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!
[Photo from AIDG on Flickr] XelaTeco is an organization that helps gather and distribute technologies in the communities of Guatemala. Xeni Jardin covered the story with photos and audio on NPR’s Day to Day. Xela Teco builds environmentally friendly technology that can be used to bring survival basics to poverty-stricken villages in the Mayan highlands: […]
[Photo from Connors934 on Flickr] For this final installment of our Make: Green series, we look at a promising technology for generating electricity: wind turbines. A wind turbine consists of a propeller, a generator, and either an inverter or storage system. The propeller is essentially two or more airfoils attached to a hub. When the […]
I was out to dinner the other night with O’Reilly/MAKE’s Brian Jepson, his wife Joan, and our new Make: Online author Kipp Bradford. We were talking about the awesome Thames & Kosmos science and tech kits we carry in the Maker Shed. The conversation inevitably turned to chemistry kits of yore, the beloved kits of […]
In MAKE Volume 14, Michael Zbyszynski showed us how to really geek out in the kitchen by introducing us to molecular gastronomy, a movement happening in the culinary world. As he describes it, “Essentially, it involves applying scientific techniques and methodologies to the cooking process. One of the more interesting techniques is the use of […]
I love orchids, and this year for the first time I went to the Pacific Orchid Expo in San Francisco. I saw some amazing plants and flowers. I left the event very inspired and decided to try the technique many growers use of mounting the orchids on branches or boards, where they can hang vertically. […]
During my six-odd years as a graduate organic chemist, probably the cheapest, most powerful, and most commonly used analytical laboratory technique in my bag of tricks was thin-layer chromatography. Explaining chromatography theory is a big job, but the idea boils down pretty well to this: chromatography is the art of taking a complex mixture with […]
Instructables user wolfsshade used hardware store parts to make this homemade ripstik (a center-swiveling skateboard). Looks nice, like more of a skateboard than futuristic hovercraft.
