Maker — A Fusion Reactor for the Rest of Us
Ed Storms is leading the effort to take cold fusion off the back burner by moving it into the garage.
Science
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!
Gamma Ray Bursters, Space Elevators…
Science Friday’s latest audio is up. Joshua Bloom Assistant Professor of Astronomy and the University of California, Berkeley talks about the mysterious gamma ray bursters, they also talk about using elevators to get to space and then engineering needed, along with some really neat research in how our eyes work. The more rare an object is, the less likely you’re going to recognize when you’re looking for it… Link.
Open Systems for Car Computers?
Encouraging. According to AUTOSAR, replacing an evil stew of proprietary automotive software with open code could save OEMs and suppliers millions of dollars and improve systems’ efficacy and functionality. What’s more, if vehicles’ discrete systems were able to share standardized data, a car would become a kind of distributed computing platform — rather than a series of independent modules — allowing for far more efficient processes. Link.
Car Cam Project
A Do-it-yourself “Need for speed” car camera project! I had a Logitech Quickcam Express webcam for 3 years which sucked all the time. It had a very poor video quality and didn’t work well in my dimmed room. So I decided to mount it in front of my car. He even uses the USB cam on a Mac with the open source drivers (iSight not needed) Link.
Yank Tanks
I saw a really great documentary called Yank Tanks – it’s about the ingenuity of Cuban mechanics who often fabricate parts, turn chain saws in to mopeds, bake ceramic brakes in their back yards, all to keep 50+ year old cars running. “Every Cuban is a mechanic” is one of the quotes in the film- there were dozens of hacks and mods on the classic cars as well as the ways to repair them. The Yank Tank hackers are the curators of the largest, living, automobile museum in the world. Link.
Make a Pseudoscope
RH writes- A pseudoscope is an optical instrument made with two prisms. The mirrors in the prisms reverse the image in each eye causing some items viewed through it to look quite unusual: convex objects become concave, things pointing towards you may look like they are pointing away and vice versa. This site describes more illusions that can be seen with it and how to make one for around ten dollars (holding up 2 $5 prisms). Link.
Make that a Burger, Fries and a Tank Full of Grease
A tousled 28-year-old in a mechanic’s shirt and wire-rimmed glasses, Carven is the inventor of the Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems, a $795 kit that is fitted under the hoods of diesel cars and trucks and allows them to run on used vegetable oil. Once a vehicle is transformed into a Greasecar, every McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and neighborhood Chinese restaurant becomes a potential fuel stop. Link.