Elephantine’s Rachel Ball shows us how to make pretzels. And yes! There’s a recipe included.
Previously: Pineapple Upside-down Cake.
DIY
Showing 74 posts tagged DIY
How is an Etch A Sketch made? MAKE: Inventions host Steve Hoefer gives a bit of historical background on the classic toy, and then, with the original patent and some trial and error, tries to make his own.
via 22 words.
Easy experiment: Drink orange juice. Brush your teeth. Drink orange juice again. What just happened?
From Bytesize Science, an explanation as to why most toothpastes change the taste of orange juice. The video includes an intro on the five basic tastes that we’re able to detect: sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and umami — a Japanese word that we’ve borrowed to describe a “pleasant savory taste” or “a pleasant, brothy or meaty flavor” — and the ingredients of toothpaste.
More videos about the body and how things work.
Soap making, a video by photographer David Brooks, features 16th generation soapmaker Kerri Mixon and her small business making organic, vegan, and handmade natural soaps in San Diego, California.
There’s a lot of chemistry to soap, and a lot of ways to make it. For a simple craft approach with younger kids (like mine), we found two vegetable glycerin soap DIYs here and here…
Amazing Cicada Life Cycle, presented (and bewitched) by the amazing Sir David Attenborough in this clip from the BBC’s Life in the Undergrowth.
“Magicicada Brood II will make its 17-year appearance when the ground 8” down is a steady 64°F,” reports Radiolab in this excellent Cicada Tracker DIY project page. And why 17 years underground? From Scientific American:
The curious phenomenon of the cicada’s periodical life cycle is the subject of much debate among scientists, who are limited to no small extent by the infrequency of the insect’s visits to the surface. Most agree, however, that climate shifts — notably the rapid warming following the end of the last ice age — have played a role.
There are seven species of periodical cicadas in North America, four bound to a 13-year cycle, three in a 17-year cycle. All are characterized by black and orange bodies, and males woo their mates with species-specific choruses that can be deafening in large numbers.
The genetic similarity of these seven species suggests a common ancestor in the last 8,000 years. And because emergence seems closely linked to soil temperature and moisture, it is likely that climate has played a role in both regulating their life cycles and cueing their appearance.
Cicadas don’t sting or bite. After a few weeks making noise up in the trees (measured at 94 decibles), eggs will be laid and will hatch. After feeding on sap, these hatchlings will drop down to burrow and live underground, next seen in the year 2030.
