Electronic gardening kit

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A whole new way to garden.

If there ever was a product that best demonstrated our increasing disconnect with nature, this one may be it. Click & Grow is an electronic gardening set that includes a soil-less pot, plant ‘cartridges’ and yep, even batteries. The premise is that people are either too busy or too much of a brownthumb to grow their own plants, so why not let some gadget do all the hard work?

Developed by an Estonian entrepreneur, Click & Grow is the result of a meshing of hydroponics and aeroponics, all reduced to a series of sensors, processors and software, which surround the seeds in the disposable cartridge…

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Mongolia Unicycle Tour claimed “half as difficult as biking”

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All for one and one for all!

If you ever shied away from the challenge of a long distance bike trip, well here’s a trip that really isn’t for the faint of heart — or the unskilled.

Last summer, Adventure Unicyclist, Bike Asia and Grasshopper Adventures teamed up to host a tour of Mongolia by unicycle.

The 12-day tour (with seven days of one-wheeled biking) covered 150 miles and gave athletically inclined and adventure-tuned travelers a unique way to get from point A to point B, while creating quite the spectacle in pictures. The Monguni tour group jokingly claims that unicycling is only half as difficult as biking — you only have half as much to worry about…

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HOWTO clean LPs, DVDs, and CDs

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REALLY close up of a vinyl groove.

I’ve recently picked up several old vinyl LPs at thrift stores and garage sales. My musical taste is very eclectic, but these discs have one big thing in common: they’re all filthy. Similarly, we have dozens of kids DVDs and CDs in our house coated in toddler goo that would almost certainly beat the adhesive that holds the tiles on the space shuttle. This weekend, I plan to brew up a cauldron of the cleaning solution used by the master preservationists at the Library of Congress. Or maybe I’ll just go with Ivory dish soap, warm water, and an old t-shirt. Anyway, here’s the LoC’s recipe..

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DIY Magnetic Silly Putty

As far as at-home science experiments go, this one is both kid-friendly and non-explosive. It’s a great way to illustrate non-Newtonian flow and magnetic attraction to kids, but it’s also cool enough to keep grown-ups hanging around to see what happens. For the full instructions for making your own magnetic putty, check out the post on instructables by user mikeasaurus…

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Vote for Google Science Fair Semi-Finalists

The Google Science Fair has reached the semi-finals stage. Now is your chance to vote!

I’m really excited about the way this particular science fair is set up. It’s open to teenagers all over the world, and happens online so that “open to teenagers all over the world” really does mean just that. And entries could come from a wide range of scientific disciplines—everything from math to food science. Most of the finalists are still kids from the USA, but there’s also some representation from the UK, New Zealand, India, Singapore, and South Africa…

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Age Your Own Whiskey Kit

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Now you can do it yourself!

The magic that happens inside of a whiskey barrel has always intrigued whiskey drinkers. But unless you are a whiskey drinker who owns a distillery, it’s next to impossible to witness the transformation of the distillate from clear to brown, and the many flavor, aroma, and taste complexities that are added before finishing the journey as aged whiskey. But no longer…

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Miniature Crossbow Fires Flaming Bolts

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YouTube user T. Shamir, who made the excellent tiny cannon that we featured last year, has machined a crossbow from gold, silver, and steel. It comes with a tiny aperture sight and a pull of 5.9 pounds. The above video shows the impressive capabilities of this little crossbow and the various bolts that Shamir made…

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Make’s Roundup of DIY Radiation Detectors

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It may not be pretty but it gets the job done!

John Baichtal says: “MAKE’s interview with hardware hacker Akiba highlighted a fascinating trend: individuals and small groups taking their safety into their own hands by creating, modifying, and networking radiation detectors, a.k.a. Geiger counters, rather than relying on governments for information…

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Scientists Created Embryonic Eye in Test Tube

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Eye see you!

Scientists from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan cultivated embryonic stem cells in a test tube and added proteins to coax them into developing. They had wanted it to form a recognizable organ, but were stunned to find that over 10 days, the stem cells had formed an embryonic eye:

Professor Yoshiki Sasai, lead author said: “What we’ve been able to do in this study is resolve a nearly century-old problem in embryology, by showing that retinal precursors have the inherent ability to give rise to the complex structure of the optic cup.”

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Discover the Hidden Patterns of Tomorrow with Futurist Thomas Frey
Unlock Your Potential, Ignite Your Success.

By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.

Learn More about this exciting program.