Sing praise for the power of Tesla. No, literally -- make the power of Tesla sing. A group of students started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a DIY solid-state Tesla coil that plays music. Developed in MIT's Miters hacker space, the group created kits to build a Tesla coil that plays music using sparks. Called oneTesla , the 10-inch coil, when connected through a MIDI port, shoots out sparks that reach nearly two feet. Read more »
How to Build Your Own Cellphone [VIDEO]
As beautifully designed as the latest batch of smartphones are, they're missing one thing -- individuality. If you are a crafty type and would like a one-of-a-kind cellphone, check out this DIY cellphone kit from MIT's Media Lab . Just pop in a SIM card and it's ready to use Read more »
Udemy Puts Ivy-League Profs on Your Desktop for Free
Want to learn about the history of modern China from a professor who has taught at Dartmouth since 1985? Until Thursday, your best bet was probably to cough up some serious SAT scores and even more serious tuition. Now Udemy is giving you access to an online courses by professors with such qualifications — for free. Read more »
MIT Body Suit Makes You Feel Like You’re in Your 70s [VIDEO]
America is getting older. U.S. Census data projects that the last of the Baby Boomers will turn 65 in 2029, making up 16% of the total population Read more »
Here’s How Twitter Got Big [VIDEO]
A new study suggests good ol’ fashioned real-world networks played a bigger role in Twitter ‘s path to prominence than online influencers. MIT researchers analyzed Twitter’s user acquisition between 2006 and 2009 in 408 U.S. Read more »
MIT Announces Platform for Free Online Courses
MIT is planning to launch an open platform for free online classes, complete with certification for those who demonstrate mastery of their topics. The university announced “MITx” on Monday, though it doesn’t plan to launch the experimental prototype version of the platform until Spring 2012. MIT already has a robust free online library of its course materials called OpenCourseWare (OCW) . Read more »