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!

30 Days 30 Things

I love these sites where people challenge themselves to do a project every day for a month, or a year, or whatever. I think that, being under this kind of pressure, with lots to produce, frees you up, in a weird way, to get really creative, to think outside the box. Here, University of Applied […]

Top 10: CRAFT-y Bike Projects

Top 10: CRAFT-y Bike Projects

What’s this? Women are riding bikes now? When did that happen? What’s next, the demise of the hoop skirt? Becky is poking me in the ribs, now. Apparently, she claims, women have been riding bikes since the 1880s. Huh. I have been out of the loop. Now she’s poking me harder and pointing out that lots of men, these days, like to sew, crochet, and do other sissy craft stuff. (She didnโ€™t say “sissy,” actually.) Apparently, CRAFT readership is up among male readers, too. Geez, is nothing sacred?

John Iovine: Geiger Counter Sanity Check

John Iovine: Geiger Counter Sanity Check

Through his company Images Scientific Instruments, John Iovine has been designing, making, and selling Geiger counters for nearly 15 years. MAKEโ€™s Paul Spinrad talked with him about the recent run on Geiger counters, how (in)accurate and misleadingly described many of them are, and two new counters heโ€™s designing for MAKE Volume 29: a standalone data-logging […]

Chemistry Set Boasts “No Chemicals”

Chemistry Set Boasts “No Chemicals”

In point of fact, I have some empathy for the makers of this Chemistry 60 educational laboratory kit. They are, after all, just responding to the demands of the market, and we at MAKE actually have some first-hand experience of how hard it is, these days, to manufacture, market, and/or distribute chemistry sets that donโ€™t, for lack of a better word, suck. So I post this not so much in the spirit of โ€œshame on such-and-soโ€ for creating this astounding oxymoron of a product, but rather to lament the general state of affairs we have come to thanks to litigiousness, chemophobia, and flagging scientific literacy. There has got to be a way back. [via C&E News]

BikeCAD

BikeCAD

Make subscriber Scott House wrote in to let us know about BikeCAD and associated cycle design software from BikeForrest. BikeCAD is a parametric CAD tool used to design hardtail mountain bike and road bike frames. Other variants of the software are available to help produce full suspensions, recumbents, tandems, and custom wheels.