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Friday Robot Fun

Posted on October 17, 2008  Comments (1)

Buy your own Tomy i-SOBOT Robot ($180)

Related: Open Source for LEGO Mindstorms – Making Robots from Trash – Asimo Robot: Running and Climbing Stairs – Science and Engineering Gadgets and Gifts

Phun Physics

Posted on March 5, 2008  Comments (4)

Coolest science toy ever

Phun is without question the greatest computer toy in the history of the universe, if this had been around when I was a kid I would be a frickin genius by now. You don’t need things any more. It’s extremely easy to use. As a starter tip, turn gravity off when you’re attaching stuff to the background (right click after selecting “affix” tool).

Very cool. Get your Phun (2D physics software) for free. Phun is a Master of Science Theises by Computing Science student Emil Ernerfeldt.

Some other very cool stuff: Cool Mechanical Simulation System – Scratch from MIT – What Kids can Learn – Lego Autopilot First Flight – Awesome Cat Cam

The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett

Posted on October 14, 2007  Comments (0)

The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett. Review by, Andrea Barrett:

Andrea Barrett is a lyrical novelist of the American past, giving life to pioneers in science with such resonance that even readers who wrestled mightily with chemistry come away entranced by her evocative accounts of discovery.

The winner of a MacArthur fellowship and the National Book Award (for the 1996 short-story collection Ship Fever) and a Pulitzer finalist (for the 2003 Servants of the Map), Barrett is taken with an earlier time, when the country was much smaller and exploration – pushing boundaries in science, geography and knowledge – mattered far more than it does today. Science moved the country forward and outward, and into the greater world.
…
In this age, and in Barrett’s writings, scientists are holding the lamp to lead Americans out of the darkness, and patients away from death. (Curiously, this is the second novel in a year to refer to the diminutive electrical pioneer Charles Steinmetz, a major figure in Starling Lawrence’s The Lightning Keeper, an equally romantic, though less taut and accomplished, novel.)

Related: science books – science gifts and gadgets – The Best Science Books

Get Your Own Science Art

Posted on January 21, 2007  Comments (3)

hemoglobin represented in crystal

Cool science art from Bathsheba Sculpture.

The Molecule that Makes Breathing Worthwhile – Hemoglobin is the iron-bearing protein that most animals use to carry oxygen from their lungs to their muscles, or wherever it’s needed for metabolism, i.e. life. It’s the most important part of red blood cells, and its iron is what makes them red.

This sculpture, etched in a heavy 3 1/4″ glass cube, shows hemoglobin’s beautiful structure: the four heme groups each with its iron atom, the two alpha and two beta subunits, and the translucent molecular surface over all.

As well as being handsome and useful, hemoglobin is a star of scientific history. With its close relative myoglobin, it was the first protein to have its 3D structure determined by X-ray crystallography. Max Perutz and John Kendrew at Cambridge University received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for doing it.

The site offers various crystals and sculptures created by Bathsheba Grossman. The art itself is very cool and the site includes interesting information on the science represented by the art and the engineering behind creating the art.

The points are tiny (.1mm) fractures created by a focused laser beam. The conical beam, with a focal length of about 3″, shines into the glass without damaging it except at the focal point. At that one point, concentrated energy heats the glass to the cracking point, causing a microfracture.

To draw more points, the laser is pulsed on and off. To make the beam move between points, it’s reflected from a mirror that is repositioned between pulses. The mirror is moved by computer-controlled motors, so many points can be drawn with great speed and accuracy. A typical design might use several hundred thousand points, or half a million isn’t unusual in a large block, each placed with .001″ accuracy.

Related: Art of Science 2006 – The Art and Science of Imaging – Science and Engineering gadgets and gifts – Small World Photos – NSF: The Art of Engineering – Natural History Museum Wildlife Photos – Art of Science 2005 – Van Gogh Painted Perfect Turbulence

Video Goggles

Posted on November 6, 2006  Comments (2)

ezVision Goggles

Update: new video goggles

Cool product and nice gift: ezVision Video iWear the iPod Video and DVD Movie Goggles. Using these is like watching a 50 inch screen and you can easily carry them with you anywhere. You can use them to watch videos from your iPod.

Related: Science and Engineering Books

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