Would you want to travel to Mars and never come back? Mars One Way introduces us to five hopefuls who want to be part of project Mars One.
There were 200,000 people who applied to participate in a project called Mars One. It’s a private enterprise to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars and film a reality show along the way. The idea is to go in crews of four starting in 2024. The thing is, right now the technology can only get them there. “Mars One Way” documents the thoughts and theories of Five hopeful Mars One astronauts as they contemplate the reality of leaving planet Earth forever, for a new home on Mars.
NASA Science News has the scoop on a telescope that, believe it or not, is bigger than a galaxy.
… At the January 2014 meeting of the American Astronomical Society, researchers revealed a patch of sky seen through a lens more than 500,000 light years wide.
The “lens” is actually a massive cluster of galaxies known as Abell 2744. As predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, the mass of the cluster warps the fabric of space around it. Starlight passing by is bent and magnified, much like an ordinary lens except on a vastly larger scale.
Lately, the Hubble Space Telescope, along with the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, has been looking through this gravitational lens as part of a program called “Frontier Fields.”
“Frontier Fields is an experiment to explore the first billion years of the Universe’s history,” says Matt Mountain from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The question is, “Can we use Hubble’s exquisite image quality and Einstein’s theory of general relativity to search for the first galaxies?”
The answer seems to be “yes.” At the AAS meeting, an international team led by astronomers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and La Laguna University discussed Hubble and Spitzer observations of the Abell 2744 cluster. Among the results was the discovery of one of the most distant galaxies ever seen—a star system 30 times smaller yet 10 times more active than our own Milky Way. Bursting with newborn stars, the firebrand is giving astronomers a rare glimpse of a galaxy born not long after the Big Bang itself.
Overall, the Hubble exposure of Abell2744 revealed almost 3,000 distant galaxies magnified as much as 10 to 20 times larger than they would normally appear. Without the boost of gravitational lensing, almost all of those background galaxies would be invisible.
Abell 2744 is just the beginning. Frontier Fields is targeting six galaxy clusters as gravitational lenses. Together, they form an array of mighty telescopes capable of probing the heavens as never before.
Bunker.jordanHey Lindsay... yes? Make working from bed even easier?
[Matt Silver] usually enjoys a cup of tea in the evening. Unfortunately, this habit can be frustrating and dangerous while sitting in bed. He rectified the problem by building this awesome space-saving table, which can be stored on the ceiling of all places! Depending on the supplies you might already have, this could be a relatively cheap build of about $40 or less. [Matt's] using pine board for everything, but notes you could save time and money by re-purposing an existing coffee table. You will, however, need to make the ceiling frame to support it.
At the heart of this build is our favorite rope—Paracord 550. [Matt] used a single piece to tie the whole thing together, which can cause the table to lower crooked, but [Matt] found he can keep it level by putting a hand on it while it descends. You also get mechanical advantage from the pulleys this way! If you’re not crazy about the potential unevenness, you could redesign the pulley and eyelet layout to allow for four ropes to ensure a reliably horizontal surface.
Why not pair this idea with the portable electronics lab we shared a few days ago? You could have a full series of drop-down tool labs in your workshop. Think of all the space saving opportunities!
From Homer to home health, by way of Shakespeare, conceptual physics, and a gender-imbalance lament.
On the heels of Brian Eno’s reading list comes another installment in the Long Now Foundation’s effort to assemble 3,500 books most essential for sustaining or rebuilding humanity, as part of their collaboratively curated library for long-term thinking, the Manual for Civilization. Here, futurist, environmentalist, and Long Now co-founder Stewart Brand — best-known for authoring the era-defining Whole Earth Catalog and originating the commonly (mis-)quoted aphorism that “information wants to be free” — offers his 76-book contribution to the cumulative library of 3,500, including Brain Pickings favorites like Nobel-winning behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, Bill Bryson’s magnificent illustrated edition of A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Lewis Hyde’s modern manifesto for the creative life, The Gift.
Only one lament: One would’ve hoped that a lens on rebuilding human civilization would transcend the hegemony of the white male slant and would, at minimum, include a more equal gender balance of perspectives — of Brand’s 76 books, only one is written by a woman, one features a female co-author, and one is edited by a woman. It’s rather heartbreaking to see that someone as visionary as Brand doesn’t consider literature by women worthy of representing humanity in the long run. Let’s hope the Long Now balances the equation a bit more fairly as they move forward with the remaining entries in their 3,500-book collaborative library.
Complement with the reading lists of Carl Sagan, Alan Turing, Nick Cave, and David Bowie,* then join me in supporting the Manual for Civilization.
* I realize these are all male reading lists. I have been unable to find a published reading list by a prominent female public figure — if you know of one, please do get in touch.
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Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.
Brain Pickings takes 450+ hours a month to curate and edit across the different platforms, and remains banner-free. If it brings you any joy and inspiration, please consider a modest donation – it lets me know I'm doing something right.
Bunker.jordanI love it when people design their own prostheses!
Bunker.jordanSuper interesting! I obviously haven't been keeping up with tech.
Industrial 3D printer manufacturer, Optomec was awarded a new U.S. patent, titled Miniature Aerosol Jet and Aerosol Jet Array, patent # 8,640,975. The patented miniaturized Aerosol Jet print head geometry is significantly smaller, lighter weight and lower cost than preceding generations.
This article Optomec awarded new patent on Aerosol Jet print head for 3D printing electronics is first published at 3ders.org.
Bunker.jordan*note* I have not yet watched this, but I totally want to.
Wrist watches seem to be loosing their grasp on our wrists with the popularity of smart phones but I think the beauty of a well crafted watch will never die. You can buy a digital watch at the dollar store which would have been churned out in a factory in China or you can purchase one for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mechanical watches require very detailed manufacturing and tolerances that are incredibly tight. The super high end watches also require lots of human interaction to finish and assemble the watch. When you think of the complexity it is amazing that you can get years of solid use out of them.
Watchmaking Part 1
Watchmaking Part 2
Watchmaking Part 3
Making of a Glashütte
Bunker.jordan*want*
The Jaegers in Pacific Rim were destined to be epic costumes at conventions. RPF user dbsamurai and his friend Hailee decided to make seven feet tall Gipsy Danger and Cherno Alpha suits. They started last year and though they’re still making improvements, I’d say their costumes are already in good shape. They used Pepakura files to create the foam suits and posted step by step photos on The RPF. The pic below is of Gipsy’s muscles; Gipsy’s hands were a little challenging, but here’s how dbsamurai handled it:
I actually finished my hands earlier in the week, but I fiddled back and forth with making the left hand movable so I could mimic Gipsy’s “Neural Handshake” pose. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough tension to return them to their default positions, which left the fingers too floppy so I glued them down for two fists.
Read more at The RPF.
Created by artist Alyson Shotz, this reflective picket fence is made entirely of mirrors and has been installed in several locations since 2003. The iteration shown here was on view through 2012 at the Storm King Art Center in New York. The fence has the uncanny ability to reflect its surroundings resulting in a barrier that is at times almost completely camouflaged, or, depending on your perspective, in stark contrast to the nearby landscape. (via Designboom)
“The world is a dynamic mess of jiggling things, if you look at it right.”
When you see an ordinary rubber band stretched around and holding together a stack of stuff over a long period of time, you’re actually witnessing a miraculous force of physics at work — a perpetual pounding of the atoms as they struggle to hold these chains together against the outward push of the stack, vibrating with extraordinary vigor just to accomplish this seemingly mundane task. That peeling away of the mundane to reveal the magnificent is the greatest gift and most lasting legacy of Richard Feynman — champion of scientific culture, graphic novel hero, crusader for integrity, secret artist. Indeed, it was this very talent that earned Feynman the moniker “the Great Explainer” and his lectures, eventually collected in The Feynman Lectures on Physics (public library), went on to become a cultural classic, brimming with his signature fusion of accessible, enthralling explanations of complex scientific phenomena and poignant meditations on the broader meaning of life.
In this short clip from the 1983 BBC series Fun to Imagine, Feynman unleashes his singular gift on the humble rubber band to illuminate its surprisingly awe-worthy embodiment of the laws of physics:
The world is a dynamic mess of jiggling things, if you look at it right.
Complement with Feynman on the key to science in 63 seconds, the one sentence to be passed on to the next generation and his little-known sketches, collected by his daughter.
Donating = Loving
Bringing you (ad-free) Brain Pickings takes hundreds of hours each month. If you find any joy and stimulation here, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.
| ♥ $7 / month♥ $3 / month♥ $10 / month♥ $25 / month |
You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount.
Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.
Brain Pickings takes 450+ hours a month to curate and edit across the different platforms, and remains banner-free. If it brings you any joy and inspiration, please consider a modest donation – it lets me know I'm doing something right.
Be it known that we, FELIX BENEDICT HERZOG and SCHUYLER S. WHEELER, citizens of the United States, residing in the city of New York, State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Electric Signaling Apparatus, Circuits, and Methods, of which the following is aspecification.
Letters Patent No. 289,834, issued to said Herzog December 11, 1883, describe an automatic signaling apparatus applicable to many different uses, such as telephone-exchange systems, district-telegraph and private circuits, hotel service.
Patented-Dec. 22, 1896.
Bunker.jordanThis thing looks positively evil. I want one.
Bunker.jordanNow we all can be Jesus! Hooray!
Bunker.jordanGosh, I really need a 3d printer again...
Make your own BMO with 3D Printing and DIY electronics. This adorable robot features a mini 8×8 LED matrix and GEMMA, adafruit’s tiny arduino-compatible micro-controller.
3D Print the parts, solder the components and assembly this cute video game robot to have an awesome adventure time!
Grab the files on thingiverse and 3d print the parts in your favorite color.
The Mini 8×8 LED matrix powers 64 LEDs to display bright and super cute animations. Here’s what the complete circuit looks like. The push button should also have enough slack for it to move around in the enclosure. Gemma acts as BMO’s brains, while the LED matrix+backpack is his face. We can assume the battery is his heart 
You can print BMO’s buttons in different colored ABS or paint each piece.
Want to 3D Print and build your own BMO? We have a easy to follow tutorial and the STL files are available for free on Thingiverse!
3D Printed and build BMO? Be sure to share it on thingiverse as a make! Built your own adorable robot? Let us know in the comments below and join our Show n Tell on google+!
With all the hubbub surrounding 3D printing as of late, it’s easy to think of it as something new. Something that, before 5 or 6 years ago, only existed in Sci-Fi novels.
Surprise! 3D printing has actually been around for decades. In fact, the first kinda-sorta functional 3D printer prototype was built way back in 1984. This year, its inventor, Chuck Hull, is being inducted into the National Inventors Hall Of Fame.
This puts him up in the ranks, in the U.S. Patent Office’s eyes, with folks like Thomas Edison, Jobs/Woz, the Wright Brothers, Einstein, and Eli Whitney.
In 1984, Hull had a realization: if you pointed a highly focused UV light at a special, goopy material (called a “photopolymer” ), the material would instantly turn solid wherever the light would touch. If you did this repeatedly, layer by layer, you could “print” an object into existence. He dubbed it “stereolithography“, and bam! 3D printing was born….
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!
This little wood automaton is meant to mimic the effect of a water drop hitting a body of water, all using concentric rings cut from wood that are manipulated by a hand crank. The piece was created by UK-based designer Dean O’Callaghan, inspired by the work of Reuben Margolin (most likely his round wave sculpture). (via The Automata Blog)
Bunker.jordanI only know it to 16 digits :-/
Indeed, Pi day (3/14, March 14th) is upon us once more. Last year I had the fortune of being the first person to recite many digits of Pi at our college’s celebrations, and this year I have worked on remember additional decimal places.
In doing so, I remembered a javascript my friend made in junior high school that would check Pi digits, and with his permission I have embedded it below (or download it.)
Practice your Pi here! (Refresh if it didn’t load.)
