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!

Thermite Experimenter’s Online Video Notebook

UCLA chemist Jeffrey Schwartz, whose traditional thermite demonstrations I very much enjoyed at BAMF last week, has compiled what, he quite plausibly claims, is the world’s largest online gallery of thermite reaction videos at his fascinating site Amazing Rust.com. By my count, Jeffrey has there documented, with pictures or video or both, more than 40 different aluminothermic thermite events, smelting eleven different metal oxides including vanadium, cobalt, and titanium.

Continue Reading May 31st, 2011 Sean Michael Ragan6

Follow up, Jeri Ellsworth vs Talking buses #Trimet … Jeri won

Here’s a follow up to my previous post “Jeri Ellsworth vs Talking buses #Trimet“. Jeri a well known engineer created a video showing an alternative way to make a noise-making device and strategy for TriMet’s new audible warning system for pedestrians. Jeri has also has made a low cost body scanner, transistors, how-to videos, many […]

Continue Reading May 27th, 2011 Phillip Torrone42

Wall-, Ceiling-Climbing Robot With Supersonic Air Jet Grippers

Using special designed and machined grippers, this prototype ‘bot from researchers Matthew Journee, XiaoQi Chen, James Robertson, Mark Jermy, and Mathieu Sellier can climb wooden, metal, and cloth surfaces with ease. Rough textures and small gaps in the substrate apparently present no problem, and the video includes impressive footage of the machine dragging an additional half-kilo weight up a wooden door and rolling around upside-down on a ceiling made of glass.

Continue Reading May 26th, 2011 Sean Michael Ragan1

A Box Made From A Dried Orange Peel

Here’s a link to the fantastic British brainy-toys site Grand Illusions that I’ve been hoarding for awhile, hoping to someday reproduce the process and post it as a tutorial. I have tried sun-drying several of the largest orange peels I can find on suitable forms, and have made one functional round box that is quite small and ugly compared to these.

Continue Reading May 25th, 2011December 8th, 2015 Sean Michael Ragan52

The Knot Zoo

Old but very interesting resource from Canadian Robert Scharein, programmer of the software package KnotPlot. The knots are organized by the number of crossings, and can be clicked on to display rotatable 3D models. [via Maxwell’s Demon]

Continue Reading May 25th, 2011 Sean Michael Ragan2

Putting the Open in OpenPCR: open source biotech

OpenPCR first came to life last February, and we showed off our first prototype at Maker Faire last May. Those of you following the OpenPCR blog know we designed, refined, and engineered our hearts out. Today, Josh and I are pleased to make the first version of the OpenPCR design docs public. Whether you’re a […]

Continue Reading May 24th, 2011 Titojankowski

Math Monday: Fold Your Own Hyperbolic Paraboloids

By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics 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 […]

Continue Reading May 23rd, 2011 Gareth Branwyn2

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