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!
Ultralights have sometimes been described as the “motorcycles of the air,” which the new Flite Bike really is, combining a Honda Reflex motorcycle with a Buckeye powered parachute. You buy the bike, and then get them to install the kit. Thanks Doug. Link.
A solar-powered handbag designed by a student from Brunel University promises to make finding keys and other items at the bottom of a bag easier. The handbag, dubbed Sun Trap, uses a solar cell attached to the outside of the bag to trap energy from sunlight. The energy is stored in an internal battery which lights up the lining. [via] Link.
Follow up on the solar powered scooter – With Don approaching 1,000 solar-powered miles (he has 932 and counting), Don’s scooter seems to still be going strong. In fact, it has been five months since Don last had to charge it. In those five months, Don has been driving his scooter almost every day going around 11 miles on the average day. By occasionally giving his scooter a day off, he is able to make sure that his scooter always has a charge. Link.
The site plans to get permission and/or make custom versions, but for now no more NYC maps for the iPod – the New York MTA has ordered me to remove the official maps from the site. I am hoping to acquire a license from their marketing department to offer the maps here. In the meantime, I hope you can all wait. Thanks. If worse comes to worse, I’ll make up a custom set of maps and offer them here. . Link.
Soon, Romania, Colombia and a high school in San Jose, Calif., will join the space race. An ambitious program called CubeSat, developed at Stanford University and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, is giving students and companies the opportunity to build and launch functional satellites into low Earth orbit, or about 240 to 360 miles above the planet. Link.
The Green Building is humming, and not just from activities in its labs and offices and classrooms. Thanks to Carrie Bodle (SM Visual Studies 2005), Building 54 has been turned into a giant speaker, resonating with sounds from the upper level of the Earth’s atmosphere. Every day, through Friday, Sept. 16, from 12-1 p.m., “Sonification / Listening Up,” a large-scale sound installation using 35 speakers installed on the south facade of the building, will broadcast an abstract sound collage generated from research data collected in the ionosphere. Link.
