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!
Piezoelectric crystals are fascinating – when physical stress is applied, these materials produce a voltage. The effect can be reversed as well, apply electricity, produce a stress/vibration. Rochelle salt(potassium sodium tartrate) is an easily synthesized piezoelectric substance you can make with readily available items – 500 g (1 lb) of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)[NaHCO3] 200 […]
Pete writes in… Talk about retro. I hand coded this page (for the first time in years) describing my homebrew spring constant measurement experiments. This is really the starting point for solid material characterization. If you have something cool that you’ve made with that chemistry kit, you should take a look to see how you […]
Anticipating the Green Wave by almost 30 years, Jack gets rid of gas. (1978) This is crazy, Jack Nicholson had a hygrogen car (created with solar) over 30 years ago.
Packing up for the beach today (yay!), I saw this link on Dinosaurs and Robots to Kevin Kelly’s blog, to a piece about sea glass (which we used to call “beach glass”). Kevin writes: A name yields knowledge. When I got home looked up sea glass. Aha! There are books. There are collectors. There’s a […]
Congrats to Brady, Bre and O’Reilly on an excellent night, Ignite NYC was a ton of fun – especially the soldering competition. Here’s all the action in a bite sizing video minute. Go Glen!
By popular request . . .
NYTimes on the science of glass… It is well known that panes of stained glass in old European churches are thicker at the bottom because glass is a slow-moving liquid that flows downward over centuries. COMPLEX Glass in sheet and molten forms. Glass transition differs from usual phase transition. Well known, but wrong. Medieval stained […]
