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!

Zipper boat!

Zipper boat!

Yup. Somebody–specifically Japanese artist Yasuhiro Suzuki–went to the trouble of building a motorboat shaped like a zipper pull just for the sake of the aerial sight gag of its wake suggesting a parting zipper. And just for the record, this is clearly a jacket-zipper-pull motorboat, not a pants-zipper-pull motorboat, so let’s not have any off-color jokes about what strange creatures might be surfacing in its wake. [via Dude Craft]

ROV to penetrate ancient “door” in Great Pyramid

ROV to penetrate ancient “door” in Great Pyramid

Before you reach for your incredulous hat, however, understand that the “passages” in question are really more like pipes. Approximately 20 cm square and winding upwards through the massive stone structure along a series of sharp corners, the two shafts in question connect to the so-called “Queen’s Chamber” in the middle of the pyramid, and were hidden until the late 19th century when a British explorer, reasoning by analogy to the two well-known shafts in the upper “King’s Chamber,” dug into the walls and discovered them. Unlike the shafts in the King’s Chamber, however, the Queen’s Chamber shafts do not connect to the outside of the pyramid. Starting in 1992, a series of ROVs have discovered that their distant ends are sealed by limestone “doors” incorporating copper fittings probably used as pulls. The implication seems to be that the shafts were sealed by the original builders by pulling the “doors” into place, from inside the Queen’s Chamber, using lines run down the shafts. Which raises some intriguing questions about what might be behind them.

Driving to work on solar panels?

I love that, for many of us here at MAKE, our families and friends get actively involved in sending us possible material for the magazine and site. Today, we ran a piece on some repair and maintenance tips from editorial assistant Laura Cochrane’s dad. And tonight, our creative director, Daniel Carter, sent along this video, […]