How to Produce the Power

Solar panels are an amazing invention. Catching energy from the Sun before it even enters Earth's food chain, photovoltaics are like an all-natural nuclear power plant. Unfortunately, the constituted parts of a solar panel are rare, valuable, and subject to the coercive forces ...more

It's that time a year when winter storms begin causing havoc across the United States, and when "rotating outages" are common to help sustain the electrical grid during intense cold periods. That means pretty much anybody with snow and ice in their backyard can succumb to powe ...more

Fire.  It’s everywhere— always has been.  From the Ordovician Period where the first fossil record of fire appears to the present day everyday uses of the Holocene.  Today, we abundantly create flames (intentionally or unintentionally) in power plants, extractive metallurgy, i ...more

Wall studs are both critical for maintaining the structure of your home and supporting items of weight and function on the interior walls (e.g. cabinets, shelves, plasma TVs, etc.). With wall studs playing such a critical role, consistently being able to find them is important ...more

General Electric isn't known for their Christmas lights, but maybe they should be, because their GE Color Effects are pretty awesome. Especially the LED Color Effects G-35 String sets. And especially when someone named Darco hacks them. Darco, whose real name is Robert Sun Qu ...more

Deadly natural disasters can happen at any moment— earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, fires and especially tornadoes. That's why you have to be prepared. According to Secrets of Survival: The greatest and most frequent tornado occurrences happen in the United States. ...more

We have no control on the weather yet it is a part of our lives which influence what we do, what we eat, what we wear and many times where we live. How did people predict the weather before there was the Internet, television, radio or the weatherperson with all of their gadget ...more

First off, don't be frustrated. YOU CAN DO IT! Contrary to the message in the image above, it's NOT over. It's just beginning. And when it comes to solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, the old cliche does apply: practice makes perfect. I've read quite a few books and ...more

I'm back with the third part to my laser weapon series (see part one and two), and I'll be explaining the function, application, and potential of semiconductor lasers, aka laser diodes. Surely, most of you have used a laser pointer at some point. Whether purchased at a dollar ...more

In my second article of the laser weapon series (see the first part here on CO2 lasers), I'll be expanding on the potential of pulsed lasers. I'm sure most everyone has seen those green and red laser pulses on Star Wars. Theoretically, those lasers could be built using a conc ...more

Sounds like an odd bragging right, but hold your horses, artist Hannes Langeder's handmade Porsche is pretty damn interesting. "The bicycle Porsche functions as signifier for the fascination with the figure of an automobile that has lasted since the 1950s; yet Hannes Langeder ...more

The newest fuel alternative on the horizon? Pee. U.S. researchers have been experimenting with using urine as a method of producing hydrogen. Not only could this virtually free and readily available resource possibly power automobiles, but it could also aid in the clean up of ...more

Not only does this solar-powered cinema have all the trimmings of a great movie theater — ticket booth, brick façade, Ionic columns, popcorn machine, fancy art deco signage —, it is itself remarkably trim: The Sol Cinema was commissioned by media arts charity Undercurrents an ...more

Royal College of the Arts student Merel Karhof has come up with an innovative way to harness natural resources: a wind knitting factory. Merel's device is a mechanical wind-powered knitting machine that sustainably produces long tubes of knitted material. Nice. I'd let the win ...more

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 reanimat ...more

I feel like doing a bit of chemistry today, how about you? To my knowledge, thermite is the hottest burning man-made substance. Thermite is a pyrotechnic composition of a metal powder and a metal oxide that produces an exothermic oxidation-reduction reaction known as a thermit ...more

Instructable user samsmith17's solution for riding in the dark is a lot snazzier than your typical bicycle light: "This summer I realized that you don’t need a driver to run your el wire if you’re putting it on a bike. I hooked a stepper motor up to a transformer from an old ...more

What happens when a bunch of Bollywood filmmakers unleash their imagination with the aid of Maya and After Effects (plus lots and lots of paisas)? The sci-fi flick Enthiran (Robot), the most expensive Indian film ever produced. Non-stop action, violence, explosions... absolut ...more

DRUM! Magazine — the leading magazine for drummers and percussionists worldwide — has announced the biggest drumming event ever to take place in Northern California. On Friday, August 13, drummers will descend on the San Jose Repertory Theatre in the heart of Silicon Valley to ...more

When it comes to coffee, some people just like perfection. Most would agree that the best cup of coffee comes from home, after roasting your own green coffee beans. But not everybody has the time or money to have complete control over their coffee's flavor. Roasting via stovet ...more

We're continuing to deliver editing app tips, tricks and reviews-a-plenty here at Edit on a Dime. Let's look at what we talked about this week: Edit on a Dime: The Week Ahead Magisto: Turn Rambling Video Footage Into a Polished Edit in Only a Few Clicks Snapseed: Can a $5 App ...more

As someone who keeps an electric drill in the same 5 foot proximity of a manual wall pencil sharpener, here's a clear cut case of "Why didn't they think of this sooner?!"... Introducing, the coolest drill bit ever: Wowee, just watch it go. The C.H. Hanson Pro-Sharp Finishing P ...more

Ron Paul Republicans take over Nevada GOP Ron Paul fever is spreading across the country, but it faces furious opposition from the Republican Party establishment as Election Day nears. Following this week’s primary victory in Texas, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is all b ...more

Your favorite device is running low on juice and needs a couple new AA batteries—and with a quickness. You run to the store and grab the first pack of AAs you see. But should you? There's tons of options available, so which make and model gives you the most power per dollar? ...more

As you may or may not know, the US and France have deployed four nuclear warships on either side of the Strait of Hormuz, which, along with helicopters, scour the area for underwater mines. The Situation As such, traffic through the strait has been 'icky', with tensions at a ...more

Nikola Tesla. He was the man behind some of the greatest inventions of all time, including radio and alternating current. But perhaps his most visually fascinating invention is the Tesla coil. While maintaining a low current, it can produce dangerous high frequencies and volta ...more

Remember what life was like before your iPhone? Before there were palm-sized smartphones with seemingly endless features, there were phones like Motorola's RAZR that peaked with its embedded camera. Before that, there were simple flip phones with texting capabilities, bulky tw ...more

... Describing the style of John Bonham's drumming instantly conjurs up visions of the thunderous power he created. His contributions to rock music were revolutionary, and his talent unmatch ...more

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 pri ...more

You might already know a little bit about what the National Ignition Facility has been up to lately, or what they could possibly achieve. But last week, even the scientists at the Livermore, California station couldn't predict the awesome power that their humongous laser was c ...more

I'm sure most everyone has some kind of fluorescent light source in their home; those long white tubes that emit a bright white light when turned on, or maybe a few of the CFL power-saver bulbs. These bulbs actually require very little "power" (i.e. a high voltage:almost no cu ...more

In the news this past couple of days, we've heard of about 10 Argentine hooligans being deported back to Argentina before the start of the World Cup. I'm glad for the South African authorities showing that they have a firm grasp of security leading up to Friday's kick-off, and ...more

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: I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which ...more

Around the world, X-People (yes... there are X-Women, too) are under attack from an intolerant sapiencentric ruling class. Integration without equality is a farce. Autonomy is denied outright. Human prejudice cannot abide a mutant state. Human fear, born to hate, imposes itsel ...more

With the purchase of my latest computer, installing Linux turned into a nightmare from Hell. The graphics drivers are probably the biggest issue that anyone with a newer computer will run into when installing Linux. AMD and NVIDIA are the dominant ones on the market, both of w ...more

University video game design programs have been spreading like wildfire around the world over the last ten years. They allow students, researchers and game developers to work on their craft in an academic environment away from the harsh realities of the market, and have led to ...more

He may have just started his teenage years, but Laurence Rock's future is looking pretty good after inventing an ingenious doorbell device called Smart Bell. He's already sold 20,000 units to telecoms giant Commtel Innovate, and is securing a second deal with an unidentified c ...more