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!
Love George Hadley’s etched PCB art influenced by the awe-inspiring British science fiction show Doctor Who: The main good time-traveling race in the show is called the Time Lords that live on the planet Gallifrey. The Gallifreyan artwork used on the artifacts and relics of the Time Lord race is some of my favorite, so […]
From BBC News: “Mexican soldiers have destroyed four โnarco-tanksโ, lorries fitted with steel armour thought to have been made for the Gulf drug cartel. The vehicles were seized in a garage in Camargo, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Authorities said the cartel used the tanks, fitted with air-conditioning and steel plates, to patrol its smuggling routes and transport drugs to the US.”
An honors mechanical engineering project from a group of thirteen at Australia’s University of Adelaide. Rich technical detail available at the project’s webpage.
By pleating a square sheet of paper with a pattern of concentric squares, one can fold a saddle shape that mathematicians call a hyperbolic paraboloid, sometimes nicknamed a hypar. Erik Demaine led a workshop at a recent Museum of Mathematics event where he showed how multiple hypars can be assembled to make star-like geometric forms.
Very interesting vid from 16-year-old Hayden Parker, who impressed me greatly with his animated chemistry demonstrations at Maker Faire. Metallic aluminum can be dissolved in liquid gallium to create an aluminum-bearing alloy that is liquid at ambient conditions. Because it can flow in the alloy, the aluminum cannot form a stable passive oxide layer and will react violently with water, which nicely demonstrates the normally-hidden high natural reactivity of metallic aluminum.
When we last checked in on Ben Krasnow’s homemade SEM, he had just achieved his first successful image with the device. As his latest video shows, the project has come a long way since then. It’s a long clip, by internet standards, at almost 10 minutes, but Ben does a great job of communicating what he’s doing and why, taking us through each step in the imaging process, from loading the sample, through pumping down the vacuum chamber and powering up the electronics, to fine-tuning the image itself.
Normally, ultra slow motion video requires very expensive cameras and lots of light. Using an unconventional method reminiscent of Eadweard Muybridge’s Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, Destin from Smarter Every Day caught slow motion video of a bullet coming out of a gun. Since that particular fast action is easily repeatable, he was able to […]
