F.A.T. Lab (Free Art and Technology) is a network of artists, engineers, scientists, lawyers, and musicians dedicated to the research and development of new technologies and creative media. They are "committed to supporting open values and the public domain through the use of emerging open licenses, support for open entrepreneurship and the admonishment of secrecy, copyright monopolies and patents."
Are you prone to crusades of the overambitious? Well, here's one for you: try to find and identify every animal on earth. You may think scientists have a handle on this, having pinned down 1.4 million animal species so far, but there are millions more are out there, waiting to be found. Brazilian scientists have put the cost of finding the rest at a decisive $263 billion.
Truly spectacular and one the most breathtaking DIY endeavors to grace the front page of WonderHowTo, a recreation of Pixar's UP house was launched to an altitude of 10,000 feet in a private airfield near Los Angeles this past week. The project was executed by a team of engineers, scientists and veteran balloon pilots—(meaning, please, Do Not Try This at Home).
VANCOUVER: Contrary to common opinion, daydreaming is not slacking off because when the brain wanders it is working even harder to solve problems, new research has shown.
Researchers at Northwestern University have hatched a robotic replica of the ghost knifefish, an amazing sea creature with a ribbon-like fin, capable of acrobatic agility in the water. The fish is distinctive in its ability to move forward, backward and vertically, but scientists didn't understand its vertical movement until the creation of its robot replica, GhostBot (shown below). They now know its vertical propulsion is caused by two waves moving in opposite directions, crashing into each ...
CalTech's Kenneth Libbrecht reveals the sublime beauty of snow crystals when photographed with a specially designed snowflake photomicroscope. The physicist is author of the Field Guide to Snowflakes and The Secret Life of a Snowflake, and recently posted an instructional guide for growing your own snow crystals.
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has figured out a way to make an omelette inside the eggshell through a tiny, punctured hole.
Have you ever been mesmerized by the Lindy Hop? It knocks me out. WonderHowTo has tutorials, but here's an interesting way to absorb the moves: watch in slow motion.
Calling all alchemists, it's time to make magic. Here's another lesson from our favorite mad scientist, Nurdrage (previously, DIY glow sticks & pencil lead levitaton).
Yankee ingenuity is a trait we hold in the highest regard here at Wonderhowto. So imagine our delight in sharing Afrigadget, whose tagline is: "solving everyday problems with African ingenuity".
Hubble Catches Star Consuming Its Planet Hubble Telescope has discovered a planet-eating star.
"Magnetic fields are everywhere- you just can't see them." The science-inspired-art project, Magnetic Movie, by Semiconductor, demonstrates the imaginary "secret lives of invisible magnetic fields". Don't miss it - it's an amazing project. The magnetic fields are beautifully depicted. However, they are indeed imaginary.
Not sure when this might come in handy, but I'm a fan of these silly DIY edible googly eyes. Tutorial courtesy of Evil Mad Scientists:
Simply find yourself a wrist rocket and a suppository. Tthen get a friend willing to take one for the team...literally.
In an effort to prevent drones from being hacked, DARPA has been developing an "unhackable system," and seems to think they're almost there. The development team "proved" mathematically that their kernel was unhackable, and they hope to use it for more than just drones (power grids, cars, phones, pacemakers, etc.).
Asian Americans comprise 4% of the American population, but account for 25% of the students at top universities.
If you're the kind of person who frequently does science experiments at home, you probably have a hot plate. But if you're more of an occasional amateur scientist (or just don't want to buy one), it's much easier to hack your own.
Below is a great video that shows a classic illusion designed and built by Jerry Andrus. Jerry is a backyard magician and illusionist who created his own kind of special magic tricks for his entire life, up until his death in 2007.
Not So Humble Pie, creator of yummy cookie lab rats, chocolate atoms and gingerbread scientists (to name a few), brings us a delectable contribution to the world of cake decorating: the candied bacon cake. This cake looks like bacon, and actually tastes a little bit like bacon, too.
No more alkaline batteries. No more NiCad's. No NiMH's. No Lithium. Forget all of those hazardous chemical reactions in the batteries and think eco-friendly. Professor David Edwards did.
MIT scientist explains OLEDs by electrocuting a pickle. From Gizmodo:
According to University of Minnesota scientists, "Harmonious sleeping is an acquired skill".
Turn a used toilet paper roll into a fantastical garden of colorful salt crystals! Creator Jim, AKA HvySteel, is part artist, part scientist. His HowTo brings back great memories of our youth.
NK5 is a genuine wizard with an old monitor. He's hacked together everything from an electric kitty fence to a Halloween hologram using the guts of an old CRT.
Why? Tricks the eye into thinking the impossible is as simple a single chemical reaction.
WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with topics ranging from Minecraft to science experiments to Scrabble and everything in-between. Check in every Wednesday evening for a roundup of user-run activities and how-to projects from the most popular communities. Users can join and participate in any World they're interested in, as well as start their own community.
In my early life I was deeply impacted by the work of physician and psychoanalyst John C. Lilly. I still have my dog-eared copies of The Mind of the Dolphin (1967) and Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer (1968). Lilly's work, with dolphins and the development of the sensory deprivation tank, has formed the basis of movies, music and television productions.
If you take two flat mirrors and place them front to back and look at them, you can see an infinite number of reflections. While this is a self-replicating pattern and can be somewhat mesmerizing, it isn't anywhere as interesting as looking at the chaotic scattering of light that can occur between 3 or 4 spheres.
Chicken hypnotism is pretty mind boggling. We were enthralled when young Ciaran hypnotized a chicken with his infectious little boy charm (and more importantly, the gentle back-and-forth sway of his arms). There are a wealth of videos on YouTube depicting the process—a bonafide practice tried and true among both farmers and scientists. So, what is the why and how-to behind the art of fowl hypnosis?
A couple months ago, the world was supposed to end. It didn't. But that didn't stop the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from warning citizens of one global possibility besides complete destruction—ZOMBIES. They used the farcical flesh-eating living dead as an excuse to teach you about the necessity of real-life emergency planning.
Have you ever heard symmetrical is sexier? Yep, according to scientists, symmetry is inherently more attractive to the Homo Sapien eye. Back in the days of Helen of Troy, Phidias, Plato and other great philosophers all observed the golden ratio, "a sum where the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one". Confusing? Let's apply it to the human face only: the features of the human head were measured in calculated, precise proportions to d...
BPA: Why Plastic Ain't Good For You BPA or Bisphenol A is in many of the products we use. Everything from Ziploc bags to shower curtains, we are exposed to BPA all the time.
Innovative or downright frightening? Popsci examines five of the world's scariest science experiments-in-progress.
Jackass guys will play paintball with a twist weeman's pale skin would look fantastic covered in bruises1) They will be wearing no clothes, only facemask and underwear2) They will be riding pocket rockets (mini motorbikes) 3) Teams of 2 - each team connected by a 4m rope (this will hopefully makes things a lot harder)Last man standing (riding) winscheers guysjosh mckee
This week, there's a lot going on in the skies above, with at least one event per day! There's also an equinox, which only occurs about twice a year!
And Dumbfounded Most Watching Game 1 of 2010 World Cup I just finished watching the Mexico - South Africa 2010 World Cup opener and boy was it a good one. The finish of a tie, wasn't totally cool to me, until I realized what I missed.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Army agreed to drop quite a big chunk of change ($461m to be exact) on 423 M1117 Guardian Armored Security Vehicles (ASV), made by Textron Systems.
Go to http://yourguitarsage.com/ to find out how to order my ebook containing charts for over 170 tunes and constantly updating.
This highly educational video geared towards scientists will show you how to generate AC electrokinetic phenomena by microelectrode structures.
Check out this science video tutorial on how to apply a C. elegans dopamine neuron degeneration assay for the validation of potential Parkinson's Disease genes.
