Makers United is an online news magazine that highlights the activities of Makers and hobbyists in the metro Grand Rapids area. Keep an eye out for future postings.

A catenary arch is a remarkable thing -- just think of the grandeur of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the tallest man-made monument in the United States. And it all started with observations from scientists and engineers of centuries past who wondered why a chain or cable always makes the same curve when it hangs -- the word catenary itself means "chain" in Latin.

National TED lecturer and MAKE magazine publisher Dale Dougherty turned the tables on a crowd of creatives who braved tornado warnings last night to hear his talk at GRid70 in Grand Rapids on the do-it-together trend that is sweeping the nation. Dougherty instead asked all the attendees to introduce themselves and talk a bit about how they fashioned things from wood, metal, fabrics, electronic components and other ingredients and what their current projects were.

Some farmers along "The Ridge" in West Michigan's apple country let go a sigh of relief this morning that last night's cold weather didn't bring the disastrous frost that it did last year. Many weren't that all that worried because they could tell from weather signs and local reports that they weren't in for the same sort of series of hard freezes that severely damaged crops last year. But the farmers had reason to be wary: the Fruit Ridge region of West Michigan has the highest concentration of apple growers in the state, and many lost their entire crops last year when April brought record low temperatures after unseasonably high temperatures in March.

Bert Jackson knew “something different was going on” during a bass tournament on Muskegon Lake when the fishing lure that he cast hit the water -- but his line didn't. Instead of falling on top of the water like all his other casts, the fishing line hummed and levitated in thin air, taking a curved shape that pointed directly up to storm clouds that began rolling over the lake.

Jacob Bourjaily stood before an audience of about 100 people who had come to hear him at the Schuler Books and Music store on 28th Street last Saturday and struggled a bit to shed some light on the topic of dark matter. And why wouldn't he? Dark matter cannot be seen with the naked eye or felt against our skin, yet the Earth apparently is passing through great quantities of this mysterious substance every second without it affecting us in the least.

SciTech is interested in stories that highlight new and forgotten technologies and retro future topics. Keep an eye out for upcoming postings.

Crain's Detroit Business covered how Steelcase in Grand Rapids was experimenting with "wormholes" to foster communication between far flung corporate locations. According to the article: Steelcase Inc. President and CEO Jim Hackett sees that his colleague David Kelley is gathering things on his desk to run off to a meeting, so he waves his hand to flag Kelley down for a couple of quick questions. They had talked earlier that morning about the news of the day. Now Hackett wants Kelley's opinion on a new business venture. "Are you leaving, David?" Hackett asks the founder and chairman of the design firm Ideo. Kelley stops his bustle, sits on the edge of his desk and nods that he has a minute. The two men talk as if they were six feet from each other -- instead of 2,300 miles and three time zones apart. They had met through Steelcase's "wormhole," a 24-hour, high-definition video connection between Hackett's office at corporate headquarters in Grand Rapids and Kelley's office at Ideo in Palo Alto, Calif. Hackett and Kelley say the wormhole allows them to behave as if their offices were next door. Read the full story Here .