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!
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 […]
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.
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.
From the MAKE Flickr pool Looks like Rob Cruickshank chills with bees on the daily! A series of trap nests for solitary bees and wasps, mounted in plexiglas on our back window. The nests are open to the outside, and have plexiglas covers, alowing us to observe the activity from inside the house, as well […]
About a year ago Marc linked to the original version of this tutorial on my personal page. This is a revised version with more detailed and user-friendly instructions. The idea here is to use a simple, inexpensive concrete mixture to cast decorative containers using common trash items as sacrificial mold elements. Styrofoam packing inserts, in […]
A bit of fairy tale busting from the BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory – A gas-powered vortex cannon does some impressive huffing & puffing, taking on the role of big bad wolf against little huts of straw, sticks, and brick. That be one very loud & gassy wolf! More: Weekend Project: Vortex Cannons Vortex Cannons […]
A research team at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems (ENAS) in Chemnitz, Germany, led by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Baumann, have developed a 1.5V battery that weighs less than a gram, is less than 1mm thick, and can be printed using a process similar to that used in silk screening. The new type […]
