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!
Ron Doerfler of Rolling Meadows, IL is an engineer for Northrop-Grumman. He’s written a book on advanced mentat techniques and keeps a fascinating blog called Dead Reckonings: Lost Art in the Mathematical Sciences:
… and a full compliment of cookie labware! I saw this pop up on Twitter this morning, and knew I had to post it. Labware cookies Gel electrophoresis cookies All I can say is: WANT! Bio: MAKE guest citizen science author Tito Jankowski works on making biotech easier to do, including developing open source tools […]
Neat! This website has a Google maps object that lets you select a particular wall of a particular building on the face of the Earth, and then generates a custom sundial accurate for that latitude and longitude that you can print, cut, fold, and attach. Haven’t tried it yet, so I can’t vouch, but a cool idea in any case. [via Hacked Gadgets]
Amongst other emerging tools the Arduino platform has made building cheap sensor platforms within the easy reach of amateurs, and professionals, alike. One of the projects I’ll be talking about in the book is a pollution detecting hoodie which live logs geo-located level of pollutants to the Internet and alerts you to increased local pollution with embedded LEDs.
Two methods of making geometric models from drinking straws.
Our geek BFF, Jeri Ellsworth, has tickled our exploratory fancies again (and continued to push the “don’t try this at home” envelope) with a chemistry hack of re-doping common ZnS:Cu green glow powder to arrive at her own blue electroluminescent (EL) powder. Nice work, Jer! Make Electroluminescent (EL) Ink at Home – Re-doping Glow Powder
