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!
Latest Gadget Freak – Case #160: Chase the Stars with a Camera @ Design News… Who hasn’t looked at the night sky and asked in awe, “How can I capture that?” A motor-driven star tracker won’t let you grab a star, but it will let a camera track the movement of the stars so you […]
Two galvanized nails set in a plug of plaster-of-Paris. That’s it. The Cheap Vegetable Gardener, who created the sensor for an automated grow box project, explains:
Technically a gypsum block measures soil water tension. When the gypsum block is dry it is not possible for electricity to pass between the probes, essentially making the probe an insulator with infinite resistance. As water is added to the problem more electrons can pass between the probes effectively reducing the amount of resistance between the problem to the point when it is fully saturated where the probe has virtually zero resistance. By using this range of values you can determine the amount of water than exists in your soil.
[via Hack a Day]
Math-play with your food By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics Making things with your food is an age-old pastime. Here are two mathematical constructions made from crackers. This illustrates the Pythagorean Theorem for a 5-12-13 right triangle. The number of crackers in the two small squares (25+144) equals the number of crackers in […]
Einstein, who would be 131 today, needs no introduction. The foremost physicist of the 20th Century, he held a position at the Institute of Advanced Study, one of the most storied intellectual centers in the world. Nobel Prize. He published papers on such physics-related topics as molecular physics, thermodynamics, the behavior of photons, statistical mechanics, […]
Happy Pi Day from Makers Market! This sterling silver Pi Pendant and Pi Earrings from Oregon jewelers Nicholas and Felice would be a great gift for the mathematician, engineer, or scientist in your life.
Xylocopa Design (of Build-Your-Own Ratmobile fame) just added this beautiful Mysterious Mushroom Puzzle to their Makers Market store: These gorgeous engraved wooden mushrooms fit together to make a 6″ square – but in only one configuration! Assembling them may not look so bad, but trust us, it’s no simple task. Each mushroom is based on […]
Lately we’ve had lots of folks writing in seeking practical advice on collecting tissue samples for use in studying diseases of whales. I had no idea there were so many amateur cetopathologists among our readers!
As you folks know–all too well, I’m sure–it is extremely difficult to collect blood from a wild whale without injuring or killing it in the process. However, as is common knowledge even among laypersons, the next best thing to live whale blood is live whale snot. Turns out it spews from their blowholes when they exhale, so the process is really very simple:
1. Find breaching whale.
2. Hold petri dish over blowhole to intercept spout.
3. Return to lab, enjoy sample.
Step 2 is actually the hard part. And although your first instinct may be to just jump in your rowboat, paddle out to a whale pod, lean way out over the side with your sample container, and wait, that’s actually not as safe as it might sound. Each year, untold millions die attempting this maneuver.
Enter Dr. Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, of the Zoological Society of London. Her recent paper in Animal Conservation (abstract), irresistibly entitled “A novel non-invasive tool for disease surveillance of free-ranging whales and its relevance to conservation programs,” introduces the ground-breaking methodology of strapping a petri dish to a toy RC helicopter and flying it into the spout. This landmark paper stands not only to revolutionize our understanding of whaleborne disease, but to save countless lives, and establishes Dr. Acevedo-Whitehouse as a serious contender for this year’s (Ig) Nobel Prize.
[via The Thoughtful Animal]
P.S. Dr. Acevedo-Whitehouse, you are made of awesome. And although I have never met you and probably never will, I love you with all my heart.
