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!
Bored with those die-cut plywood dinosaur kits? Try building one with tweezers! Maybe in a bottle, like a model ship, for added challenge? Seller Everything Tiny wants to send you one of these awesome little stegosaurus model kits in a mint tin:
Bill Keaggy, who’s something of a list-artist (his collections of found grocery lists and sad chairs are also pretty amusing), brings us this periodic table of periodic tables. I’ve blogged about the vast number of alternative representations of the periodic table before, and while, apart from the division into themed “blocks,” there doesn’t seem to be any meta-logic organizing Bill’s meta-table that would correspond to the real logic that organizes the real periodic table, it’s definitely an entertaining notion. Static images are available from Bill’s Flickr stream. [via Boing Boing]
It’s not, unfortunately, actually made of wood. Details are scanty, but I suspect wrought iron. It’s the work of Florida metalsmiths Imagination in Metals. [via Design You Trust]
Thingiverse user themauxfaux, who does seem to enjoy his word-play, just posted these plans for a laser-cut bangle that incorporates a hollow passage, complete with air-holes, so you can display your favorite live insect specimens on your wrist.
He calls it “Putrefashion,” which I think is a tactical error. I mean, I understand: I have a hard time resisting a good pun myself, but the whole point here is to keep the critter alive. And if you were to, you know, keep wearing it after it died and started to rot, well…just…ew. Even moreso “ew” than wearing bugs around on your wrist in the first place.
Now, apart from the name, there’s still plenty to criticize here, if I were inclined to do so. But I prefer to focus on the positive, and in spite of all my little quibbles with the design, I say this still counts as a win on the basis of originality alone.
We went to the hardware store and came home with lots of PVC bits that we assembled into a barrel and a chamber. Then we waffled for some time about how to hack together an electric ignition system. Our thoughts went immediately to using an automotive spark-plug, but none of us really understood enough about electricity to know how to separate the spark-plug from the car. We were pretty sure you couldn’t just take a spark-plug and wire it up to a car battery and expect results, but beyond that we were clueless. We ended up using a piezoelectric barbecue grill igniter, which gave satisfactory results but often required several “clicks” to actually fire the thing.
Our coverage of glass-cutting continues to inspire inventive upcycling makers to dream up ways of improving the cutting process through various rolly jigs. Here, Adrian (“awalleigh” on Flickr) was inspired by Ben Light’s rolling pin rig to create one out of skateboard parts. Awalleigh’s photostream More: Glass-cutting rig from rolling pins How-To: Cut a wine […]
One of our wonderful MAKE magazine illustrators, Tim Lillis, who does the Tricks of the Trade cartoon in each issue, did a video version. I really like it and hope we get to see more. Tricks of the Trade: episode 1 More: Indirect Collaboration talks to Lego Group rep
