DIY Projects

Hamster Powered Submarine

Hamster Powered Submarine

This project dates back to 2009, but it’s entirely new to me: the HPS Hamstar is a hamster-powered submarine constructed out of a 3-liter bottle, a hamster wheel, and a few other household materials (with a total cost of $57). Its maiden voyage—documented above—was powered by Houdina, now in retirement after a single trip in the submersible.

LCD Projector Hacked Into a Medical Imaging System

LCD Projector Hacked Into a Medical Imaging System

I love stories like this, about how people are making use of off-the-shelf technologies to mimic the effects of more sophisticated and expensive scientific equipment. Yay DIY! The slow march of optical spectroscopies toward the clinic has been helped along by technologies borrowed from communications electronics. Those technologies are allowing optics researchers to build things […]