New in the Maker Shed: Hackable Pixel Qi displays
Well, I finally get to let the cat out of the bag. We’ve got Pixel Qi screens available in the Maker Shed as of today.
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!
How-To: Trap lightning in a block
Science bad boy Theo Gray shows you how to create lightning bolts in a piece of acrylic. OK, so you need the juice of a five-million-volt particle accelerator to get the effect seen here (via the Kent State Neo Beam’s Dynamitron): With the Dynamitron – rented for the day – adjusted to around three million […]
Massive printable “Tree of Life” graphic for free download
This tree is from an analysis of small subunit rRNA sequences sampled
from about 3,000 species from throughout the Tree of Life. The species were chosen based on their availability, but we attempted to include most of the major groups, sampled
very roughly in proportion to the number of known species in each group (although many
groups remain over- or under-represented). The number of species represented is approximately the square-root of the number of species thought to exist on Earth
(i.e., three thousand out of an estimated nine million species), or about 0.18% of the 1.7 million species that have been formally described and named.
Audio myths dispelled
From ultra-low noise AC power cables to a frequency-calibrated jar of stones, it’s pretty amazing what can be sold in the pursuit of better sound. As it turns out, most of these subtle yet pricey upgrades/enhancements are nothing more than placebo – and hearing is a very subjective thing. Originally presented as part of a […]
Using a MakerBot as a microscope
Catarina M and Joel Belouet have been experimenting with using a MakerBot as a microscope stage.
Large Hadron… music?
Scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider have put together a sound library consisting of Community Commons music interpreted from from LHC datasets. Here’s an example description: The ATLAS detector viewed from the direction of the beam is circular, allowing us to sweep around it in a clockwise direction, looking for tracks and energy deposited […]
Inhabitat Spring Greening Contest 2010 Winners
Take a look at all the amazing winners of the Inhabitat Spring Greening Contest which challenged designers and crafters to transform useless junk into new treasures. The Reader’s Choice Grand Prize was the Soda Bottle Lamps by Sarah Turner.