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!
It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret – a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car’s high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel. Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car. Link.
More than one billion people – one sixth of the world’s population – are without access to safe water supply. At any given moment, about half of the world’s poor are suffering from waterborne diseases, of which over 6,000 – mainly children – die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water. The aptly-named LifeStraw is an invention that could become one of the greatest life-savers in history. It is a 25 cm long, 29 mm diameter, plastic pipe filter and purchased singly, costs around US2.00. [via] Link.
...cool project by Canadian engineer Steve Lapp who modified his 2001 Prius by installing solar panels on the roof. It is admitted that the car is still a rough prototype, but so far the fuel economy improvement are of 10%, a respectable figure; for reference, Honda completely redesigned the Honda Civic engine for the 2006 model and achieved a 6% increase in fuel economy… Link.
…build and operate a mechanical device to simulate, remarkably well, what happens when a robotic spacecraft takes advantage of a “gravity assist” on its interplanetary trajectory through the solar system. The device substitutes a strong, moving magnet for a massive orbiting planet, and a steel bearing ball (BB) for a spacecraft. The “magnetic assist” it provides to the BB is closely analogous to the “gravity assist” a spacecraft can receive from a planet moving in its solar orbit. Link.
If you’re in themarket for a used car, you should be suspicious of old cars with low mileage. Here’s a $2500 gadget that supposedly lets the owner change the mileage indicated on digital odometers. [via] Link. and spotted on eBay.
In the spirit of MAKE Volume 03’s MOD YOUR ROD- This car mod shows off a LINUX-based CarPC that is just plain awesome. He can listen to music, watch videos, view slideshows, sniff wireless networks and plot them with GPS, browse the web with Firefox, connect to his cell phone via Bluetooth, stream DirecTV, remote-start the car, and connect to it via WI-FI, EVDO…Lots of great pics. [via] Link.
Digital microscopy systems can cost thousands of dollars but a very useful model can be assembled by using one decent compound microscope and consumer products that cost less than $150. Many hopitals and universities have retired micorscopes that can be adapted to this task. The plans found here show how to modify a commonly found microscope. Thanks Dan! Link.
