Amateurs
Topics from the archives of the Mad Science Museum related to research conducted by amateurs. Arranged in descending chronological order.
Electrified Sheep
& Elephants on Acid
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The Quest for Bulletproof Skin (Aug 2011)
An August 2011 Associated Press story reported that Dutch artist Jalila Essaidi, in collaboration with Utah State researcher Randy Lewis, created "bulletproof skin". Or, at least, skin that's somewhat bulletproof. The material was able to stop a bullet fired at reduced speed from a .22 caliber rifle, though not one fired at normal speed.
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 Man self-operates on hernia. (July 2011) In an act reminiscent of the self-operating surgeon Evan O'Neill Kane, a California man used a butter knife in an attempt to remove a protruding hernia. Police, responding to a call from his wife, found him sitting outside naked with a six-inch knife lodged in his stomach. Before paramedics arrived, the man pulled out the knife and then stuck a lit cigarette into the wound, apparently to cauterize it. Link: Yahoo! News. via Sally Richards.
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Homemade nuclear reactor (July 2011)
A Swedish man, Richard Handl of Ängelholm, attempted to conduct a nuclear fission experiment in his kitchen. He obtained radioactive materials from devices such as smoke detectors as well as online from sites including eBay, and then he combined those materials on top of his stove. He told reporters, "I thought I would do an experiment to see if it really works to build a nuclear reactor."
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