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!
Pollymecca the housetruck pulled up in front of MAKE headquarters earlier this week, and she was lovely. Inspired by gypsy caravans and British “living wagons,” maker John Labovitz set out to create a house on wheels complete with a workspace for his projects in photography, programming, and research. His website lays out all the technical […]
Data is everywhere. Dedicated citizen scientists can advance “professional science,” even without any dedicated funding, by learning to intelligently navigate and draw conclusions from the oceans of largely un-analyzed public data that we swim through every day. This story from The Boston Globe is a fantastic case in point:
Ted Southern at Eyebeam is developing a private space suit: The Frontier Prime spacesuit is the first complete pressure garment ever produced at Eyebeam. It features a unique heat sealed bladder and easy to use nylon restraint system. Overall weight is just 13 pounds without life support systems, and it is designed to be adjustable […]
MAKE subscriber Ken Murphy shared this time-lapse video that he took of the MUNI streetcar construction in front of his house.
The Guardian is reporting on a recent change to the BBC’s editorial policy that calls for links to primary research from their online science articles. Without intending an I-told-you-so, this is something I’ve been doing since I started blogging, and I am thrilled that mainstream journalists are starting to do the same thing. There are tons of reasons why it’s a great idea, but these are my big three:
An artist who builds machines, I’m constantly dealing with the issue of how I can power my devices. Usually, I make it the old school way, simply using sockets in the wall of the gallery. But this project in Belgium happened in a public park, where no electricity was available. As there was a huge fountain, Jari and me decided to tap its hydropower and to generate electricity with it, as we found this far more elegant than using batteries. Furthermore, it was fitting conceptually to the devices that we were powering with the large fountain: It was some tiny private fountains that we rented out to visitors of the park.I think the concept of recycling energy which is available in the city anyway has a lot of potential.
This could appear on one of those “What is this gadget?” posts. (It’s an RCS — Reentry Control System thruster from the Gemini era.)
