Liquid oxygen is used in rockets and treated with care in laboratories, but it’s not something that people think about in everyday life. Except for one maker who was interested as to why this was the case, so he decided to make some at home and examine what makes people so cautious about it.
Human brain cells grown in a lab have learned to play DOOM. Australia-based Cortical Labs put on this impressive display with their CL1 biological computer, which is a really cool device that cradles 200,000 living human neurons on a microchip topped with a multi-electrode array. These neurons, derived from stem cells, float in a nutrient solution and link directly to the chip’s electrodes, which send and receive electrical signals.
Photo credit: SARAO
Astronomers discovered a strange beacon deep in space: a natural microwave laser so powerful that physicists refer to it as a gigamaser. A team utilizing South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope discovered an extraordinarily strong signal at 1667 megahertz while scanning the sky for distant galaxies rich in molecular hydrogen.
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) have developed a clear, reusable liquid that captures solar energy directly and holds it as chemical energy for months or longer, then releases the stored energy as heat when needed. All of this is feasible without the use of batteries or the conversion of energy into electricity, according to a recent study published in the journal Science. This is known as a molecular solar-thermal system, and it is enabled by the clever chemical pyrimidone.
A big pendulum hangs in Tom Stanton’s workshop, ready to go. He heaves the weighted arm to one side, lets it go, and watches it swing for a long time thanks to the low friction bearings. This is a simple device for storing energy, as gravity converts potential energy into kinetic energy with each pass, then back the other way again. Most people store electricity in batteries, but Stanton took a different approach, storing it mechanically and then converting it back to electricity on demand.
DD Squad decided to put a classic physics demonstration to the test in the real world. They built a catapult on the back of a flatbed truck and used it to launch one of their team members in the opposite direction of the truck, which was traveling at around 50 miles per hour (81 kilometers per hour). What transpired appeared to be inconceivable, as the guy appeared to float in mid-air for a brief while before the truck sped away into the distance.
A homemade device spins in a small workshop, transforming rough beach stones into shiny, perfect spheres. Rob from Michigan Rocks built the spherical machine himself, and the results are almost too precise to be a DIY project. He first got the idea from an older design uploaded on YouTube by James Muchmore approximately 7 years ago, and he set out to develop something much more accessible because commercial sphere machines are a significant financial investment.
A display that uses air power to transform our perceptions of screens is a novel concept. Maker Soiboi Soft set out to create one using only 3D printing, a small amount of soft silicone, and the difference in air pressure between normal and vacuum. The end result is a 4×4 grid of pixels that light up various patterns and games, letters, numbers, and even a rudimentary snake game animation, all without the use of electricity.
A car alternator will normally charge a battery at 14 volts while the engine is operating. One inventive maker had an epiphany: the same technology might be adapted to do a lot more when connected to running water. John from FarmCraft101 wanted to try his hand at repurposing a conventional car alternator. He disassembled the stator and manually rewound each coil to boost the output to 200 volts, or more if possible. As a result, the technology now powers a piece of his workplace from a pond hundreds of feet away, cutting line losses that would otherwise kill a standard 12-volt system.
