One of my favorite projects in the magazine over the past five years was the Tabletop Biosphere in Volume 10, written by Martin John Brown. I think the interns enjoyed building the project as well — they had to go out and scoop scum out of a pond, plus they got to visit the cute […]
The weekly Lost Knowledge column explores the possible technology of the future in the forgotten ideas of the past (and those slightly off to the side). Each Tuesday, we look at retro-tech, “lost” technology, and the make-do, improvised “street tech” of village artisans and tradespeople from around the globe. “Lost Knowledge” is also the theme […]
Sean Ragan writes: This lampshade is made almost entirely from stay tabs that are interlocked together without wires or fasteners of any type, using a kind of “chain mail” technique that I invented. Careful study of the photograph will probably tell you all you need to know about the chaining technique. Each tab is bent […]
Photo from Afropicmusing via Afrigadget Afrigadget has a post on repurposed shipping containers. A search through Flickr for shipping container gives some interesting results. I like the apartment building. Wikipedia has an entry on shipping container architecture. You may also want to park your container across the valley from Gareth (It doesn’t sound like he […]
Photo from Third World Tech Third World Tech is a neat site with loads of technologies that are used and created in the developing world. One feature on their site is this great idea of making bamboo bikes. The bicycle is such an incredibly important tool for people living on very little in low tech […]
When Chad was a freshman in my high school program, he was talking about wanting to do a car project. The teenage car project is a time tested pursuit, an opportunity to learn many of life’s lessons, learn tools, techniques, create a useful product. Chad is currently a freshman at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where […]
Photo from Petmar0 on Flickr Pete responded in the comments to the the call for designs in the Rural Celly Charger article on Saturday. How about connecting a joule-thief circuit (DC-DC upconverter) to a cap on one side and a small solar cell (like the ones in calculators) on the other? You pull off of […]
