Bacterial typography
Dutch designer Jelte Van Abbema recently won the €10,000 Rado Prize for promising young designers.
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!
Flammable ice
This awesome little chemical machine is from Mr. Kent’s chemistry page. Ice is laid in a Pyrex dish over a layer of calcium carbide. As the ice melts, the liquid water reacts with the carbide to produce acetylene gas, which of course is highly flammable. A match starts it off, and then it burns continuously on its own. My first thought was that the system could rapidly spiral out of control–more heat melts more water makes more gas makes even more heat. But it’s limited by the amount of oxygen that can get down into the pan, I think. My second thought was that maybe a bit of sodium metal down there with the carbide could make the process self-igniting…. (For God’s sake, no one try that.)
Lots of great new Science Room content
We’ve got lots of new content in the Make: Science Room, including a whole new Forensics series on the many methods of fingerprinting. Tired of those bitter family disputes over who ate the last ice cream sandwich? Take the wrapper to the lab and find out for sure! We also have a lab on testing […]
Gummy chromosomes and Cantor set eggs
From photographer Kevin Van Aelst. The one below is called “Cantor Set.”
Interesting cancer resistance in naked mole rats
Of course, there’s all kinds of reasons why it might work for naked mole rats and not for people, but the idea that a mechanism as simple as cellular “claustrophobia” might go so far to eliminating tumors is pretty interesting.
Fascination video series
Our Fascination video series features interviews with notable scientists and technologists, sponsored by Dow Chemical. All the videos are up now, and they’re worth watching. How often do you get to hear these brilliant folks describe why they’re fascinated with what they do?
Sending a heartbeat over ethernet
From the MAKE Flickr pool Charles is using an Arduino ethernet shield to send the rhythm of his heartbeat over a network in the form of OSC messages. Each beat is detected via a simple sensor comprised of an IR LED and phototransistor – The idea is that when your heart beats you have a […]
