Toys, Tricks & Teasers โ Puzzle of the Crowned Pulleys
Real-world problems in physics sometimes take quite a while to figure out, unlike the contrived problems in textbooks that must be solved by next week.
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: Build a model Hubble Space Telescope
Our intrepid space-beat reporter Rachel Hobson spotted these cool model Hubble Telescopes on the Hubble website: There are three versions: a PVC pipe version, a basic paper model version, and an expert paper model version that even includes the internal structure of the telescope. Why not host a little Hubble-building party with some friends and […]
Make: Biosphere — Three years and counting!
Way back at the end of March 2007, a couple of MAKE interns sealed the lid on a ghost shrimp and a few snail friends on what the staff thought would be a three-hour tour. Err, I mean a 90-day biosphere odyssey. Yesterday at 16:35:56 marked the end of the third year of our little […]
Solar dress uses nanotech-based conductive thread
While this dress by Abbey Liebman incorporating flexible photovoltaics for charging personal electronics is interesting, what really caught my eye was the fact that it uses an improved type of conductive thread based on a proprietary blend of polymers and nanoparticles.
You click on a link and buy some silver-based conductive thread right now, but over the course of years, the current silver-based threads will slowly oxidize in air and the conductivity will start to degrade. Presumably, the new material (from the Hinestroza research group at Cornell) does not.
About a year ago I was considering a tutorial for Make: Projects about making one’s own conductive thread using carbon nanotubes (CNTs). At the time, you could buy small samples of CNTs from several places around the web at “educator’s” prices. Research on CNT-based conductive inks has shown that carbon nanotubes dispersed in water bond strongly enough to cellulose in paper to resist washing and prolonged mechanical wear, and would also, presumably, show similar performance on cotton thread. So I’m pretty sure you could make durable conductive thread just by soaking regular cotton thread in a dispersion of CNTs in water. Unfortunately, more research has shown, pretty conclusively, that carbon nanotubes are bad for you. Which is probably why the supply of those accessible “educator” samples seem to have dried up. Oh well.
Hummer stagecoach
Hummer stagecoach @ creative thriftshop… On Sunday March 8th 2010 Jeremy Dean made New york City history by taking his converted Hummer entitled Futurama out for a spin. Entering Central park in New York at 69th St. and Central Park West (at the old Tavern on the Green location) Dean had his hand crafted vehicle […]
How To: Make a Moss Tabletop
I think the simple moss is perfectly dramatic running the length of this glass table. Oooh, what if this was the head table at a wedding? Swooning at the thought. This is upscale gardening at it’s best. Sunset Magazine has all the deets on how to create your own version.
Maker Birthdays: Robert Bunsen
Although best known today for the eponymous Bunsen burner, German chemist Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (Wikipedia), born on this date in 1811, had a foundational role in many areas of modern chemistry. He discovered the use of iron oxide hydrate as a precipitating agent for arsenic, which even today has applications in treating contaminated groundwater. His experiments with arsenic cost him an eye (by an explosion of pyrophoric tetramethyldiarsine) and almost cost him his life, by poisoning. He invented the Bunsen cell, an early electrochemical “battery” that improved upon existing designs by replacing precious metallic platinum with common carbon in the cathode. He used his new cell, among other things, to isolate pure magnesium for the first time, by electrolysis. With Kirchoff, he was instrumental in the development of flame-emission spectroscopy, and used the technique, for which his famous burner was developed, to discover two then-unknown elements–cesium and rubidium. He was, even among the acerbic European academic chemists of his day, widely regarded for his kindness, even temperament, and good character. He died in 1899, aged 88.
