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!
Xavier Calluaud‘s “Urb Garden — A vertical food garden for the urban gardener” complete with a composting ‘worm farm’ and internal watering system. [via Inhabitat] More: Flashback: Solar Herb Dryer Set up a hydroponic herb garden How-To: Make an Herb Garden from Recycled Plastic Bottles
You’re looking at a piece of hydrogel. It is 98% water by weight. It’s moldable, transparent, environmentally friendly, easily synthesized and (get this) if it’s cut it will heal itself. Its creator, Takuzo Aida at the University of Tokyo, has compared it to silicone rubber in terms of strength. And to make it, all you have to do is stir three ingredients into a bunch of water at room temperature. These are sodium polyacrylate, clay, and a special dendritic macromolecule Aida and co-workers call “G3 binder.”
There’s a (r)evolution in the world of running it seems, many runners are tossing their expensive cushiony running shoes and opting for barefoot’ing it, running in sandals, flats and some are just making their own shoes (our favorite!). We’ve covered many DIY shoe making projects and it’s interesting to see this new trend shoe-less trend […]
That’s me, just more than 22 years ago, strapped in to the Commander’s seat in the shuttle simulator at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. The joy on my face reflects about a fraction of the happiness I felt as we proceeded through our mission, using phrases like “Copy that” and “Roger roll.” It was thrilling […]
Jessamyn West is guestblogging over on boingboing, and she put up a nice piece on how to create a thriving indoor environment for moss. It really is as easy as she makes it look. I’m obsessed with the soft fuzzy green stuff in all its forms, and I’m happy to see this humble plant getting […]
This dude is Hans Christian Ørsted, whose 1820 discovery that electric current produced magnetic fields was, supposedly, entirely accidental: He was preparing a voltaic pile for a lecture demonstration and there happened to be a compass lying nearby. He has become a sort of mascot for the Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results (JSUR), a new open-access journal initiative that hopes to provide a forum for life and computer scientists to publish results they lucked into and maybe can’t fully explain. From their website:
The Experimenter iPhone app is chock full of timeless backyard science experiments. Sure, you could troll YouTube and find similar material, but the folks at Cramzy have done all the tedious work for you. And it’s nice to have everything in one simple interface.
