For most of us who are not astronomers, the image that comes to mind when describing a reflecting telescope is of a huge instrument in its own domed-roof building on a mountain top. But a reflecting telescope doesn’t have to be large at all, as shown by the small-but-uncompromising design from [Lucas Sifoni]. Using an […]
One major reason for the high cost of developing new drugs and other chemicals is the sheer number of experiments involved; designing a single new drug can require synthesizing and testing hundreds or thousands of chemicals, and a promising compound will go through many stages of testing. At this scale, simply performing sequential experiments is […]
The “Marauder’s Map” is a magical artifact from the Harry Potter franchise. That sort of magic isn’t real, but as Arthur C. Clarke famously pointed out, it doesn’t need to be — we have technology, and we can make our own magic now. Or, rather, [Dave] on the YouTube Channel Dave’s Armoury can make it. […]
Recently, [Jeff Geerling] dropped into the bad press feeding frenzy around Sipeed’s NanoKVM, most notably because of a ‘hidden’ microphone that should have no business on a remote KVM solution. The problem with that reporting is, as [Jeff] points out in the video below, that the NanoKVM – technically the NanoKVM-Cube – is merely a […]
Here’s a fun build from [RootSaid] that is suitable for people just getting started with microcontrollers and robotics — an Arduino-controlled two-wheeled robot. The video assumes you already have one of the common robotics kits that includes the chassis, wheels, and motors, something like this. You’ll also need a microcontroller (in this case, an Arduino […]
Riesba NC-559-ASM flux being applied. (Credit: Bits und Bolts, YouTube) Flux is one of those things that you cannot really use too much of during soldering, as it is essential for cleaning the surface and keeping oxygen out, but as [Bits und Bolts] recently found, not all flux is made the same. After ordering the […]
Back in the early days of Linux, there were multiple floppy disk distributions. They made handy rescue or tinkering environments, and they packed in a surprising amount of useful stuff. But a version 1.x kernel was not large in today’s context, so how does a floppy Linux fare in 2025? [Action Retro] is here to […]
Although something that’s taken for granted these days, the ability to perform floating-point operations in hardware was, for the longest time, something reserved for people with big wallets. This began to change around the time that Intel released the 8087 FPU coprocessor in 1980, featuring hardware support for floating-point arithmetic at a blistering 50 KFLOPS. […]
Want to visualize radioactive particles? You don’t need a boatload of lab equipment. Just a cloud chamber. And [Curious Scientist] is showing off an improved miniature cloud chamber that is easy to replicate using a 3D printer and common components. The build uses a Peltier module, a CPU cooler, an aluminum plate, thermal paste, and headlight […]