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!
“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 […]
A group from MIT lead by Karen Gleason and Vladimir Bulovic have developed a process that prints solar cells onto a fabric or paper substrate, thus creating a flexible array capable of withstanding forces applied to objects that are bent or folded without loss of conductivity.
Nick Sayers enjoys making geometric constructions from unusual materials. Here’s an organic-looking sculpture he made from 630 coffee stirrers, with “blobs” protruding in the twelve directions of a dodecahedron’s faces.
By way of our pals at LaughingSquid comes this amazing window snap of this morning’s Atlantis launch. So great! Our very own Rachel Hobson was there with the press and will be filing a report later.
