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!
I’m planning a DC trip soon and think this will be my first stop! Exhibition Review – ‘Beyond,’ the Solar System at Air and Space Museum @ NYTimes.com via NOTCOT. Have any DC-area makers seen this yet? Post up in the comments! The images on view at a remarkable exhibition at the National Air and […]
Calling all electric car geeks! Want to help improve the efficiency of electric cars?
By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics A twisted torus is a donut which twists as it closes on itself. It is a visually engaging mathematical design used by many artists through the ages. The origins of the idea are unknown, but below is a woodcut, published by the German graphic artist Johannes Lencker […]
This online show by the folks at Discover Magazine looks pretty slick. It’s time for Joe Genius: Where backyard science goes BIG TIME. Joe Genius highlights home-grown Einsteins who experiment, tinker, and yes, blow stuff up in the name of science. And it’s all caught on tape! Join Jonah Ray as he whizzed through these […]
Born on this date in 1923 in the Pittsburgh suburb of New Kensington, Stephanie Louise Kwolek (Wikipedia) graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1946. She would go on, starting in 1964, to discover the remarkable properties of paraphenylene terephtalamide polymers, research which would culminate in 1971 with the advent of Kevlar (Wikipedia), an entirely new field of polymer chemistry, and the countless remarkable applications thereof we now enjoy. Today Dr. Kwolek is 87. Happy Birthday!
Phil Shapiro (Takoma Park, Md.) sent us this video of solar cookers being built and deployed by villagers in Darfur. Amazing to think what impact some cardboard and foil material can have on the health and well-being of tens of thousands of people. [Thanks, Phil!] 40,000 solar cookers in Darfur
Check out this nifty how-to video by ThScience on how to make your own fake blood, just in time for Halloween. It’s really entertaining, like a chemistry lesson and a classic rock concert rolled into one. Which pretty much sums up my entire high school career.
