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!
My friend Thomas Edwards, Dorkbot DC founder and former Overlord (now living in LA), wrote to tell us about the next Dorkbot SoCal meeting on January 10, featuring three bio-inspired artists. Deborah Aschheim (above) creates works that blur biology and technology, exploring concepts of memory, architecture, and neural networks through drawings, sculpture, writing, installation and […]
Here’s a beautiful greenhouse that’s like a wish list of sustainable construction: rammed earth, recycled plastic bottles, straw bale, and rainwater harvesting. Check out the Blue Rock Station site for books describing the greenhouse and their other projects. (via Ecofriend)
With Bill Nye’s Paper Recycling Factory, recycling is literally (supposed to be) fun. Of course, DIY options abound. Either way, old newspapers are a much more environmentally-sound (and often safer) toy input than some things you’d find on store shelves. (via Treehugger)
Here’s a useful tutorial on how to harvest a motor from a waching machine, including a section on how to use bridge rectifiers to produce DC from an AC motor. Supposedly these are ideal for driving wind generators, so check out your wind exposure, make an inexpensive generator, and start charging some batteries! (via hack […]
A lot of folks emailed me about our “Not New Year’s resolutions – What are you going to MAKE? What we are making…” How many startups and projects are going to be doing power usage and metering in 2009? TONS – and now many of them seem to be looking at Twitter to pass the […]
Here’s a brief overview of non-oil light-producing options from the authors of The Carbon-Free Home. In part: Increasing the natural daylight in your home is something to take into consideration if you find from your energy diary that you need to turn lights on during the daytime. We are fortunate that our house, designed in […]
(Via Ecofriend) Cool: a company selling a calendar with pages that you plant to grow wildflowers. Cooler: This abstract perpetual calendar: Or, at the opposite extreme, the Martha Stewart take on a monthly tile calendar. Coolest: a Maker creating a gift calendar with weekly seed packets that can be grown into food at that time […]
