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!

Maker Birthdays: Linus Pauling

Maker Birthdays: Linus Pauling

Yesterday, February 28, 2010, Linus Carl Pauling would’ve been 109 years old. And we’d all be better off he were still with us since, by all accounts, even a doddering Pauling could’ve run rings around most folks intellectually. One of four human beings ever to have been awarded multiple Nobel Prizes, and the only one ever to have won both the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1954) and the Nobel Peace Prize (1962). His 1939 Nature of the Chemical Bond remains one of the most influential chemistry texts ever published, and his 1947 General Chemistry, available in its classic 3rd edition through Dover Publications for a song, remains one of the best-written and most readable introductions to the subject. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for his instrumental role in scientific activism to end above-ground nuclear weapons testing. A complete list of Pauling’s accolades could, and has, filled several books, but I can’t resist mentioning, in closing, that geek ubermensch Linus Torvalds is reportedly named after him.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan
Our Solar Neighborhood with Jackie Faherty @ American Museum of Natural History

Our Solar Neighborhood with Jackie Faherty @ American Museum of Natural History

If you’re in NYC, here’s a good thing to do Tuesday night! – Our Solar Neighborhood with Jackie Faherty @ American Museum of Natural History… The Hayden Planetarium, with ongoing support from NASA, has assembled the worldรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs largest cosmic atlas, extending from Earth to the greatest distances yet charted by astronomers. Join us on the […]

Continue Reading Phillip Torrone
Eurocopter’s low-noise “Blue Edge” rotor blade

Eurocopter’s low-noise “Blue Edge” rotor blade

Maybe I’m venturing into tinfoil hat country, here, but I’m pretty sure I once experienced a flyover by a stealth helicopter. I was camping at a lake in central Texas, during the Fall of 2003. Everyone else had gone to bed, but I was unable to sleep and was sitting up by the remains of the campfire, around 2 AM, just listening to the sounds of the forest, when I very clearly heard a distinctly unnatural sound pass across the dark sky overhead. It was very quiet, and very slow (rhythmically), but unmistakably a helicopter: whup whup whup whup whup. It was a clear night, and the speed at which the sound passed overhead meant it had to be flying at low altitude. There were no lights, just the sound, and I had a very eerie mental image of the glowing silhouette of my body, sitting beside the bright star of the cooling campfire, on a thermal imager cruising somewhere through the blackness above.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan12

Power line 1, tree branch 0

In case you didn’t believe Louie the Lightening Bug when he said “ya gotta stay away from power lines,” consider the fate of this gentle tree branch, who apparently never got to watch Saturday morning PSAs, or at least wasn’t paying attention if it did. It screams, literally, for about 14 seconds before bursting into flames like a vampire in a tanning booth.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan32