Science

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!

Unleash The Amateurs: Lessons From The Early Days Of Radio

Unleash The Amateurs: Lessons From The Early Days Of Radio

By David Lang

David Lang

Co-Founder of OpenROV, a community of DIY ocean explorers and makers of low-cost underwater robots. Author of Zero to Maker. And on Twitter!

View more articles by David Lang

Guglielmo Marconi’s early experiments in wireless communication, particularly his radio transmission during the 1899 America’s Cup yacht races, had sparked broad interest in the nascent technology. The press was closely covering these developments, which helped Marconi’s popularity but also tantalized others who longed to try and re-create his tests. They got their wish when American Electrician published detailed […]

Continue Reading
Reusing Disposable Masks As Textiles

Reusing Disposable Masks As Textiles

By Caleb Kraft

Caleb Kraft

I get ridiculously excited seeing people make things. I just want to revel in the creativity I see in makers. My favorite thing in the world is sharing a maker's story. find me at CalebKraft.com

View more articles by Caleb Kraft

While attending Maker Faire Lille, I was happy to meet Mimi, an artist that got the bright idea to use discarded face masks as raw material for fashion. Mimi saw the piles and piles of used masks that were going into landfills all over and thought that she could make a statement about disposable fashion […]

Continue Reading
Get a Grip! Overcome Those Shaky Hands With These Useful Adaptive Devices

Get a Grip! Overcome Those Shaky Hands With These Useful Adaptive Devices

Charles Platt

By Charles Platt

Charles Platt

Charles Platt is a contributing editor to Make magazine, which has published more than 50 of his articles. Six of his books are available from Make: Books

Make: Electronics, an introductory guide, now available in its second edition.

Make: More Electronics, a sequel that greatly extends the scope of the first book.

Encyclopedia of Electronic Components, volumes 1, 2, and 3 (the third written in collaboration with Fredrik Jansson).

Make: Tools, which uses the same teaching techniques as Make: Electronics to explore and explain the use of workshop tools.

View more articles by Charles Platt

Get a better grip on your tools with these easy assistive solutions.

Continue Reading
How to Track a Shark

How to Track a Shark

By Keith Hammond

Keith Hammond

I'm projects editor of MAKE magazine.

View more articles by Keith Hammond

When scientists tracked great white sharks to a mysterious mid-Pacific hangout, they nicknamed it the White Shark Café — are they eating, or meeting? What’s going on out there? Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA) researcher Dr. Sal Jorgensen wanted eyes on the scene, so he and engineer Thomas Maughan at sister institution MBARI developed a Shark […]

Continue Reading
Need a repair? The Fixit Clinic will guide you to get things working again

Need a repair? The Fixit Clinic will guide you to get things working again

Peter Mui

By Peter Mui

Peter Mui

founder of Fixit Clinic, which conveys critical thinking and troubleshooting skills through both in-person community repair events around the U.S. and globally online. Over 600 Fixit Clinic events have been hosted through libraries, colleges and universities, and science and research institutions. He is based in Berkeley, California.

View more articles by Peter Mui

I often describe Fixit Clinic as “a hobby that’s gotten way out of control.” We held the first Fixit Clinic in 2009 as a modest experiment to make basic tools and specialty tools available so attendees could disassemble, troubleshoot and — hopefully — repair common consumer items: to take apart appliances and electronics, mend fabric and […]

Continue Reading
Emergency Prep! How Makers Can Prepare For Disruptions and Disasters of All Kinds

Emergency Prep! How Makers Can Prepare For Disruptions and Disasters of All Kinds

Tim Deagan

By Tim Deagan

Tim Deagan

Tim Deagan (@TimDeagan) likes to make things. He casts, prints, screens, welds, brazes, bends, screws, glues, nails, and dreams in his Austin, Texas, shop. He's spent decades gathering tools based on the idea that one day he will come up with a project that has a special use for each and every one of them.

Tim likes to learn and try new things. A career troubleshooter, he designs, writes, and debugs code to pay the bills. He has worked as a stagehand, meat cutter, speechwriter, programmer, sales associate at Radio Shack, VJ, sandwich maker, computer tech support specialist, car washer, desk clerk, DBA, virtual CIO, and technical writer. He's run archeology field labs, darkrooms, produce teams, video stores, ice cream shops, consulting teams, developers, and QA teams. He's written for Make: magazine, Nuts & Volts, Lotus Notes Advisor and Databased Advisor.

View more articles by Tim Deagan

Responding effectively to emergencies and disasters is almost always a result of preparation. With a little forethought, know-how, and advance planning, makers with a DIY and community mindset are fantastically positioned to help themselves and others in extreme situations. But which threats should we invest in preparing for? Risk is calculated by multiplying likelihood times […]

Continue Reading
East Coast RepRap Festival 2022: Back in Person!

East Coast RepRap Festival 2022: Back in Person!

Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron

By Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron

Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron

cofounders of Nonscriptum LLC (nonscriptum.com) and the authors of many maker books, most recently Make: Geometry. Twitter: @JoanHorvath, @whosawhatsis

View more articles by Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron

For the first time since 2019, East Coast RepRap Festival (ERRF) was held in-person in Bel Air, Maryland. A total of about 1600 attendees, including over 60 corporate sponsors and almost 50 exhibitors filled the APFCU Arena at Harford Community College. The event was a mix of business-to-business dealmaking, hobbyist showcase, and some wide-eyed kids […]

Continue Reading