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!
The All Terrain Bunny, or ATB for short, is a wheelchair for a paraplegic baby rabbit designed by young Liam O’Rourke in Tucson, AZ. Good going! When the O’Rourke family of Tucson found a couple of Easter-time bunnies in their back yard, they knew right away that something wasn’t quite right. There was a reason […]
OK, so, maybe the fact that, under vacuum, Scotch tape will emit enough hard x-rays to image the bones in your finger is slightly more impressive, but this is still a pretty cool trick. My off-the-cuff explanation: Glass is frosted because of tiny imperfections in the surface, which refract passing light a’whichaways. The tape adhesive fills ’em in and, because its outer surface is flat, the rays can pass through more or less straight again.
Rob Torcellini of Eastford, CT, built this valve for controlling water in his aquaponics system. I love all the clever mechanical tricks found inside! This is a sequencing / indexing valve that I designed a couple of years ago. This uses a pinching mechanism to stop the flow of water. It is able to pass […]
Brad Lyuster of Louisville’s LVL1 hackerspace wrote an excellent guide to etching your own PCBs. A few months ago, the spoiled electrical engineer that I am, I never would have considered making my own PCBs. Any project worth taking off the breadboard was worth sending to China to get made โright.โ Of course, there isnโt […]
Charles Guan’s Fanscooter was built in 5 hours out of busted Razor scooters, a big fan, cordless drill batteries, and duct tape. See the project page for lots of details and a video of the beast in action.
Eric Rogers of Hawaii built this ranger to warn him — via FM radio — when he was about to bump into another car when backing into a tight parking space. The Park Ranger is an ultrasonic-ranging prototype, based upon the Arduino and the Amani64 CPLD Shield, designed to assist drivers who are backing into […]
Make a lovely five-pointed star assembled from eighty pencils.
