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!
Mitten crafter Chris Gorski went on snow patrol this month with the snow storms that hit Michigan not too long ago. He made his own life-size snow stick to track the progress and was happy to report that all projected snow falls were definitely OFF. For all you snow-state residents out there, do you make […]
Interesting item from Dallasโs Southern Methodist University, where paleontologist Thomas L. Adams and co-workers Christopher Strganac, Michael J. Polcyn, and Louis L. Jacobs have used a laser 3D scanner to produce a high-resolution model of a large outdoor dinosaur track which is a landmark in downtown Glen Rose, Texas. Exposed to the elements in the town square, the track is (very slowly) eroding, and the teamโs freely downloadable 3D model is intended to both preserve it for posterity and to facilitate its study by fossil buffs all over the world. Their results are published online in Paleontologica Electronica. [Thanks, Alan Dove!]
White blood cells pitted against each other in โBlood Warsโ @ Wired UK… Blood Wars is an art-science installation that will pit white blood cells from two different people against each other in a “tournament” that aims to see which person has the strongest immune system. The piece — by artist Kathy High — forms […]
Today’s Stardate program describes constellations that are named for tools or machinery.
To teach children about complexity theory, a group from Indiana University created an electronic game called BeeSim using LilyPad Arduinos and XBee radios: During the game children wear a Bee puppet wrist band with embedded electronics to allow for game play. The children have a finite amount of time (45 seconds) to collect and deposit […]
Being made of glass, however, a proper Kipp generator is an expensive piece of apparatus, with new models costing upwards of $250US as of this writing. However, as the useful gas-generating reactions are usually aqueous, rather than organic, an all-plastic Kipp generator is almost as useful as a glass version. PVC pipe is inexpensive, durable, ubiquitous, and easily and securely joined using cement made for that purpose. Demountable PVC fittings are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and can be used to provide the necessary โdismantlabilityโ for loading solid reagent into the device. Presented here is my design for such a low cost Kipp-type generator, with instructions for its construction.
Amateur astronomy is now within the reach of anyone, and this is the ideal book to get you started. The Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders offers you a guide to the equipment you need, and shows you how and where to find hundreds of spectacular objects in the deep sky — double and multiple stars as well as spectacular star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies.
