In this segment, we'll take a look at two graphic novels that approach science from a different direction. One tackles Darwin's 'Origin of Species,' while the other deals with the life and ideas of philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell.

Michael Keller - Journalist, Author, "Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species: A Graphic Adaptation" (Rodale Books, 2009)

Apostolos Doxiadis - Co-author, "Logicomix: An Epic Search For Truth" (Bloomsbury, 2009)

Dutch designer Michiel Cornelissen sells these cruciform screwdrivers, which are laser-sintered stainless steel. There's a flat-blade, a Phillips head, and an IKEA-sized hex bit. [via Dude Craft]

On a tight budget, documenting art that lives in a lake can be quite a challenge - especially when it's composed of "6,000 tons of rock and soil" -

After considering nearly every possible way to document "Spiral Jetty" from above -- Rent a weather satellite? An airplane? A helicopter? Use a kite? -- the institute, which often works in countries where conservation projects are carried out on shoestring budgets, came up with a remarkably simple solution: a $50 disposable latex weather balloon, easily bought online. Along with a little helium, some fishing line, a slightly hacked Canon PowerShot G9 point-and-shoot digital camera, an improvised plywood and metal cradle for the camera and some plastic zip ties (to keep the cradle attached and the neck of the balloon cinched), a floating land-art documentation machine was improvised, MacGyver-like.

Related:


Students photograph Earth from space on the cheap

This beehive bracelet was modeled using OpenSCAD, a tool I'm looking forward to exploring! It was made by Thingiverse user Catarina; she printed it on her MakerBot. Stylish!

MAKE subscriber James Theophane writes in to share his project, called My Painting Has Crashed. I like the idea- can I order one to put on my coffin, for when I pass away?

I made this at work the other day. They asked me to contribute a piece of art for our reception. I decided to hack an old replica painting from my local flea market. I built a motor using one of those kits you can buy from a good electronic store, painted acrylic on canvas and glued a spinning beach ball of death cut out of mounting board.

Artist David Ersser created this balsa wood installation called "Nothing but heavy duty," a workshop of hand-replicated tools. From Seventeen Gallery's site:

David Ersser creates seemingly cold, meticulous reproductions of Hi-Fi equipment, turntables and keyboards. The thin wooden cable running down from the stereo to the floor and to a sculpted plug, is made up of short sections of straight balsa to give the impression of a curve. From a distance these works appear at first flawless, however scrutiny reveals the makers hand. This hand is the hand of an enthusiast model maker fervently gluing late at night in his garage. This mode of production and subject matter evoke the nerds hermetic and frantic DJ-ing in his bedroom. Lifeless and slightly wonky, his facsimiles are drawings and aspirations made solid, as the teenage geek fetishizes the stereo equipment of his dreams.

I think I recognize that circular saw as a Festool, can anyone confirm? [Thanks, Andrew!]

The scrub together table and lazy stool furniture pieces by designer Jason Taylor are pretty neat looking, but is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? Thats right, they are just a motor away from becoming giant bristlebots! The bristles look like they might need to be bent over a bit first, though. [via dude craft]

Spotted in the MAKE Flickr pool:

Flickr member davesbit built a globe by making a mold from a beach ball, and designed a map for it using The Generic Mapping Tools.

The globe is about 20inches in diameter, made from fiberglass and filled with foam. The map parts are built with the Generic Mapping Tools and glued on...

Making-of photos on the Flickr photo page.

Spotted in the online portfolio of design firm Martus & Silvio, of Grand Rapids. It's a sculpture, technically, entitled "Early Tools," but I'd have a hard time not using it at least once, Office Space style, on something that really made me angry. [via Dude Craft]

This giant Mona Lisa sculpture is made of motherboards. Reportedly conceived of and built by Asus engineers, it is on display at their headquarters in Taiwan. [via technabob]

Photo above by Flickr user johnkoetsier

If you are inspired by the use of everyday objects as art, then Scotch Brand wants to see your creativity come off the roll and into the art space. The Scotch Off the Roll Tape Sculpture Contest, sponsored by 3M, is inviting creative minds to submit photos of their unique tape sculpture -- constructed from Scotch Packaging Tape -- for the chance to win a $5,000 cash prize.

Deadline: February 10th, 2010. Entries will be narrowed down to a pool of finalists by noted tape artist Mark Jenkins and winners will be selected in an online vote with the first place winner receiving $5,000 and a 1-year supply of tape and runners-up receiving less money but still a lot of tape. Personally, I prefer duct tape, but you gotta like the translucent quality of the finished sculptures.

If there's one thing I can't get enough of, it is funny ways to tell time, and this catena wall clock definitely fits the bill. Instead of rotating a set of hands, or lighting a digital display, this clock works by slowly turning a chain that has a set of numbers attached to it. The current time is whatever number is closest to the top. It's a neat artifact, and could be a good use for an old chainsaw or bike chain that you have laying around. I could also see this being turned sideways, with a set of gears and different chains to represent both the time and the date. [via technabob]

I'm digging this sled coffee table and rug, built by design firm Duffy London. The concept of suggesting a narrative through simple things such as a rug cut to look like snow with tracks in it seems really compelling to me. What would be an appropriate geeky version? A mars rover table with tracks in a red carpet? A siege engine with a flat top, tiny soldiers pushing it and tons of little footprints? The possibilities must be endless! [via curbly]

When I first saw this proof of concept synchronized grid of iPods I wondered why somebody would go through all the trouble. I have to catch myself when I think like this. Sometimes it's best to just appreciate the polychromatic glow and short staccato chirping for what it is. [via Gizmodo]

The Alunda Church Choir put their backs into this performance titled "Harvest" using the land-amplifying terrafon instrument. The piece, created by Olle Cornéer and Martin Lübcke, is apparently part of an ongoing series (requiring some very sturdy and determined participants). Read more over at Create Digital Music.

Reaching for your glasses won't help you read this book. Teeny Ted from Turnip Town, written by Robert Chaplin, is written on tablets only 11x15 microns (1/1000 of a millimeter) wide. That means that you will need an electron microscope to read it. Though it was created back in 2007, this is the first I have heard of it.

To make the book, a focused ion beam machine was used to carve the pages into tablets of single-crystal silicon. It's a pretty impressive feat to print an entire book in less than 7000 square microns, however I wonder how much physical space it would take to store it in digital form on a modern flash drive. Anyone know the calculation? [via international exhibition of calligraphy]

Although I'll admit to some cognitive dissonance at the notion of an expensive custom-made object intended to evoke homelessness, there's no denying the purely aesthetic qualities of this fireplace by John Briscella. I'd really like to see what it looks like with a fire burning inside, and, while I'm at it, maybe some video of the 5-axis laser cutting out all those little pieces... [via Dude Craft]

Jack Daws made ten counterfeit pennies from gold for an art show in LA in 2007. He put one of the pennies into circulation at the airport, possibly never to see it again. Well, just last month, Jessica in Brooklyn found the penny, which is worth about a hundred dollars.

"The artwork looks like a real penny, except due to the casting process, it's slightly smaller, and because of the gold's weight, it's almost twice as heavy....Anyone interested in looking for the piece... should look for a penny dated 1970, with no mint mark."

I looked at the penny I'd found. Date stamp, 1970. No mint mark.

Seriously?! I needed more. Pennies minted in San Francisco do not have mint marks, and pennies minted in 1970 are the opposite of rare.

Next test: I took the penny to the kitchen and pulled out my digital scale. 3 grams.

Sure enough, a 1972 penny weighed in at 2 grams.

I honestly thought there was no way it could be "the" penny. The chance of it being found seemed too great. The chance of my having found it seemed to great. Still, I went to the website of the Seattle gallery that represents Daws, Greg Kucera Gallery, to see if any further information was available, any sure tell that I had indeed found not only the penny, but a really good story as well.

Check out the full story at The Stranger.

The design of the Brainwave Sofa is driven by a brain scan. Brain wave activities are being recorded by an electroencephalograph by placing electrodes on the bare skin on the head. Via BioExplorer, a computer program that records biophysical data, processes and visualises it, a three dimensional waved landscape is generated. The x-axis shows the brain wave activities in hertz. The Y-axis shows the amount of activity in percentage. The Z-axis is the time expressed in milliseconds.

Steven Nicholson is a 2yr student at Plymouth university in the United Kingdom studying Graphic communications with typography. And apparently he is a genius with a hole punch? Check out this self portrait using 10 different sized single hole punches on a a1 piece of paper that he just sent over.

This work by sculptor and musician Bradley N. Litwin, of Philadelphia, is called "The Octapult." In his words:

With 8 synchronized catapults, 160 plastic balls per minute are launched, caught, and recirculated. Made mostly of wood, the work is ~36 inches in diameter. On permanent display in the lobby of Lower Merion Elementary School, Merion Station, PA.

Fabio Viale makes incredible marble sculptures that appear to be made of foam. No description of the build process is included, however I assume that it includes a healthy dose of elbow grease. [via kottke]

We're using a hazer to make the laser beams visible, which works surprisingly well in this semi-open space. To increase the spectacle we installed a few extra lasers that are not being sensed for tripwires, but just look cool. The heisters won't know which these are, however, so it adds to the challenge without increasing complexity.

In this side view you can see what happens when you break too many beams: lots of lights come on, including a blinding, red LED array. For this Tod used an Arduino-controlled AC optical relay. I'm hoping Tod will write up the whole project for a MAKE article, because he has all kinds of neat tricks like this throughout.

The event is shaping up to be truly wonderful, and affords the attendee a rare chance to hang out in Mister Jalopy's secret underground lair. I'm totally shameless, so if you ask I'll eat some laser for you. There are still a few tickets available, hope to see you there!

Related:
Laser tripwires for Machine Project art heist
Machine Project Benefit 2009

"Oilpunks" and MAKE pals Jon Sarriugarte and Kyrsten Mate have struck (hammer to anvil) again and come up with the Electrobyte, a cross between an extinct marine arthropod and a wheel chair. Flush from the success of their amazing Golden Mean snail car, they decided to do a sort of mini-me companion vehicle. They took the power and drive systems from an old electric wheelchair and created a hand-tooled trilobite body to go on top of it. The result is this sweet little ride.

Test-driving the Electrobite, a trilobite-shaped DIY vehicle

More:
Make your own snail art car
Snail car

Here's a neat idea from designers razy2. Instead of casting a chair out of foam or silicone, they decided to build one up layer by layer out of what looks like a giant Post-It pad. Because the paper is only attached on one side, you can scribble on the top layer and then just pull it off to clean up, or stick things between the layers. Sounds fun, but I would be pretty scared that I would spill something on it. [via core77]

Here's a very nice bit of video documenting the recent Steampunk exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.

Steampunk Art @ Oxford