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 Lower East Side Ecology Center in NYC is sponsoring e-waste recycling events throughout all five boroughs for the month of April (aka “Earth Month”). You can find a list of their drop-off sites here, and their FAQ about acceptable items and procedures here. I actually almost never throw away my own e-waste. I still […]
Actually these HEX chairs from designer Hugh Hayden made the rounds back in 2009, but theyโre just now coming across my radar via this round-up of tennis ball furniture that recently tripped one of my Google auto-alerts. There are plenty of unusual chairs in the world, and though I like these better than many, Iโm more interested in Haydenโs process for joining the tennis balls together.
Hereโs a method for applying a high-gain optical projection surface using common, inexpensive materialsโspecifically, flat white interior latex paint and glass sandblasting media. It began as a series of experiments to produce a DIY โscreen paintโ by directly mixing these two ingredients. Though failing in themselves, these tests led to the serendipitous discovery of this process.
Make: Online readers who are secret agents—or secret agent wannabes—will love this project, which comes to us from MAKE Volume 16. By replacing the ink in a color inkjet cartridge with concentrated lemon juice, you can print with invisible ink. The secret message is revealed by spraying or wiping the paper with iodine tincture. Here’s […]
We have done both gear- and gear-making-related roundups before, but our gear world has turned (bam!) quite a few times since then, and weโve covered some even hotter gear action in the interim. Someday thereโs going to be a gear-roundup roundup. But for now, hereโs our top gear content as it stands today:
How cool is that? From Blurgh! The ThinkGeek Blog:
We have a problem. And itโs growing at a rate proportional to our return pile. We canโt, in good conscience, resell damaged electronics. And we canโt donate them to charityโthe saddest kid in the world is one with a handheld video game that wonโt turn on. Garbage, then? Not good for the environment. Luckily for us, thereโs an entire class of scavengers out there ready to pick the bones of our helicopters, keyboards, and interactive t-shirts: hackers, makers, and crafty techy types.
Theyโre even polling interest in a possible subscription service. [Thanks, John!]
From Oxford โorigami engineersโ Weina Wu and Zhong You, published as A solution for folding rigid tall shopping bags in Proceedings of the Royal Society A. ScienceNOW has an item that at least tries to explain why this achievement is scientifically significant, rather than just really cool. Which, frankly, I donโt quite understand. But then, for our purposes, โreally coolโ is all the justification we need.
