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!
Catching up on some past Science Friday podcasts I ventured over to their site and checked out this great video they put together… NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched in February, has started to send back data. The instruments are giving solar scientists an unprecedented look at the sun, says Dean Pesnell, SDO project scientist. […]
Mathematician and artist George Hart (who writes our Math Monday column), created a cool set of six building blocks by slicing up and combining bits of these rhombic dodecahedra. Theoretically, the same set of blocks can be used to build tetrahedra and octahedra of any size. Thingiverse user Lenbok printed a set on a MakerBot. George’s are printed in nylon using selective laser sintering, and, as he points out, look a lot like fancy sugar cubes. I suppose you could print them on a CandyFab and make them actual sugar cubes. Or sugar Voronoi cells, rather.
When 17 year old Hayden Parker says he’s a backyard scientist, he means it literally. He’s converted the family backyard BBQ area into an outdoor chemistry lab where he shoots videos of his experiments. It’s a little harrowing watching him do some of these procedures, such as synthesizing nitric acid, and making some critical mistakes […]
To make it easier to lock up, design student Kevin Scott built a collapsible bicycle that can be wrapped around a pole and secured with a normal bike lock
It’s been really hot here in Pittsburgh the past few days, and finding ways to beat the heat have been paramount to getting anything done
Jessica at Nervous System writes: I created this design yesterday for the Shapeways SIGGRAPH competition which asked designers to submit any design that costs less than $200 to 3dprint. Our submission is a sculptural vase generated by reaction diffusion, a process which simulates how chemicals diffusing across a surface react with one another to produce […]
Laura Cesari, aka Chain of Being, makes beaded models of the solar system that, by the way, can also be worn as necklaces. Her work was recently featured on the blog of Carl Sagan’s Planetary Society:
