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!

Purdue Claims World Record Goldberg Machine

Purdue Claims World Record Goldberg Machine

It starts with the Big Bang, re-creates the extinction of the dinosaurs, holds a jousting competition, flips over an album, and simulates World War II, a shuttle launch, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and even the alleged apocalypse in 2012. In its precisely executed review of history, “The Time Machine,” a Rube Goldberg contraption built by members of the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, incorporates a record-breaking 244 steps—all to water a single flower.

NASA Make: Challenge webcast (video)

If you missed yesterday’s webcast about the NASA Make: Challenge, check out the video here. You can also read the chat transcript, full of relevant links. Dale Dougherty chats with experts Kris Kimel, Twyman Clements, and James Kuhl. MAKE is happy to announce that we’re partnering with Teachers in Space and NASA’s Emerging Commercialization Space […]

Rifled PVC Pipe For More Accurate Spud Guns

Rifled PVC Pipe For More Accurate Spud Guns

Thanks to a commenter on last week’s Now That’s A Knife post for pointing out that Jeremy Hanson’s Spudgun Technology Center has a custom machine for rifling PVC pipe to make more accurate barrels for potato cannon. They sell several varieties of rifled PVC (including clear) in assorted lengths. The way I hear it, the rifling machine was first designed and build by STC founder Ed Goldmann. [Thanks, Bryce Bell!]