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!

Shelf made from back issues of National Geographic

Shelf made from back issues of National Geographic

Not exactly practical, but certainly clever, this shelf made from recycled magazines is by designer Sean Miller.

Sean coated the magazines with a a water/starch mixture and then he placed them under pressure for about a week to harden. Next he took a band saw to the consolidated stack and carved out space for a shelf. Holes were also cut into the bookshelf’s sides, allowing it to slide onto three rods to be hung. About 80 mags were used.

It’s another personal fave from among the finalists of Inhabitat’s second annual Spring Greening contest.

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Stunning hyperrealistic glass flower models at Harvard

Stunning hyperrealistic glass flower models at Harvard

In the late 19th century, when biologists and botanists from Harvard were sailing all over the world taking specimens of every living creature they could find and sending them back home for study, a very serious problem arose in the accurate preservation of those specimens. There was no refrigeration and no practical color photography, and fresh plant and animal specimens rapidly decayed into colorless blobs of mush in jars full of alcohol or formalin. So then-director of the Harvard Botanical museum George L. Goodale commissioned German father-and-son glass artists Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka to create photorealistic replicas of fresh specimens in solid glass. The Blaschkas would go on to spend the next 50 years creating more than 3,000 such models, which are still on display at Harvard today. It’s a thing not to be missed in your time on this Earth.

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Orange traffic cone lamp

Orange traffic cone lamp

I have to say, for the record, that those are way smaller than any actual traffic cone I’ve ever seen, and are far, far too clean to have ever seen any real use on a street. I’m pretty sure reusing real traffic cones would result in a lamp that was both way too big and way, way too beat up to make good-looking furniture. Still, cool-looking lamp, and a straightforward re-make.

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