Collin’s Lab: DIY Cymatics
Cymatics explores the amazing effects that sound has on liquids and some downright bizarre effects on non-Newtonian fluids
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!
Prehistoric lumber
Ancientwood, Ltd., is a US company that imports 50,000-year-old Kauri logs that have been preserved for millennia in peat bogs under New Zealand’s northern island. Besides its value as a conversation piece, ancient Kauri is mined, rather than logged, and no live trees are killed in the process. Kauri trees (Agathis spp.) thrive in New […]
How-To: Glassworking techniques for bottles
Mike Firth is a hobby glassblower in Dallas, Texas. His site includes a great page on a variety of techniques that can be applied to reclaimed glass bottles, including several methods of cutting them. The site also describes more exotic bottle-working techniques like slumping, stretching, drilling, and blowing out.
The Zeer pot
The Zeer pot is an African cooling gadget which, for less than $2US in local materials and without electricity, can extend the storage lifetime of fresh produce by as much as 18 days. It is of staggeringly simple design: Two clay pots are nested with a relatively thin layer of sand between them. The sand […]
How-To: Build your own IcyBall
The Crosley IcyBall (wikipedia) is a commercial early-twentieth century portable chemical refrigerator that runs without moving parts or electricity. Cooling is caused by the evaporation and re-adsorption of ammonia into a water-based solution, which is a spontaneous process that can be reversed by applying heat, as from a campfire. Authentic IcyBalls are valuable antiques, but […]
Infinity-pool fish tank
ZeroEdge Aquariums makes these groovy continuously-overflowing fish tanks. I’m afraid to ask what they cost, but it seems like a do-able remake.
Home science projects from Exploratorium
Julie Yu, a post-doc at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, has a really good collection of unusual home lab activities on her page, including a home column chromatography experiment using common materials, which is the first of its kind I’ve seen.
