Aquabike!
Created by Li Weiguo of Hubei Province, China, this amphibious bicycle has propeller vanes on its wheels and giant water bottles for flotation. [via reflectionof.me]
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!
Look, it’s Jersey from space!
Notice tarp taped to the ground, stocking feet, and cotton gloves, all used to keep the fragile balloon intact. Bright tape on the camera-carrying cooler helped them recover the balloon rig. To the left can (barely) be seen cellphone and handwarmers, to the right (under the bungies) the camera and handwarmers. The warmers are used […]
Free mail-in scanning electron microscopy promo
ASPEX, a company that makes desktop scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), is running a promotional campaign under which anyone can mail them a sample, which they will then image under one of their SEMs. The results will be posted on their webpage, and all for free! Challenge: Take advantage of their offer to produce publishable data. [via Boing Boing]
Laser-cutting old vinyl LPs
Personally, these laser-cut plastic end tables by Israel’s Studio Groovy (Fair warning: I couldn’t actually find them on their Flash-y website.) are not to my taste, but I really like the fact that that they put some old vinyl records in their laser cutter and managed to make something fairly cool out of them. Bonus: The table on the left uses the cut-out from the table on the right as decoration, so there’s very little waste. [via Recyclart]
DIY home carbonation
Repurposing a leftover CO2 cylinder and regulator, maker Joel Miller assembled this DIY home carbonation unit after a quick parts run.
What is a carbon nanotube?
A hundred times stronger than steel at one-sixth the weight, carbon nanotubes are one of the hottest technologies right now. But if all the hype is starting to sound like Wesley Crusher rerouting the flux capacitor through the main deflector array, check out this fun 5-part series of videos put out by WomenInNano in collaboration […]
SWM seeks experienced chemist for “explosive polymerization”
So I’m crowd-sourcing the problem. Is there a specialist in the house who knows something about explosive polymerization? And if so, can you tell me: What is the polymerization analog of a small firecracker? Some kind of diminutive goo-bomb that will go off impressively but without injuring bystanders or spraying horrible toxins everywhere? If you can help me come up with a reasonably safe system, I’ll make it happen. I’ll even sign a waiver first.