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!

Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Chemistry

Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Chemistry

Hoffman clamps are extraordinarily handy bits of lab kit. The screw is turned to compress a piece of flexible tubing between two bars, and may be thus be used to completely stop or simply to regulate flow of gas or liquid through such tubing. The screwing action of the Hoffman clamp allows adjustment of the rate of flow infinitesimally from full open to full stop. In amateur apparatus, a Hoffman clamp can often take the place of a glass or teflon stopcock, which is a much more sophisticated and expensive bit of apparatus. And they’re cheap!

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan2

Maker Pioneers: Ben Dubin-Thaler and BioBus

Here is the latest in our Make: Shorts video series, covering “Maker Pioneers,” inventors, entrepreneurs, makers, who are dreaming up clever solutions to today’s energy and environmental problems. In this episode, we climb aboard the BioBus, with its creator, Ben Dubin-Thaler. The “Cell Motion BioBus” is a self-powered mobile microscopy lab that brings hands-on science […]

Continue Reading Gareth Branwyn

“Look inside. It’s amazing.”

That phrase could be Bill Hammack’s tagline. This week, it’s the piezoelectric crystal oscillator in a $9.99 digital watch from Target, a device so ubiquitous that it has become “ephemeralized,” as Bucky Fuller put it: Almost any device that runs on electricity is expected to include one. I knew how they worked, in a general way, before watching this video. But here’s one of the many things I did not know: The quartz crystal in the oscillator is only 3mm long and less than 1mm across, yet each one is individually tuned at the factory. Wanna know how they do it? Click away. [Thanks, Bill!]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan8

Stunning compilation of high-speed shuttle launch footage

Matt Melis and Kevin Burke of Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center narrate this remarkable 45-minute video highlights compilation of some 30 high-speed clips recorded by the 125 cameras–most of them film-based—that documented each space shuttle launch. Most of this footage was recorded for engineering purposes and, as part of an ongoing effort to commemorate the shuttle program, is now being re-cut for public appreciation. Space, engineering, and photography enthusiasts will completely geek out over this video, and anyone with a pair of eyes is certain to at least enjoy it. If you can, you should watch the whole thing. If you don’t have time, you should at least scan forward to 21:00 to watch the super-slow-motion close-range shot, taken from the support structure, of the entire vehicle as it passes by. Also, I’d personally recommend the wide-angle footage at 31:10 for absolute aesthetic beauty, as well as the booster plumes passing in front of the sun at 34:50. [Thanks, Rachel!]

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan4