Fields you can see
Fluids, heat engines, magnetic levitation, pyrolytic graphite and a linear accelerator. Useful for making invisible forces visible.
Open the source ↗New Earth Catalog · source collection
SciToys is a
library for making.
A map of experiments, electronics, tiny computers and books from SciToys—kept as source-linked invitations to learn, build, measure, repair and imagine.
The post-agentic questionWhen intelligence and useful systems become abundant, what will people want to understand with their own hands?
01 / The source
Not a shopping list.
SciToys is an old-fashioned web collection organised as a book: a subject opens into experiments, and experiments open into explanations. Its central science-toys shelf runs through magnetism, electromagnetism, electrochemistry, radio, thermodynamics, aerodynamics, light and optics, biology, mathematics, and computers and electronics.
The site also carries Science With Tiny Computers, the separate Electronics for Artists sequence, and a large book shelf. This page indexes the useful territory without copying the original instructions or pretending that old supplier links are current.
How to read it: the links below are routes into the original source. The End Up Here question is what capability each route represents, what kind of life it might support, and what safety, maintenance, rights and currentness questions remain.
02 / The test
What survives the change?
A project earns a place in the catalogue when it does more than display a novelty. It should teach a transferable idea, increase a person’s agency, support shared activity, make a hidden system visible, or open a path into care, repair, art, discovery or contribution.
Each shelf is therefore read through Then / Now / Next: what the source offered, what remains useful now, and what the capability might become in a society with abundant energy, intelligent tools and more freely chosen time.
makemeasurerepairautomatecreatecareimagine
03 / Science Toys
Wonder and first principles
Ten connected subject territories
Motors and charge
Coils, motors, Van de Graaff generators, ion motors, railguns and Barkhausen noise. Strong making value; strict safety boundary.
Open the source ↗Energy in materials
Solar cells, fuel cells, batteries and the collection of chemical elements. A bridge between chemistry, energy and resilience.
Open the source ↗Signals and listening
Crystal radios, simple receivers, a three-penny radio and a basic AM transmitter. A route into communication and shared infrastructure.
Open the source ↗Heat doing work
Heat engines, steam, bimetal strips, solar heat, phase change and kitchen experiments.
Open the source ↗Air, pressure and motion
Bernoulli effects, pumps, pressure, vacuum and propeller toys. Useful for understanding machines and movement.
Open the source ↗Seeing differently
Lasers, 3D pictures, rainbows, solar cooking, spectroscopes, photography and invisible light.
Open the source ↗Living systems close up
DNA extraction, microscopy, video microscopy, photography and electric fish.
Open the source ↗Shape, balance and structure
Kaleidocycles, geodesic domes and a homemade microgram balance.
Open the source ↗Small systems that respond
Radio and laser data transmitters, breadboards, amplifiers, thermometers, Arduino and instruments.
Open the source ↗04 / Complete source index
The experiments behind the shelf.
The titles below are the article-level routes found in SciToys’ subject sequences. They remain links to the original site: the catalogue records the map and the capability, not a new copy of the instructions.
Magnetism
- Experimenting with magnetorheological fluids
- Building a magnetic heat engine
- More about magnets
- A magnet in mid-air
- Levitating pyrolytic graphite
- The Gauss Rifle
Electromagnetism
- A motor in 10 minutes
- A bigger motor
- A motor with two coils
- A high voltage motor in 5 minutes
- A rotary high voltage motor
- A homemade Van de Graaff generator
- Fun with the Van de Graaff generator
- A high voltage ion motor
- A 10 minute railgun
- A 30 second homopolar motor
- Listening to Magnetism
Electrochemistry
- The Plastic Hydrogen Bomb
- Make a solar cell in your kitchen
- A flat panel solar cell
- Build a hydrogen fuel cell
- Homemade Batteries
- Collecting Chemical Elements
Radio
- Building a simple crystal radio
- Building a radio in 10 minutes
- Building a crystal radio out of household items
- Building a very simple AM voice transmitter
- Building a Three-Penny Radio
Thermodynamics and aerodynamics
- Building simple heat engines
- The world's simplest steam powered boat
- A rotary steam engine
- A simple rocket engine
- The Film Can Cannon
- A Bimetal strip heat engine
- A metal that melts in hot water
- A simple solar powered heat engine
- Homemade Ice Cream
- The Bernoulli Ball
- Building a homemade vacuum pump
- A combination vacuum and pressure pump
- A classic propeller toy
Light, optics, biology and mathematics
- A simple laser communicator
- Make your own 3D pictures
- Make a permanent rainbow
- Make a solar powered marshmallow roaster
- Fun with a big lens
- Building a simple spectroscope
- Building the impossible kaleidoscope
- Cook hotdogs with the Sun
- Exploring invisible light
- Build a high resolution spectrograph
- Time Lapse Photography
- High Speed Photography
- Stacking photos for greater depth
- Extract DNA from a pumpkin
- Photography through a microscope
- Video through the microscope
- Using a video camera as a microscope
- Listening to Electric Fish
- A moving sculpture made from paper
- A Geodesic Dome
- A Paper Geodesic Dome
- A Homemade Microgram Balance
05 / Small computers and electronics
The intelligent workshop.
Science With Tiny Computers treats inexpensive computers as instruments: a way to automate measurement, remove drudgery, and connect sensors, motors and controls to practical work. Its sequence assumes no prior programming knowledge and moves through setup, programs, functions, objects, USB, voltage, thermometers, web connection, digital sensors, AC power, motion and further projects.
Setting up our first tiny computer ↗The entry point for accessible instrumentation.Our first program ↗Programming as a practical, learnable activity.Measuring voltage ↗Turning electrical behaviour into an observation.Build a thermometer ↗Small computation tied to a physical environment.Digital sensors ↗Observation, automation and local feedback.Motion ↗Motors and movement as a design material.
Electronics for Artists extends the same capability into culture: creating light, controlling current, flashing and oscillating, motion and sound, computer-controlled LEDs and motors, sensing, communication, programming, solar power and Arduino.
Introduction ↗Electronics as a creative material.Creating light ↗Light, resistance and expressive making.Flashing, dimming and oscillating ↗Pattern, rhythm and control.Motion and sound ↗Responsive objects and environments.Sensing the world ↗Interaction with a changing place.Solar power ↗Energy as part of the creative system.
Post-agentic role: not “automation for its own sake”, but small, understandable instruments for gardening, cooking, photography, environmental observation, accessibility, repair and collaborative science. Local control and agency matter; cloud dependence and surveillance are not neutral.
06 / Books
The reference shelf.
The SciToys book page is broader than the three books linked from the experiment pages. These are the first shelf candidates for the US catalogue. The source page exposes US routes including Amazon.com, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Nook and other distributors; availability, price and edition should be checked at the point of use.
Books for building a life
Reference, experiment, body and imagination
Gonzo Gizmos
More than 30 devices, including radio, optics, magnets, heat and explanations of the physics and chemistry.
Return of Gonzo Gizmos
Projects in fuel cells, radio, microscopy, biology, mathematics and computer-controlled devices.
Electronics for Artists
Light, sound, motion, sensors, programming, LEDs, motors and Arduino as creative practice.
Science With Tiny Computers
Programming, sensors, motors and measurement for small, useful instruments.
Culinary Reactions
Cooking as chemistry: acids, bases, emulsions, gels, foams, proteins and microbial life.
Why Is Milk White?
Accessible chemistry and experiments for readers who want explanations that can be tested at home.
Why There's Antifreeze in Your Toothpaste
An indexed guide to ingredients, structural formulas, synonyms and everyday chemical uses.
Gut Reactions
Food, exercise, nutrition, the brain, the gut and the environment; current evidence needs checking.
Immortal Reactions
A future-facing entry point into ageing, care and biological possibility, not a promise of outcomes.
Separate shelves: Boom! belongs under history, danger and consequences rather than practical projects. SciToys fiction—including Raven, What Tigers Know About Entropy, No Future in Dying and A Twisted Garden—belongs on an imagination shelf, where stories can rehearse possible lives without being mistaken for evidence.
07 / Kits and parts
The missing shop.
SciToys pages repeatedly say that “kits and parts” are available through the catalogue. The linked route, scitoys.com/store.html, currently returns a placeholder page rather than a working product list.
Catalogue status: this is recorded as a supplier/source lead, not as verified availability, price, endorsement or US fulfilment. A later pass can identify a current shop or successor if one exists.
The catalogue should eventually distinguish three different things: a source’s historical kit idea, a currently obtainable US kit or component, and a locally adaptable bill of materials. They are not interchangeable.
08 / Guardrails
Curiosity needs a safe container.
Safety boundary. Some linked pages involve high voltage, stored charge, heat, combustion, projectiles, radio transmission, lasers, chemicals or explosives. This page is a reading guide and catalogue index, not a construction manual. It does not reproduce procedures, claim that experiments are safe, or suggest that old instructions override current law, electrical codes, laboratory practice, or qualified supervision.
Explosives are treated as a separate historical and consequences-oriented territory. Medical, nutrition and longevity books are references for questions, not current medical advice. Rights, authorship, source status and commercial availability remain separate checks from the usefulness of an idea.
09 / The catalogue connection
From experiment to possible life.
SciToys belongs in the New Earth Catalog because it keeps the chain visible:
source → capability → activity → possible life
A crystal radio is not only a circuit. It is listening, patience, repair, local knowledge and shared attention. A tiny computer is not only automation. It can be a garden monitor, a cooking aid, a scientific instrument, an accessibility device or a way to make a neglected environment legible. An electronics book is not only a manual. It can be permission to become capable.
The collection is therefore useful in a post-agentic world if abundance gives people more time to investigate, build, teach, repair and make meaning—not because every experiment should survive unchanged.
05A / Chapter index
The whole electronics trail.
For completeness, these are the full chapter routes in the two electronics-adjacent books. The shorter cards above are the first doors; this is the complete map.
Science With Tiny Computers
- Setting Up Our First Tiny Computer
- Our First Program
- Building Our Own Functions
- Objects
- Communicating using the USB cable
- Measuring Voltage
- Build a Thermometer
- On The Web
- Digital Sensors
- AC Power
- Motion
- More tiny computers
Electronics for Artists
06A / Archive shelf
Legacy computing, kept in view.
The source list also includes two Atari ST titles. They are not current platform guidance, but they belong in the reference record as examples of how people once learned to make software close to the machine.
Atari ST and GEM
Historical reference and interface archaeology
ST Applications Guide Programming in C
A period guide to Atari ST and GEM application programming; retained as software history rather than a modern build path.
ST Applications Machine Language
An Atari ST 68000 machine-language guide; useful for understanding low-level computing practice and its limits.