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!
Environmental Graffiti has a roundup of amazing light phenomena photos, with nice pithy explanations of the science. Via Mr.Reid The collision of electronically charged particles in the earth’s upper atmosphere often creates magnificent light displays over the polar regions. The colour depends on the elemental content of the particles – most auroras appear green or […]
Using a standard webcam and some Americium 241 from a fire detector, Jared Bouck created a PC interface for visualizing alpha radiation. The basic idea behind this project is using the built in CCD in a USB web camera as a medium for alpha radiation to interact with. The result is a visual presentation of […]
Make a DIY internal combustion engine that explodes into action just like the real thing! See the misfires and final test results!
Turn a video camera into a lensless miscroscope and record what you see! Fun and easy project. Credit for the original project goes to Tom Zimmerman. From Make Magazine Volume 14.
Make your own backyard biodiesel. It’s easy to make a small batch that will work in any diesel engine. You won’t need any special equipment–an old juice bottle will serve as the “reactor” vessel–and on such a small scale, you can quickly refine your technique and perform further experiments.
Greg Gage from Backyard Brains demonstrates their SpikerBox kit, which lets you experiment with cockroach neurons. Becky and Greg surgically remove a cockroach leg and listen to the neurons firing. This is an archived clip from Make: Live, which was originally broadcasted on 7/29/11. Go to https://makezine.com/live/ for information about the show, chat transcripts, and details on the next show.
Liquid Robotics’ Waveglider is an autonomous submersible that explores the ocean using the power of the sun and waves. As Roger Hine explains at Bay Area Maker Faire 2011, the Waveglider can either traverse the waters on its own, converting the up-and-down motion of the waves into forward propulsion, or can be controlled remotely by a user with a GPS satellite link.
http://liquidr.com/
