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!
…but non-lepidopterists will probably be hard-pressed to figure that out just by looking at it. The video rates high on the jaw-dropping scale. The ChouChou electric butterfly is, in fact, a lepidoteroid robot, of sorts, from Japanese firm Tenyo Magic. It perches, flexes and flaps its wings, and flutters around its jar when disturbed. Preorderable now from JapanTrends.com. [via NOTCOT]
Turns out the yellowing of old ABS plastic is due to degradation of bromine-containing fire retardants which are added to the plastic during manufacture, which release elemental bromine, causing the yellow color. Shining UV light on the gel accelerates the decomposition of the fragile oxygen-oxygen bond in the peroxides it contains, generating reactive hydroxyl radicals which scavenge the free or loosely-bound bromine in the plastic that causes discoloration.
Have you ever been curious how a glow stick works or how they achieve all those wonderful colors? In this video from NurdRage you’ll learn what it takes to generate the chemical energy needed and how to harness it to create various colors in the spectrum.
When I was a teen, I was fascinated by alchemy — not so much the whole turning lead into gold part or trying to play God and create tiny little humans in a jar. I was really attracted to the labware, the furnaces, the study of the physical and natural world and its processes — […]
We’re excited to bring to you the second episode in our special summer kids video miniseries, Sylvia’s Super Awesome Mini Maker Show! Subscribe to the MAKE Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube, Blip.tv, and Vimeo. By James (TechNinja) and Sylvia Did you know that you can have fun […]
Researchers at the University of Bristol are hard at work designing robots that can draw power by digesting food directly.
Frank Westfall’s 1930 Art Deco Henderson motorcycle via Twitter. Knucklebuster writes – I took these photos at the Rhinebeck Grand National Meet where the newly restored bike was unveiled. The bike belongs to Frank Westfall from Syracuse, NY. According to some info I found online, the bike was originally built by O. Ray Courtney in […]
