The Homely Scientist

 I know this might seem hokey, but wait read on:

We’ve all dreamed of having a mini-greenhouse that we could plug into our computer, but until today it was just that — dreams. But dream no longer. Geeks.com is selling a USB-powered Mini Greenhouse that includes a computer interface which helps you monitor growth rate and that includes a calendar, wallpaper and bookmark settings to aid you in monitoring the growth of your greenhouse. Source: USB: Grow Plants with the USB-Powered Mini-Greenhouse - Gizmodo

What about using this as a great science experiment with your kids?  I’m sure the software is fun and teaches you about plant growth.  Clearly the USB is going to be powering the grow light and giving some feedback (moisture maybe).

Face it, simple plant growth projects are fun and easy.  They can teach kids a lot about science too.

Now I’m going have to hunt one of these down…

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No, this is not a goofy free energy thing like I saw at Gnomedex on Saturday (ugh, it still bugs me).  This is real science, real physics, and doesn’t violate the laws of thermodynamics: heck it uses them!

This papercraft engine only needs to sit on a cup of hot coffee to drive its pistons. No, it’s not the precious caffeine that drives the motion, but the Stirling engine design, in which the difference between alternating hot and cold gas pressure is harnessed for power. Source: Cheaper Than Gas: Paper Stirling Engine Runs Off Hot Coffee - Gizmodo

Boing Boing has the best description of what’s going on–but essentially what you’re seeing is the expansion, contraction, and circulation of the air in the little area below the engine will drive it.  This strengthens something I was probably boring people to death with later on Saturday evening, there are hundreds, probably thousands of creative ways we can take current technology and improve it or apply it in creative ways.  That’s freakin’ open sourcing energy man!

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From Lifehacker …

How To Pull A Van Uphill (with Only A Rope) - video powered by Metacafe

This video shows one of the simplest machines, the pulley–not a lever as Lifehacker says–and how it increases your ability to lift/pull heavy things.

If you want to try this at home … try something other than a car … log or something.

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This caught my eye on Read/Write Web:

A new project from the University of Oxford (UK), the University of Portsmouth (UK) and Johns Hopkins University (US) aims to harness the power of the human brain to identify and classify galaxies and stars. On the Galaxy Zoo website, users are asked to identify the objects in photographs as spiral or elliptical galaxies, the direction of rotation, or if the photo depicts a star or merger of galaxies. The site launched yesterday and says they have already had an “amazing response.”

“The human brain is actually better than a computer at pattern recognition tasks like this. Whether you spend five minutes, fifteen minutes or five hours using the site your contribution will be invaluable,” said Kevin Schawinski of Oxford University of the project. Source: Outsource Your Brain for Science

I went over to Galaxy Zoo to sign up.  After you register they walk you through what different kinds of galaxies and non-galaxies look like.  I thought I pretty much got it down pat, but when I did the test to see if I could look at real pictures, I flunked.  More practice for me.

The entrance exam is a great idea.  I was wondering how they would deal with the mass number of people looking at pictures and maybe not getting the ID right.  With a requirement to pass an entrance exam, and some double checking I’m sure, this makes the data more useful.  When I was learning how to identify fossil pollen, I spent hours looking at reference slides and drawing the types.  Then a test.  Even then you always keep a reference set and picture keys handy.

Even though I flunked, don’t let that stop you…go give it a shot!

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 Besides using your laser pointer to entertain your pets (and yourself) or presentations. did you know you could do magic with a laser?  Me neither.  If you have any doubt about this watch this video:

Was that coolio amazing or what?  OMG!  Of course you do have to be careful when using lasers.

Little safety lesson here folks, don’t ever, EVER, point a laser at someone’s face (let’s include animals in this okay?).  Even the cheapo laser pointers you can get just about anywhere can seriously damage someone’s eyes.  Yeah, yeah it’s fun playing laser gun sight with people.  Uh huh.  Well don’t.  ‘Nuff said.

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SciTalks is a new site that has videos of lectures on a ton of science topics.

“Science and scientists are going to be more fun and accessible because of SciTalks. Students will be able to hear the voices and passion of the actual discoverers of the subject they’re studying in class. Teachers can assign selections to their students… no matter how limited your school’s resources, if you have access to the internet, you can now get a great science education. It’s like crack for science geeks.” says founder Lee Vodra. Source: SciTalks.com launches video site for science lectures | 901am

You know when you’re just sitting at home, nothing good on TV and think, hey you know I could really go for a good talk on particle physics.  Okay maybe not so much.  This is a great idea.  You might be wondering how many have I watched already…none.  Huh?  Well they use RealPlayer (who the hell uses RealPlayer anymore!?!) and QuickTime.  My Quicktime alternative doesn’t seen to have a Firefox plugin so I’ll be doing some installing I guess because there are some ones on archaeology I really want to see.  No, really, I do.

Maybe more videos will be posted, might not be an alternative to the real thing, but nice to expand your horizons.

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Thanks to Geek Dad I bring you some full moon facts like:

21 Scientists have long battled to explain the “moon illusion” - whereby the full moon appears to be larger the closer it is to the horizon. The phenomenon is understood to be caused by human perception rather than the magnifying effect of the earth’s atmosphere.

and

15 According to superstition a male child is more likely to be conceived at full moon.

countered by:

35 An analysis of the birthdays of 4,256 babies born in a clinic in France found no relationship between the full moon and fertility.

The next full moon is June 30th so, get ready for werewolves, binge drinking, and all the other things related to general lunacy.

On a side note, when I did a lot of gardening I did some reading about when to sow seeds, and it seem that if I planted just before the full moon, the seeds sprouted faster.  The theory is that the increased gravitational pull from the moon helps the seed to sprout.

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As if there was any doubt what so ever:

Hat tip to Brad Feld, who is also a total geek, btw.

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No, really.  I went to my first Monster Truck thingy (it wasn’t a huge show and there were only two trucks) over the weekend.  I wish I had a) brought my camera and b) had my b5 press pass on me so I could have pictures and got to talk to the owners/drivers because any truck that goes around with tires that weigh 660 pounds each has got to have a lot of science going on.

Let’s  look at the tricks they do first.  You have the car crushing, flying through the air stuff.  These folks have to be pretty careful about their launch angle or they are going to wind up upside down in a heap.  Not to mention, and I saw this myself, any left or right tilting is a bad thing.

So what’s going on here?  Basically, unlike a car, the weight isn’t terribly well balanced.  You got huge freaking tires, suspensions that make a crane look like a wuss, and the fact that the top of the truck is really only a shell.  A car, because it’s more compact, can handle a lot more fudge factor once it leaves the ground and still land on it’s tires.  Oh yeah the tires … these monster truck tires (from farm equipment, actually) freakin’ bounce.  So say front left hits the ground a bit before right front, well left front will bounce and throw off the whole bit and the truck is no longer falling just down but you have a lot of left-right-and all over the place going on.

Oh and I mentioned the suspension?  Yeah, like six (or more) shock absorbers per wheel.  Regular vehicles have one.  Why six?  Why the intense suspension anyway?  Well it’s the whole up in the air thing.  Okay that and wanting to bounce in the air and crush stuff.  Because you have huge tires and what should be a top-heavy truck, you need lots of hydraulics to even out the bumps.  Not enough cushion the top would smash down on the wheels or frame.

Originally monster trucks only had enough extra suspension to make it drivable, now they had extra, extra to do tricks.

While many of you might dismiss Monster Truck rallies, pay attention to what a driver has to be thinking about when he/she is doing these stunts.  How high is the pile of cars?  What’s my launch angle?  Will I flip backwards?  Am I going too fast so that if I bounce I might twist in the air (and die)?  And consider the engineering that is needed to have something that high be able to be driven with 660 lb tires and 1100 horsepower engines (yes, 1100) running on racing fuel.

Science is everywhere, if you look for it.

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No, I’m not kidding:

The real world version of “kryptonite” – which according to media reports will be officially named “jadarite,” after the place where it was discovered and because it does not contain the element krypton – is white, does not glow and is reportedly harmless to humans and/or natives of the planet Krypton.

Despite the harmless nature of this world’s kryptonite, Superman is far from off the hook. The first storyline in the newly-launched ongoing SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL series, from writer Darwyn Cooke (New Frontier) and artist Tim Sale (whose work has been featured on NBC’s “Heroes”), revealed a new take on Superman’s first encounter with the malicious mineral, and how it affected a young Superman’s early career as a hero.

The mineral, which is a potential source of lithium and boron, will be put on display tomorrow at the West London museum. Reports that the mineral will be encased in lead are unconfirmed.
Source: Real Krypotonite discovered in Serbia

Really.  Read the BBC if you don’t believe me, and check the calendar, it is April 25th.  In any case it’s a fun thing to think about.  Although I think the Scientific American got it right on their blog.  What we really want is Adamantium.

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