Mad Science Features
News: This Real-Life, Working WALL-E Robot Is Absolutely Perfect (And Built Entirely from Scratch)
Want to build your own life-sized, working replica of WALL-E? Be prepared to take on a second job! Mike Senna spent two years perfecting his own version, working 25 hours a week and totaling somewhere around 3,800 hours for the whole project. He had no blueprints to go by, so he spent a lot of time watching the movie over and over to get everything just right. The video below shows some of the construction; skip to about the one minute mark to see WALL-E in action.
How To: Build a Vacation Pet Feeder with a DIY Linear Actuator
If you are a pet owner, going on vacation can be stressful. Usually, you need a friend or neighbor to come over everyday and feed your pets. However, by enslaving robots you can keep your pet happy and enjoy a stress-free holiday.
How To: Create a PCB Etchant That Automatically Improves After Each Use
Etching your own circuit boards is tons of fun, but etching requires strong chemicals to dissolve the copper plating on blank circuit boards. The normal ferric chloride solution works well, but can be expensive and leaves permanent stains. Luckily, we can whip up our own etchant at home with everyday chemicals! Better yet, our new etchant will turn an eerie green color rather than the dull brown of ferric chloride.
DIY Hydrogen Fuel Cell: How to Create the Fuel of the Future at Home
As some of you Mad Science readers will remember, we recently covered the separation of water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis. Passing a current through water can rend it apart, but we can also recombine that oxygen and hydrogen to make electricity! This is the principle behind those vehicles run by hydrogen fuel cell engines.
How To: Noob-Proof Your Electric Guitar with This Undetectable Magnetic Jack Lock
The guitar is a double-edged sword. I've played all my life, and though I love the act of guitar playing, there are quite a few people I could live with never hearing play again—ever.
How To: Make a "Joule Thief" and Create Zombie Batteries for More Power After Death
Just about every household gadget we own runs on 1.5 volt batteries of one size or another. Wouldn't it be great if you could reuse all of those dead AA, AAA, and D batteries after they've passed on? It turns out you can make a simple circuit called a "Joule Thief" to reanimate the undead flesh of your deceased batteries and create a zombie battery.
Create Tomorrow's Fuel Today: Split Hydrogen and Oxygen from Water with Pencils and a Battery
Science-fiction writer Jules Verne predicted many scientific breakthroughs, including the moon landing, tasers, and nuclear submarines. In his 1874 book The Mysterious Island, Verne writes:
Dragon Safari: The Incredible Metamorphosis from Nymph to Dragonfly
Last time we took a look at some of the creatures of the pond, including the dragonfly nymph. Today, we examine the all-grown-up dragonflies in the field you are used to seeing on summer days! Dragonflies are not dangerous, but the extra large ones can bite you something fierce if you handle them wrong.
How To: DIY Flanagan Neurophone Lets You 'Hear' Sounds Through Your Skin
In 1958, Patrick Flanagan invented the Neurophone, a device patented in 1962 that allows radio signals to be picked up by the human nervous system. The skin is the organ that receives the signal, converting it into a modulated molecular vibration, which the brain interprets into sound. Basically, it gives one the ability to 'hear' through the skin, making it sound like the audio you're hearing is actually in your head. It's kind of like having headphones in your brain. The only problem was th...
Science Gives You Super Powers: How to Shoot Fireballs from Your Hands
Everyone dreams of having super powers. Flying, invisibility, and x-ray vision are popular, but my favorite is fire power! I've always wanted to be Wheeler from the Captain Planet kids show, and now I can with these handheld fireballs of awesomeness. The fireballs burn at a low temperature, so they are safe to hold in your hand and throw (shoot) at imaginary enemies.
How To: Light Up the Night Sky with Your Own Burning 'Cincinnati Fire Kite' That Flies by Itself
Not many people fly kites anymore. Most of us don't have the patience or attention span because, let's face it, we're used to smartphones and other gadgets that have games and apps galore to entertain us. Heck, you can even fly a kite on them if you really want.
How To: Create Practically Anything, Part 2: 3D Models in SketchUp
Creating any object you want is as simple as point and click if you have a 3D printer at home. If you don't have one handy, there are a few companies that offer printing services online. But to help services realize your design in extruded plastic, you have to make a 3D computer model for the printing machine. For beginners, the free Google SketchUp application is the best choice of software. Using only a few tool bar buttons and a scroll wheel computer mouse, you can model literally any obje...
How To: See-Through DIY Rocket Engine Lets You Watch Fuel Combustion in Action
Ever wondered what the inside of a burning rocket looks like? Well, thanks to Valve engineer Ben Krasnow, now we know. He built a homemade hybrid rocket engine that's see-through so you can actually watch how it works. And even though it's probably a really bad idea to try this at home, he made a video so you can build one, too. Just don't say I didn't warn you.
Contest: Potassium Nitrate Crystals
Recreating one of Will's mad science experiments, I made some potassium nitrate crystals. This was definitely the most fun part of my DIY smoke mix. I can't win the contest, but I'm just putting it up here for fun, since I liked the pictures so much.
Backwards Geocaching: How to Make a Reverse Geocache Box
If you've never heard of geocaching, it's kind of a grown-up treasure hunt you play everywhere in the world. GPS coordinates are given as clues and the players must find the cache box. There is usually a log book to write your name and a small toy or present to collect.
Inception in Real Life: Make These Lucid Dreaming Glasses and Take Control of Your Dreams
Dreams are like an internal human holodeck. Inside your mind, anything is possible, from your grandest wishes to your worst nightmares. This is all well and good, but what if you could control your dreams and become the omniscient god of a handpicked reality whenever you go to sleep? Inception took this idea to the logical extreme by invading other people's dreams.
How To: Remote Control Anything with a DIY Sonic Screwdriver and Light Sensors
Fans of Doctor Who know that the sonic screwdriver is the ultimate tool. It can unlock doors, turn on lights, detect life forms, solder wires, and sabotage weapons.
How To: How Hard Is It to Land on the Moon? New Space Game Gravitates Towards Space Physics
If you're like me, you were disappointed when NASA cut their human space flight program. No longer could children and adults in dead-end jobs dream of someday walking on the surface of the Moon or drinking floating globules of water through a straw. Homo sapiens as a species are still making it up there, but I will never be one of the chosen ones.
Robot Basics: Using an H Bridge to Move Your Bot Backwards
I love robots. They have the potential to evolve into Asimovian destroyers of the human species, but have only just mastered the art of cleaning my rug. They have an ever increasing cool factor and a growing number of cheap and simple components that let the hobby roboticist reach for the burning miasmas of plasma. But to get to the stars, we need to start with the basics.
How To: Automate Your Doorbell with Freaking Lasers
Doorbells are a great idea. They let you know when someone who's not a burglar is trying to enter your house, apartment, or squat. They eliminate the need for lots of noisy yelling and startling door pounding.
How To: Make a Lethal Traveling Arc of Electricity with a MOT-Powered Jacob's Ladder
With the microwave oven transformer (M.O.T.) salvaged in a previous project, a simple electrical circuit can be rigged to get high voltage arcs to fly outward and upward along a "V" shaped spark gap.
How To: Weapons for the Urban Guerrilla: Make a Taser from a Disposable Camera
The agents of empire do not always arrive with warning. When you are besieged, surrounded, and infiltrated, imagination is often your best weapon against the oppressors. If all you have at hand is some duct tape and a disposable camera, fear not, you have the makings of a powerful taser!
How To: Need a Hot Plate? Use an Iron as a Quick (And Free) DIY Alternative
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.
How To: Build Your Own Projection Microscope with a Syringe, Laser Pointer, and Drop of Water
Have you ever wondered what sort of microscopic critters are floating around in your water? Well, you can find out with just a few bucks worth of materials and a laser pointer. Really. That's all it takes to build your very own homemade laser projection microscope, aka a water drop projector.
News: Potassium Chlorate—How Pyromaniacal Mad Scientists Take Care of Cockroaches and Pesky Gummy Bears
Pyromania is definitely nothing new on WonderHowTo. From flamethrowers and hydrogen fireballs, to flame-making pistons and wine corks, to simply burning steel wool fireworks and DIY smoke mix, we've covered it all. But when pyromaniacal mad scientists feel the need to release some tension in the lab, gummy bears and cockroaches become the victims of euphoric oxidation by way of molten potassium chlorate. A recent video by famous YouTube chemist NurdRage shows one of mankind's most despised cr...
How To: Trigger Anything from Anywhere with Just a Phone Call
Smartphones are crazy awesome. You can do your banking, track your children, find directions, and even pretend to have a mustache. The only thing that these personal supercomputers are missing is physical interaction with the environment.
How To: Your Personal NASA Program from Garbage: How to Build a Pulsing Jar Jet Engine
Jet engines combine oxygen from the surrounding air with on-board fuel to burn at very high temperatures and create thrust in the direction of the flame. Rockets, which we will learn about in a later post, are similar but carry oxygen internally and can therefore function in space!
How To: Are Your Gadgets Safe from Solar Storms and Nuclear Attacks?
It's September 1st, 1859, and the Earth looks more or less like something out of an apocalyptic movie or Sci-Fi novel. All communications have failed, it's so bright outside at midnight that people are getting up and making breakfast, and people all over the world are seeing auroras. The solar storm that produced the electromagnetic pulse and caused all this mayhem is known as the Carrington Event, and storms like it happen about about once every century.
How To: This DIY Double-Bladed 'Stun Sword' Shocks and Slices Simultaneously
When it comes to melee combat, two swords can definitely be better than one. Throw a stun gun on top of that and you've got a seriously terrifying weapon. That's exactly what YouTuber jonathanj9969 did with his homemade double-bladed stun sword.
DIY Lab Equipment: How to Etch Your Own Circuit Boards Using a Laser Printer
Homemade circuits are amazing. You can build any kind of circuit on a simple perfboard, as we have seen in previous projects. However, some projects require very tiny circuit boards. We could special order some boards from a printed circuit board (PCB) factory, but that will most likely involve a high price per board and a few thousand miles of delivery service to pay for.
How To: Create a Smart Sprinkler System to Water Your Garden When the Soil Dries Up
Spring has sprung, which means it's time to plant all those delicious vegetables and lucrative cash crops. If you are like me, every year you meticulously plan every aspect of your garden before dutifully neglecting it all summer. I decided enough was enough and built this simple automatic watering system.
News: This Giant Glass Globe Turns Moon and Sunlight into Power—Possibly Even Solar Death Rays!
André Broessel of rawlemon has developed a solar energy generator that can use both sun and moonlight to create usable power. Oh... and it's gorgeous. The device is essentially a huge glass sphere filled with water that uses a ball lens to refract light in a way that increases energy efficiency by 35 percent. It's completely weatherproof and has an optical tracking device, meaning that it can be incorporated into architecture. Here's a concept design of how it could be used to power buildings...
How To: Make a Sound Responsive Led's ?
REQUIREMENTS: LED's,connecting wires,tip 31 transistor,battery,3.5 mm audio jack,soldering machine,soldering wire,soldering paste.
How To: Design Your Own Custom Arduino Board Microcontroller
Microcontrollers are great. You can do anything from water your garden to catch wildlife trash diggers in the act—and on the cheap. I prefer to use the Arduino microcontroller because of the large and helpful community built around the website. Though it is my favorite, there are some drawbacks to using an Arduino board in every project. It gets expensive, the board can take up too much space, and the rat's nest of breadboard wires are a pain to repair.
DIY Lab Equipment: Make Your Own Litmus Paper Using Cabbage Juice
Home chemistry is great, but what happens when you forget to label your chemicals? How do you know if you turned a clear glass of ammonia into a clear glass of unobtainium? Chemists have a tool for just that.
Make a Physical Computer Virus: Plant a Parasite to Prank Your Peeps
Computer viruses are terrifying. They are undetectable, dangerous, and operate constantly right under your nose. For the average computer user, there are only a few repair options. You could buy expensive antivirus software that causes more problems than it fixes, you can wipe your hard drive clean and lose all of your important data, or if all else fails—just switch to Linux.
How To: Stop Bike Thieves Dead in Their Tracks! Make a Magnetically Controlled Bike Alarm
Bikes are a great form of transportation. They use human energy more efficiently than any other machine. You can keep it in your closet or hallway. You can even take it on the train in a pinch. However, this portability is also the bike's biggest draw back. If you own a bike in the city, chances are it will be stolen. Locks barely deter thieves armed with bolt cutters and crowbars. Throw the bike thieves for a loop and make a tilt-sensitive alarm. It will hopefully startle your bike's assaila...
DIY Lab Equipment: Make an Etch Tank for Rapid PCB Fabrication
I love making my own printed circuit boards. It really gives a professional look to a finished project, and having all the design files means I can whip up another batch whenever I need to. However, when I need to make, say, three thousand swarmbots or fill an order for a dozen PCBs, the traditional etching process can slow down the operation to a crawl.
How To: Make an Exploding Pumpkin Face (aka Blast-O'-Lantern) for Halloween
Carving pumpkins into creepy looking jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween can actually become fairly boring and tedious if you’re doing the same thing year after year. This time, jump into a whole new realm of Halloween fun with some exploding pumpkin faces! I like to call them blast-o’-lanterns, but can call them whatever you want.
How To: Make a Mega Dangerous PIE-Rotechnic Thanksgiving Dessert
Why can't Thanksgiving be a celebration of fireworks, too? This year, it can be with an innocent looking pumpkin pie that erupts an insane fountain of flames and fire! In fact, the pie filling is actually a flammable mixture of sugar and potassium nitrate, which was made using the same process as my DIY smoke flares with fuses.