Stunning images of space taken from a shed
Here’s a great story in the Telegraph about an amateur stargazer who tricked out his garden shed in the U.K. and surprised professional astronomers around the world with his top-notch images.
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!
“Low-Impact Vehicles” grant program
This is rather last minute (the deadline is 5pm PST Monday), but it was just sent to us and we thought some of you might find it interesting: Seattle, WA + aLIVe: a Low-Impact Vehicle exhibition 4Culture is seeking ideas that will inspire and engage the broader community in a conversation about transportation. This opportunity […]
Measuring alternator current with a Hall Effect Sensor
Josh from imsolidstate built this circuit to answer the age old question,
how much electric current does a truck really use?
New catalyst turns atmospheric CO2 into useful chemical
Still, every little bit helps, and this copper-based catalyst recently developed by Elisabeth Bouwman and co-workers at Leiden University in the Netherlands represents a vast improvement over previous atmospheric CO2-fixing processes. Most of these are poisoned by oxygen, which means that you can’t just pump air into the reactor without removing the oxygen first. Bouwman’s catalyst, however, reacts with CO2 but not oxygen, producing oxalate, which is a useful feedstock for the manufacture of methyl glycolate and other organic compounds. And while Bouwman’s material is not a “true” catalyst in that it actually forms a compound with CO2 and has to be regenerated in a second reaction, the regeneration step can be done electrochemically with remarkably little energy.
Wind turbine covered in LEDs
It’s a Xmas-time publicity stunt from German engineering conglomerate Siemens AG, which manufactures wind turbines and includes, among its vast holdings, a couple of wind power companies. The “Siemens Superstar” was created in collaboration with Munich multimedia artist Michael Pendra and installed on a large wind turbine in Frรยถttmaning at the gates of Munich, overlooking the A9 autobahn. It was up from November 29 through January 6. The Siemens publicity site has lots more info and some beautiful video. [Thanks, Rachel!]
Build a Periodic Table of Elements Collection Cabinet
Create this cool spice rack-like periodic table display for your elements collection. You do have an elements collection, don’t you?
Beautiful ‘silk frost’ fibrous ice formations
Dr. James Carter is a professor in the Department of Geography-Geology at the University of Illinois. One of his many interesting pages collects photos and other reports (dating back to 1884) of so-called “hair ice,” “haareis,” or (my fav) “silk frost.” The fibrous ice crystals seem to be caused by the pore structure of certain woods, and only forms where the bark has been removed. Reportedly, the phenomenon is reproducible: if you find a piece of wood growing hair ice, you can warm it up, then re-freeze it, and it will grow hair ice again. [via Neatorama]
