Monthly Archives: May 2008

Do Boomerangs work in space?

  Why yes they do!

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Storage tank implosion

Ever doubted how powerful air pres­sure can be?   That’s what happens if you don’t prop­erly vent a storage tank before emptying it!

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Biomimetics

Biomimetics is the science of mim­icing phe­nomena that appear in nature. The image at the top of this post is one of the most famous examples of this — velcro is based on the burrs of burdock that attached them­selves to the … Continue reading

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Latte art

An inter­esting use for an old inkjet printer!

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Peel and stick solar panels

A company called Lumeta has developed stick and peel solar panels for the roof of your house. For one install­a­tion they claim to have installed 2.25kW in 34 minutes!

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Schlieren videos

Schlieren pho­to­graphy allows dif­ferent dens­ities to be pic­tured. This video takes the process and applies it to videos. Just watch it, it’s awesome.

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Segway’s new robot

Segway’s new robot uses Mecanum wheels that allow it to travel in all dir­ec­tions without turning. The video of it in action is amazing. [metacafe]http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1230336/make_robotbusiness_2008_segway_rmp/[/metacafe]  

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How many elements can you name?

The element game asks you to name the chem­ical ele­ments. I managed about sixty.

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Laika gets a statue

Laika, the first living creature in space, has been cel­eb­rated in Russia with her own statue.

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Glass frogs

Glass Frogs (Centrolenidae Hyalinobatrachium) have pigment-less skin that allows their internal organs to be seen clearly.

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The Monocycle

Could the mono­cycle be the mode of trans­port of the future?

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Logo on a human hair

Physicists at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada have used a focussed ion beam micro­scope to carve the uni­ver­sity logo onto a single human hair. Click on the images to eng­large them.

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Floating on air

Less dense things will float in more dense things; like cork floating in water or helium floating in air.   In the video above an alu­minium foil boat floats on sulphur hex­a­flu­oride (SF6), a very dense gas.

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Cinder the naked chimp

Cinder is a chimp at the Saint Louis Zoo that suffers from alo­pecia areata, the same autoim­mune disease that causes 1.7% of the pop­u­la­tion to lose its hair.

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Waitomo glowworm cave

The Waitomo glow­worm caves in New Zealand are well known for the dis­plays of their famous inhab­it­ants: Arachnocampa luminosa.

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New Mars rover

The Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity have been fant­ast­ic­ally suc­cessful. It’s hardly sur­prising then that NASA is already working on their replace­ment: the Mars Science Laboratory Rover.

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Most powerful laser

The HERCULES laser at the University of Michigan is the world’s most powerful laser. The beam is equi­valent in intensity to focus­sing all the light from the Sun onto a grain of sand.

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