Introducing the Make: Science Room

200909151604.jpg I am thrilled to announce that we’ve launched a new area on Make: Online, called the Make: Science Room. Here are the deets (from my post about it):

The Make: Science Room is our DIY science destination. Here you’ll find how-tos on setting up a home lab, evaluating and buying equipment and supplies, and conducting all manner of fun and educational home science experiments. We also provide a forum, through Comments, for our readers to share their ideas and collaborate on their own experiments and discoveries. Robert Bruce Thompson is your host. He’s the author of the best-selling Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments (O’Reilly/Make: Books, 2008) and the (not-yet-published) Illustrated Guide to Forensics Investigations. We’ll be including modified content from these books as well as creating original content. As time goes on, we’ll expand the Science Room to include sections on astronomy, Earth sciences, biology, and other disciplines. We already have dozens of additional articles on deck and will be posting batches of them each week, so check back often.

200909151607.jpg Here’s the rest of my post.
Here’s the front door of the site.

Device Volume II

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Last year, I had the pleasure of contributing to an art book put together by Greg and Amy Brotherton, for their Device Gallery in La Jolla, CA. The book was called Fantastic Contraption, and featured some of my favorite artists working in what I call mechanical animism (and what Greg calls post-industrial surrealism). The book was beautiful, filled with art by the likes of Stephane Halleux, Mike Libby, Nemo Gould, and Greg Brotherton himself.

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This year, they asked me to do the intro to the second volume in the series, called Reconstructed. All the above artists are back, joined by Christopher Conte, Jeremy Mayer, Lewis Tardy and many others. It’s hard for me to imagine, but Volume II could be more gorgeous than Vol 1, but it is. Everyone who sees it on my coffee table freaks out. It’s really a beautiful piece of book art and a fantastic collection of significant artists working in a fascinating, deliciously uncategorizable genre.

The Maker Shed sells Volume I of Device. You can buy Volume II directly from Device Gallery.

[BTW: The gallery has now moved. They’re located in San Diego.]