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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
MAKE Flickr Group Photo Pool member pmidge posted a photo of a really cool looking LCD name plate for his door- a project i’m working on is to add an lcd-based nameplate to my office door. this is a prototype board i made to work out the hardware/firmware. the finished product should go well with the orange gorilla fur already on the door… :)Link.
New book to get kids excited about space exploration– “Buzz Aldrin: Reaching for the Moon” (HarperCollins). The goal of the book, intended for 6- to 9-year-old readers that Aldrin calls “the third generation of space explorers,” is to re-ignite interest and excitement in the space program. Aldrin, 75, says he’s always considered it his mission to serve his country and the best way he can do that now is “by offering a vision into the future”. [via] Link.
Wow- this looks great, new Google Mapping- Google Earth. Integrated Google searches and a large number of landmarks that can be turned on and off. 3D Buildings, Public Transit, Land Rendering, Coverage, Animations, GPS, Road directions, screenshot savings and a lot more. [