbes with the MudWattโข Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) Kit from the Maker Shed. Simply fill this kit with soil from your backyard (or someone else’s backyard), along with any biological matter you find in your refrigerator. Within days the attached LED light will start to blink using only the power produced by the electricity-generating microbes in your soil!
“Acoustic metamaterial” may sound exotic, but researchers in France have managed to assemble one from a few multipacks of cola cans. Arranged in a grid, the drinks cans act as a superlens for sound, focusing acoustic waves into much smaller regions than their metre-long wavelengths typically allow. The cans act as resonators, directing the volume […]
The 2-liter plastic bottle solar light bulb is an genius way to light up a room while reducing the amount of power you consume through creative recycling. Recently, a group from Manila called Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light) got together to build and install solar lightbulbs in a 500 house pilot program. Not only do they get better lighting, but they can spend the money they save on other, more important expenses. It’s amazing what a little sunlight can do.
I was at Kennedy Space Center last week for the launch of STS-135, and had the opportunity to talk with former astronaut John Grunsfeld about the RRM. It turns out that Grunsfeld is a big fan of MAKE, and he described the RRM as being a very “MAKE” project. He gave me a tour of a full-sized mockup of the RRM in the KSC newsroom…
For this episode of “Tiny Yellow House” for Make Magazine, host Derek “Deek” Diedricksen pulls another idea from his book Humble Homes, Simple Shacks. This time, its an easy wooden boat made from little more than one sheet of plywood. Subscribe to the MAKE Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it […]
