It’s the McLVDT, a linear variable differential transfomer, made from McDonald’s straws. The creator writes: I made a primary coil on a normal sized straw, and made two secondary coils on the outside of the larger McDonald’s straw. Since the McStraw is large-bore (perfect for those thick high calorie shakes), the smaller straw with the […]
Mark, MAKE’s Editor-in-Chief, was on NPR’s Science Friday yesterday, talking about how to “Geek Your Halloween.” You can hear the broadcast here. Photo and pumpkin carving by Patrick Murray.
Jim Stogdill sent this to the O’Reilly Radar mailing list: I caught this on 60 Minutes the other night and it struck me as the ultimate MAKE challenge. Guy designs his own RF therapy and machine to try to battle his leukemia. He didn’t win, but looks like the tech holds real promise and is […]
From Gizmodo: Photographer Ben Cooper took this photo of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket launching at Cape Canaveral using a sound-activated camera. And when your camera is that close to a launch, your lens probably won’t survive. This Insane Photo Destroyed a Camera Lens
We’ve just added a bunch of new content to the Make: Science Room. In “General,” we added Bob’s brief on how to set up and keep a proper lab notebook, in “Chemistry,” we added Section 12 on the fine art of studying reaction rates in chemical processes, called “chemical kinetics,” and in “Forensics,” we take […]
A Personal Perspective by Robert Bruce Thompson Bob Thompson is our Science Curator at Make: Online and in the Maker Shed. He’s the author of numerous O’Reilly and Make: Books titles, including Building the Perfect PC, Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders, Astronomy Hacks, and Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments. I asked if he would […]
In 1927 Dr. Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland heated a sample of petroleum pitch, also called bitumen, and poured it into a glass funnel, with a sealed neck, set in a ring stand. Three years later, in 1930, he broke the neck off the funnel and set it aside. It took eight years for the first drop of pitch to fall. The experiment has been running continuously ever since, and has produced a total of eight drops to date. The man shown in the photograph is Dr. John Mainstone, who is the experiment’s current custodian.
