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!
Can you hear me Major Tom? Amazing photos from the Puschino Astronomical observatory @ English Russia… The first initiative to create big radio telescopes in the USSR is dated 1951. They were intended to observe the sun radiation and radiation of other space sources on centimeter and millimeter waves. The displays appear to be nixie […]
This work, titled Ubiquitous, is by New York artist Naoko Ito. It consists of a forked tree branch, almost 6′ across, which has been carefully dissected into many pieces, each of which is carefully positioned in a glass jar. These jars, stacked together with empties, are then carefully assembled to recreate the natural form of the branch. [via Neatorama]
Giant Zometool sculpture By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics What is the largest geometric structure you have ever made? This giant Zometool construction contains 50,000 parts and is five meters in diameter. As this detail image shows, Zometool is a plastic construction set with hubs and struts that provide lengths and angles for […]
The schedule for transferring the orbiters may be six months earlier than originally anticipated. NASA also desires to make selections a year before receipt of the orbiters, so recipient organizations will have sufficient time to conduct any fundraising activities necessary to support preparation and ferry costs.
NASA is planning to transfer space shuttle Discovery to the National Air and Space Museum. Shuttle orbiters Endeavour and Atlantis will be available for placement no earlier than July, 2011.
Where would you like to see the Space Shuttles end up? Check out the RFI for specifics.
Making ice cream with cryogens stronger than water ice is a fairly common chemistry demonstration stunt. The ideal way to do it, as Theo Gray does in his book Mad Science<, is with liquid nitrogen, which is poured directly into the ice cream mixture, with stirring, and causes it to set up in about 10 minutes. Liquid nitrogen, however, can be rather difficult to get your hands on. Most major cities will have a supplier that will sell it to you, but very often they have large minimum orders and/or require that you own an expensive dewar flask into which they may safely dispense the liquid nitrogen. At -196 C, liquid nitrogen is also fairly dangerous to handle.
On the assumption that hydrogen-powered cars (jet packs?) will be commonplace some day, H-hawker Horizon introduced a consumer gadget at CES that converts water into hydrogen and stores it safely in solid form. The small desktop device simply plugs into the AC, a solar panel or a small wind turbine, automatically extracts hydrogen from its […]
I have no idea how well it works, but I’m loving the minimalist zen-garden aesthetics of this Mast Humidifier from Masuza. The wood, supposedly, is naturally rot-resistant and imparts a lemony smell to the air. [via Gizmodo]
