Those of you, um, enthusiastic enough to remember Star Trek IV may recall the scene embedded above. If not, let me set up the clip: The crew of the Enterprise...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Tuesday January 17th, 2012 1:00 PM
Categories: Science | 61 Comments
On Friday, I wrote about the development of amorphous or “glassy” metal alloys, in which the atoms are packed together with no regular crystal structure. At the microscopic level, almost...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Monday January 16th, 2012 9:05 AM
Categories: Science | 6 Comments
Use the camera in your Android smartphone to detect radiation with the Radioactivity Counter app from Rolf-Dieter Klein. Just place a small piece of black tape over the camera lens,...
Posted by Adam Flaherty | Monday January 16th, 2012 3:00 AM
Categories: Computers & Mobile, Craft, Science | 15 Comments
At the atomic scale, generally speaking, solids are either crystalline or amorphous. In crystals, the atoms or molecules fill space in a repeating, orderly arrangement, like stacked cannonballs or cells...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Friday January 13th, 2012 5:30 PM
Categories: Science | 14 Comments
This article from seasoned acoustical engineer Eric Wolfram of AcousticsFREQ.com may be short on flashy pictures, but it is long on technical info and great practical advice from someone who...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Wednesday January 11th, 2012 6:00 AM
Categories: Home, Music, Science | 5 Comments
Uwe Oehler has written a simple program that prints out fold-up paper templates for the conic sections that make up the reflective surface of a Fresnel mirror. Cut the templates...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Tuesday January 10th, 2012 9:00 AM
Categories: Computers & Mobile, Energy, General, Science | 2 Comments
Check out this elaborate page-turning Rube Goldberg machine from Brooklyn area maker Joseph Herscher. The inclusion of fire and trained guinea pig really makes this one stand out.
Posted by Adam Flaherty | Tuesday January 10th, 2012 4:00 AM
Categories: Fun & Games, Science | 57 Comments
Here's yet another delightful mechanical curiosity from among Nikola Tesla's nearly 300 known patents. Shown above is the sole drawing page from US patent #1,329,559, "Valvular Conduit," issued 1920. You...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Thursday January 5th, 2012 10:30 AM
Categories: 3D Printing, Science, Workshop | 25 Comments
This model by Bohr Institute physicist Sascha Mehlhase does not, of course, represent the whole Large Hadron Collider, which is a huge circular underground accelerator. Even at minifig scale, such...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Tuesday January 3rd, 2012 6:00 AM
Categories: Education, Fun & Games, Science | 2 Comments
We covered Flickr user yamamo2's (and his father's) first high-performance double pendulum build back in 2009. The first version would swing for about 10 minutes, without added energy, after being...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Monday December 19th, 2011 4:00 PM
Continuing our "what happens when you drop stuff into stuff?" series is this short video segment from the BBC. As with dropping a magnet through a copper pipe, many of...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Thursday December 15th, 2011 6:00 AM
Categories: Science | 13 Comments
This simple demonstration of eddy current braking (Wikipedia) will probably be familiar to many of you, but this video from YouTuber JamesRB1995 is a short, well-shot, impressive documentation of the...
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan | Wednesday December 14th, 2011 4:40 PM
Categories: Education, Science | 21 Comments
Get the print and digital versions when you subscribe
