#science
// 92 posts tagged
Jul 24 5:36 PM #203 4 min Watch the White Ball; It's the Only One That's Yours
Pool (Cue Sports)Two scratches on the break before a man named Doug pointed out the obvious: the cue ball has to go *somewhere*, and until tonight I'd never once asked where.
Jul 23 11:37 AM #195 day 2 3 min Catch the Egg, Not the Trampoline: Landing the Toss
Diabolo Gyroscopic String AccelerationTurns out a wooden ball on a string fixed the toss I'd been failing for a week: a taut string is a trampoline, so catch the diabolo like an egg — sink the knees and give.
Jul 21 7:12 PM #200 2 min Stop Aiming, Bend Your Knees, and the Ball Lands
KendamaWent in for carbon kite standoffs, left with a wooden ball on a string and no standoffs. Forty minutes of stabbing at it before I learned the spike isn't an aiming problem at all.
Jul 19 6:04 PM #198 3 min The Sky Was Reporting in Eighths the Whole Time
Cloud SpottingTwenty years reading cloud codes off flight briefings, and a lens-shaped cloud over the foothills stopped me cold. Turns out I could name the weather but not the sky it came from.
Jul 16 6:53 PM #195 3 min The Sky Bell Only Rings When You Stop Sawing
Diabolo Gyroscopic String AccelerationSawing the string like a panicked canoeist does nothing; a diabolo is a gyroscope you feed by whipping, then argue with quietly before it skitters off into the fence.
Jul 15 4:39 AM #186 day 2 3 min Nine Days Afraid of a Rock, One Whorl Braver
Fossil Hunting and PreparationNine days I circled the ammonite before switching the scribe on — then spent the evening hunched in the exact posture my physio banned, learning that a millimetre gouge has no undo.
Jul 13 5:19 PM #193 2 min The Second Arrow Went Where I Didn't Point
Barebow Recurve ArcheryThe arrow points a few degrees left of the target, then flies dead straight — and somehow, on the second try, my hands agreed to cooperate for once.
Jul 11 6:55 PM #191 4 min Two Millimetres of Stem Between Spinning and Standing Up
Precision Spinning Top Turning and Gyroscopic BalancingA top that balances on your fingertip is not necessarily a top that spins — mine proved this by walking off the bench onto the concrete. The tippe top, meanwhile, flips itself over for reasons it refu
Jul 9 7:42 PM #189 4 min The Nose Must Outweigh Everything the Wind Can Grab
Model RocketryA rocket flies straight for one reason: a pea of clay in the nose. Get it wrong and you've built a very expensive lawn dart. So I swung mine on a string, like 1960 told me to.
Jul 8 8:50 PM #188 3 min Eleven Dollars of Plastic That Obeys Only Its Own Spin
Disc GolfThe physio said keep walking, low-impact. So naturally I threw a borrowed disc into a spruce, read the four numbers on its rim like an approach plate, and bought three on the way out.
Jul 6 8:56 PM #186 3 min Half a Millimetre of Shale I Dare Not Cross
Fossil Hunting and PreparationAn ammonite fell out of a rock into my hands, and now I own a pneumatic jackhammer the size of a pen and a fossil that legally belongs to the Crown.
Jul 5 8:31 PM #154 day 2 3 min Four Grams of Sugar and the Pressure of a Car Tire
Kombucha BrewingLast month the culture died in eight seconds. This month it's alive and quietly building enough pressure to turn a swing-top bottle into shrapnel. Progress, technically.
Jul 4 5:32 PM #184 4 min To Watch the Sun, I Listened to a Submarine
VLF Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance MonitoringYesterday's spectroheliograph caught the Sun for one two-minute moment. So I built a receiver that watches a submarine transmitter instead — and never blinks, even when I'm asleep.
Jul 3 7:30 PM #183 3 min Eighteen Hundred Spectra and Not One Photograph of the Sun
SpectroheliographyA good session leaves me with 1,800 spectra and zero photographs of the Sun. The photo is something you compute afterward — one curved pixel-column at a time, dust stripe included.
Jul 2 8:05 PM #182 5 min Pink at Day Twelve Where Nothing Should Grow
Succulent PropagationBroken succulent leaves from the free bin grew roots at day twelve, right on schedule. Ninety-five percent water turns out to be enough battery.
Jul 1 7:18 PM #181 6 min Add Metal Where the Probe Should Vanish
Microwave InterferometryMeasure by inserting a probe that disturbs what you're measuring, then tune it out with an adjustable stub.
Jun 30 8:49 PM #180 6 min Twenty-Three Where Fifty-Three Appeared
Thermal Expansion InterferometryCounted fringes to nanometre precision. Aluminum's expansion coefficient: 53 where it should be 23. The bench was expanding too.
Jun 29 5:13 PM #179 11 min Six Million Hertz Minus What the Coating Weighs
Optical Thin-Film Coating DepositionA 1 Hz frequency drop means 0.06 nanometres of coating. You're manufacturing precision optics by watching a crystal oscillate slightly slower.
Jun 28 4:28 AM #178 6 min Twenty Grooves Where Two Thousand Should Be
Diffraction Grating RulingCommercial gratings cost $347. Ruled 20 grooves by hand with a diamond stylus and a bent paperclip spring. Only 7,480 grooves to go.
Jun 27 2:55 AM #177 4 min Seven Tenths Where One Focal Length Should Be
Telescope Eyepiece ModificationOne of the $15 estate sale eyepieces was rattling. By 2:47 AM I'd disassembled five of them and couldn't stop.
Jun 26 5:00 PM #175 5 min Cobalt Glass Between Yellow and Everything Else
Flame Emission SpectroscopySodium contamination hides every other element in the flame—until you hold cobalt blue glass up and the forge lining confesses it's made of strontium.
Jun 25 7:49 PM #174 5 min Two Yellow Lines Three Metres Apart
Prism SpectroscopyTwo yellow lines where I expected one blob. Quantum mechanics visible with a razor blade and estate-sale prism—if you remember to keep the blade straight.
Jun 24 5:47 PM #173 6 min Eleven Forty-Seven When the Wire Disappeared
Optical PyrometrySame colour, 250°C different readings. The pyrometer doesn't measure truth—it measures the same calibrated lie every time.
Jun 23 6:27 PM #172 5 min Seventy to One Hundred Then Three Days for the Medium
Microscope Slide PreparationThe lichen sections have been pickling in ethanol since March. Today I walked them through five solvents and they'll be ready Thursday.
Jun 21 5:32 PM #170 4 min Eighteen Centimetres Down to Robertson Number Two
Magnetic Gradient SurveyingNanotesla-precision magnetic gradient survey for buried foundations. Found a Robertson #2 screwdriver from 1978. The method works perfectly.
Jun 20 4:04 AM #169 6 min Zero Point Three Two Until the Aluminum Said Otherwise
Ground Penetrating RadarThe radar said 0.32 metres. The aluminum plate I buried said 0.40. One of them was lying, and it wasn't the metal.
Jun 19 5:12 PM #168 5 min One Point Eight Metres Where the Ice Left Clay
Seismic Refraction MappingStruck a steel plate with a sledgehammer to find out what the Victorians buried under my garage. The answer is clay. Lots of clay.
Jun 18 10:55 AM #167 3 min Thirty-Three Kilograms Before the Motherboard Goes Under
Mineral Oil PC SubmersionWent for calcium supplement, left with an acrylic tank to drown a motherboard in. Thermal stratification turns out to be harder than the hardware.
Jun 13 7:16 PM #163 3 min Four Millimetres Today Three Centimetres by December
Coral Fragment MicropropagationDropped a coral fragment by accident. Turns out that's the entire propagation technique—Dr. Vaughan discovered it the same way in 2006.
Jun 11 6:42 PM #162 3 min Two Hormones Three Outcomes One Ratio Wrong
Aquatic Plant Tissue CultureCommercial plant tissue culture: agar, MS medium from failed 1962 tobacco research, and hormone ratios that program cells into roots, shoots, or formless blobs.
Jun 10 7:06 PM #161 4 min Twelve Centimetres Between Drowning and Drought
Paludarium ConstructionStared at dragon stone for forty minutes. The shop owner predicted I'd over-engineer the water section and pile dirt behind rocks. He was right.
Jun 8 8:49 PM #159 1 min Eight LEDs to Replace the Word Purple
LED Absorption SpectroscopyBuilt a spectrophotometer because calling mushroom dye 'purple' isn't specific enough. Eight discrete LEDs, one photodiode, and the end of subjective colour.
Jun 7 7:07 PM #158 6 min Point Zero Zero One Per Five Degrees
Reef Aquarium KeepingWent for brass fittings, bought a refractometer and 25 kg of salt instead. The shop owner said reef keeping is just RF troubleshooting with seawater.
Jun 6 5:52 PM #157 4 min Twenty-Nine Shadows From Fourteen Hundred Kilometres Southeast
Radio Occultation Meteor DetectionFrench military radar 1,400 km southeast, sand grains burning at 85 km up. Twenty-nine meteors logged without looking at the sky.
Jun 4 8:01 AM #156 2 min Flash Yellow If You're Already Watching
Lichen MicroscopyFound a lichen while sorting dried mushrooms. Touched it with drain cleaner. It flashed yellow in half a second and I almost missed it.
Jun 4 7:29 PM #155 5 min Purple Above pH Nine, Clear Below
Mushroom DyeingPolyporic acid turns purple above pH nine and stays clear below it—fungal dyes don't follow the rules walnut taught me.
Jun 3 7:59 PM #154 4 min Four Days at the Bottom Where the Oxygen Stops
Kombucha BrewingDiane's three-year-old culture sank in eight seconds. Turns out boiling water doesn't remove chloramine—only kills the bacteria that needed oxygen to survive.
May 29 7:52 PM #150 5 min Seven Days Before the Charcoal Tells Me What the Soil Exhaled
Atmospheric Radon MappingThe Geiger counter that couldn't find meteorites now measures invisible radon seeping from rocks. Eight buried canisters wait to tell me what the soil exhaled.
May 27 6:58 PM #147 2 min 216.430 MHz Once Per Second for Six More Weeks
Radio Telemetry Wildlife TrackingThe RDF receiver was still in the field case from the meteorite failure. Swept 216 MHz to test it. Someone's tagged a ptarmigan out there.
May 26 5:56 PM #146 3 min Five Species Before the Yard List Takes Over
BirdwatchingThe sextant's 4× monocular was for celestial navigation. Then a hawk flew through the viewfinder and I started a list.
May 25 8:00 AM #146 2 min Five Species Through a Monocular Aimed at Something Else
BirdwatchingSpent forty minutes watching the horizon through a sextant. A hawk circled into frame. Now I have a yard list of five species and a navigation problem I can't solve.
May 25 4:25 AM #145 4 min Forty-Seven Degrees Waiting for an Almanac I Don't Have
Celestial Navigation by SextantThe sextant says 47° 12.3'. The Sun says nothing helpful. The almanac I need to make sense of either one arrives in four days.
May 24 8:32 PM #144 3 min Ten Arc-Seconds If I Learn Which Line Aligns
Precision Surveying Theodolite OperationThe theodolite measures angles more precisely than I can measure anything. The limitation is me, not the 61-year-old Swiss brass.
May 23 5:51 PM #143 3 min About Three Twenty Metres and Exactly Nine Point Eight
Benchmark HuntingThe datasheet says the benchmark is at these exact coordinates. It also says those coordinates might be 400 metres away from the actual benchmark. Both statements are true.
May 19 1:07 AM #139 5 min Three Millimetres of Bronze and the Rest Is Grey
Raku Pottery FiringThe research said copper lustre. The bowl says grey. Turns out there's a difference between 'drop it in the barrel' and 'place it in active combustibles.
May 17 7:09 PM #137 4 min Thirty Seconds Working, Eighteen Hours Waiting for Cracks
Glass BlowingDiane handed me wet newspaper and told me to press it against 900°C glass with my bare hand. The steam barrier would protect me, she said, until I flinched.
May 15 5:00 PM #135 3 min Four Litres Waiting for a Quarter Teaspoon
Cheese MakingChymosin cleaves one peptide bond and milk becomes curd—simple chemistry until you're holding $24 worth of raw milk and a quarter teaspoon of enzyme.
May 14 5:19 PM #134 3 min Six Beacons Waiting for a Fall Zone I Can't Predict
Meteorite Recovery by Radio Direction FindingThe fireball report said northwest of Red Deer. Weather radar confirmed fragmentation. The witness plates work perfectly. They're just sitting in the garage because "northwest of Red Deer" covers four
May 13 6:09 PM #133 4 min Eight Metres of Uncertainty on Highway Twenty-Two
Mineral Specimen CollectingSix rocks came home. Without field notes linking specimen 2026-047 to coordinates ±8m, they're scientifically worthless. The notebook matters more than the hammer.
May 11 5:59 PM #132 3 min Six Days for Flies, Three to Eight Weeks for Maybe
Praying Mantis RearingThe ootheca might hatch tomorrow or in July. The fruit fly culture needs six more days. If the timing doesn't align, 150 nymphs starve in 48 hours.
May 10 5:09 PM #131 5 min Two Hundred Twenty Hertz of Marshmallow
Fungal Resonance MappingThe frequency sweep produced a curve that looked more like a marshmallow than a resonance plot. Turns out living mushrooms are terrible oscillators.
May 9 5:49 PM #130 4 min Eleven Hours of Silence Then Forty Minutes of Maybe
Bioacoustic Spore Discharge RecordingThe mushroom's been glued to a contact mic for eleven hours. The waveform is mostly nothing, but the quality of the nothing changed at 9:47pm.
May 8 8:34 PM #129 2 min Thirty Days From Now This Will Look Identical
Lichen Growth Rate CalibrationJust took the first baseline photograph. The black prothallus line I'm measuring will move 40 microns this month—less than a single human hair's width.
May 7 8:57 PM #128 4 min Eighteen Hours Between Horizontal and Vertical
Phototropic Sculpture GardensAnna Atkins used dead algae for her 1843 photograms because living plants won't hold still. I'm trying it anyway with a fern that's bent 8mm in the last six hours.
May 6 6:16 PM #127 3 min Twenty Microns Between Blueprint and Maybe Nothing
Spore Print Cyanotype DarkroomThe oyster mushroom's spore print has been in the sun for four hours. By tomorrow I'll know if Anna Atkins's 1843 technique works on fungi or if I've just been very patiently ruining paper.
May 4 2:02 AM #126 4 min Forty-Five Minutes Staring at a Shadow That Might Be Growth
Mushroom Spawn GraftingIt's 2:17am and I can't tell if that dark patch in the jar is mycelium starting to spread or just a shadow from the desk lamp. Either way, I've been staring for forty-five minutes.
May 4 6:42 PM #125 3 min The Jar Started Raining at Minute Eight
Terrarium BuildingThe electronics shop terrarium has been sealed since 2020. Mine started its own weather system in eight minutes.
May 3 5:41 PM #2 day 3 2 min Sixteen Temperature Readings From Eight Sensors I Soldered
Stratospheric Balloon TelemetryThe bench test showed sixteen temperature readings when I'd installed eight sensors. Turns out every solder joint was measuring something.
May 1 7:31 PM #124 4 min Seventy-Three Pops and One Frame Almost in Focus
Soap Bubble PhotographySeventy-three bubbles. I counted. Seventy-three formed and popped in the time it took to get one in focus.
Apr 29 7:50 PM #122 4 min Twelve Whistles and a Harmonic That Shouldn't Exist
Slide Whistle TuningTwelve whistles for fourteen dollars. I've spent two hours filing the fipple edge on one of them.
Apr 18 2:38 AM #104 3 min The Motor Hummed Till Dawn and the Film Took Dictation
Pinhole Streak Camera BuildingThe math says width equals constant over velocity. My stationary coffee mug begs to differ.
Apr 17 5:14 PM #102 4 min Seven Days of Pressure Before the Paper Remembered Cliffs
Barograph Chart ArtA barograph is basically a barometer that learned how to draw. Mine spent the week sketching April as a mountain range.
Apr 15 7:08 PM #100 4 min Arctan of My Latitude Times a Week Without Sun
Sundial MakingOrdered brass and a protractor before realizing I'd committed to a hobby that requires going outside and waiting for the sun.
Apr 11 2:05 AM #117 4 min Grey-Green at the Temperature Where Blue Should Be
Mordant-Dyed Tine TemperingIt's 2:47am and I just ruined three perfectly good tines with fermented oak gall solution.
Apr 4 8:35 PM #93 4 min Four Bags of Green Where Pink Should Have Been
Oyster Mushroom CultivationOyster mycelium hunts nematodes with paralytic toxins. Mine got outcompeted by green fuzz in three days.
Mar 31 8:41 PM #89 4 min Five Millimetres a Year Is the Whole Hobby
Marimo Moss Ball CultivationThe clerk called them "practically unkillable," which is how I knew I was being sold something.
Mar 29 7:06 PM #87 2 min Six Weeks Before the Fat Forgets Itself
Cold Process Soap MakingSearched "sodium hydroxide disposal" and ended up with a silicone loaf mould in my cart.
Mar 27 7:31 PM #85 2 min She'll Eat Her Own Wings When She Gets Here
Ant KeepingA founding queen digests her own flight muscles into eggs. I have an empty test tube and a wait until spring.
Mar 26 8:09 PM #84 4 min The Slippers Were Faster Than I Expected
MicroscopySomething was moving in the ammonia test water. Squinting didn't help.
Mar 25 10:37 AM #83 4 min The Back Glass Disappeared at Hour Six
AquascapingTissue culture plants arrived. I couldn't wait six weeks for invisible bacteria. The tank has been soup for six hours.
Mar 23 4:44 AM #81 4 min The Blank Remembered It Was Glass
Telescope Mirror GrindingTarget tolerance: 50 nanometres. My grinding stand was off by 3mm. The blank lasted twenty minutes.
Mar 22 10:45 AM #80 4 min The Furnace Registers at 3.2 Hertz
Geophone SeismographyThe amplifier works perfectly. I can now confirm my furnace oscillates at 3.2 Hz. Earthquakes remain elusive.
Mar 19 5:58 PM #77 4 min Three Instruments, Three Answers, One Atmosphere
Weather Station BuildingMy phone says 1018 hPa. The new barometer says 989. The airport says 1016. One atmosphere shouldn't need this many opinions.
Mar 17 6:30 PM #75 4 min Thirty Years of Transmitting Before I Learned to Listen
Shortwave ListeningChasing radar interference at midnight, I found a Romanian pan flute instead. Thirty years of ham radio before I remembered to stop pressing transmit.
Mar 12 5:44 PM #71 2 min What Silver Halide Remembers in the Dark
Analog Film Photography DevelopmentThe movies lied—there's no moody red safelight. Just total darkness and forty-three-year-old negatives ready to confess.
Mar 10 8:28 PM #65 3 min Sixty Thousand Workers and No Org Chart
BeekeepingSixty thousand decision-makers, zero central authority. Still better organised than my last project team.
Mar 8 5:26 PM #63 3 min Four Weeks Before the Gravel Remembers How to Shine
Rock TumblingSilicon carbide is stardust. I'm using it to polish gravel in a rubber drum for a month.
Mar 6 8:16 AM #67 3 min Three Fragments Where Eighty Years Should Be
Dendrochronology Core SamplingThe core is in three pieces. None of them are long enough to count.
Mar 4 6:15 PM #61 4 min The Fifth Pull Finally Looked Like Weather
Paper Marbling (Ebru)A sample sheet of marbled paper arrived with my bookbinding thread. Forty-eight hours later I'm buying ox gall.
Feb 28 8:04 PM #55 3 min The Gills Lied About Their Colour
Mushroom Foraging & Spore PrintingThe gills promised white. The paper said rust. Six hours of waiting to discover somebody was lying.
Feb 24 8:33 PM #50 2 min The Jar Started Pinging at Four in the Morning
Fermentation Sensor LoggingSix hours after the starter showed life, I had a time-of-flight sensor pointed at it like a balloon payload.
Feb 22 10:31 AM #49 4 min Dave's Thirty-Year Culture and the Move I Had to Make
Sourdough Bread BakingDave handed me a mason jar and said "feed it or it dies." That sounded like a challenge.
Feb 16 5:50 PM #2 day 2 3 min The Payload Stopped Talking at Eight Hundred Metres
Stratospheric Balloon TelemetryA stranger named Dwight called to say there was a styrofoam box in his slough. He was remarkably calm about it.
Feb 8 4:36 AM #37 2 min The Waterfall Scrolled Green and Nothing Burned
Meteor-Scatter Shutter TriggersIt's 2:47 AM and I've been waiting for France to bounce a meteor my way. So far: thirty-seven frames of black sky.
Feb 1 6:49 PM #36 3 min The Balloon Climbed for an Hour Without Changing Key
Stratospheric Telemetry Chord MapsThe script converted my balloon data into MIDI without a single error. The result was one hour of C-sharp minor.
Jan 30 6:47 PM #29 3 min The Disc That Knew a Star but Forgot How to Sing
Stellar Spectrum Music Box DiscsThe disc contains Sirius. The pins are 0.3 mm too short. The music box plays exactly nothing.
Jan 29 6:44 PM #28 3 min Asking Polaris for a Second Opinion on North
Star-Drift Compass Calibration CardsPolaris is 0.7 degrees off true north. My compass is worse. Tonight we're going to have a conversation.
Jan 27 4:00 AM #26 3 min Stitching the Sky While the Payload Keeps Talking
Stratospheric Telemetry Panorama StitchingA protocol invented for tracking horses now tells my balloon when to photograph the edge of space. This seems fine.
Jan 20 8:39 PM #17 2 min A Knight's Walk Across a Programmable Night
Knight’s Tour Starfield MosaicSixty-four tiles, one knight's tour, and a sky that cooperated like it had read the algorithm.
Jan 19 7:00 PM #15 4 min Where the Radio Pointed While the Stars Turned
QSO Constellation OverlaysYou're going to draw lines on the sky—not with a laser, but with spherical trig and old logbook entries.
Jan 3 5:33 PM #4 2 min The Sky Was Never Silent, Just Radio Silent
Aurora Chorus Sonified TimelapseThe aurora has been broadcasting this whole time. I just needed a radio and a frozen field to finally hear it complain.
Jan 1 4:33 AM #2 2 min A Quarter Watt from the Edge of Space
Stratospheric Balloon TelemetryIt's 2:47 AM and I just ordered missile-grade GPS to track a latex balloon carrying a thermometer.