Our brains contain trillions of synapses, each of them capable of converting an electrical signal into a chemical one, and vice-versa. But while that might sound simple, the mechanics behind this process is anything but — as this spectacular new 3D visualization so beautifully illustrates.
Apparently it's totally amazing Star Wars news day, it's just been officially announced that Star Wars: Episode VII has cast the brilliant actress Lupita Nyong'o from 12 Years a Slave, and our beloved Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones, Gwendoline Christie. Hooray!
I’ve seen a lotta great steampunk flying machines and airships built from LEGO. But this is the first time I recall seeing anyone build a steampunk starship! Here we see the USS Steambucket by Tim Schwalf reaching for the stars, in a wonderful brick-built cloud of steam.
LEGO steampunk fans should really check out Tim’s Flickr stream. While there may not be a huge number of builds up there (yet), every one of them is a keeper.
Knobby Horn Toledo Sword Cane
Set atop an elegant Malacca shaft, the delightful knobby handle is actually the hilt of a sharp Toledo steel sword. Toledo swords are considered the finest blades in the world. The Spanish steel used to create them was first mentioned as early as the first century B.C.E..
Space is beautiful, enchanting, awe-inspiring, and utterly unforgiving. We celebrate the victories, but don't let a string of successes deceive you into thinking spaceflight is easy. A new documentary investigates the major malfunctions, technical and procedural, that led to NASA space shuttle explosions.
Bunker.jordanFORCE FIELD
In the epic battle of soap bubble versus drop of water, the surprising winner is the bubble. This is because of the bubble's ability to "self-heal" as the drop first splashes down through it, and then back up through it again. We'll give you some of the physics behind why the bubble can heal itself.
SmithsonianMag published a piece on a new development in medical implants. Researchers at Stanford have found a way for electronic medical implants to charge wirelessly while inside the body, including in such vital organs as the brain and heart:
The team’s charging system is a riff on the technology used to power electric toothbrushes, smartphones and other small devices. In those setups, electricity passes through a coil in a power source, creating an electromagnetic field. A corresponding coil in the device itself collects energy from that field, which induces a current that can power the device or charge a battery. This type of wave, known as “near-field,” however, can’t travel very far or pass through tissue.
While there is room for a pacemaker with a battery pack near the heart, other parts of the body provide less area to work with. In the brain, for instance, there isn’t room for an implant to sit right at a treatment site. Instead, doctors would need to place it where there’s a relatively open area, such as the back of the neck, and use wires to reach the target site.
“We’re by no means the first people to do wireless powering for medical implants,” explains John Ho, a graduate student who co-authored the study. “[Implants are] used for things like cochlear implants, but the [power source] itself has to be fairly large and the implant has to be very shallow. They can’t reach the important places in the body, like the heart or the brain.”
That’s why Poon’s work aims to explore how to use “biological tissue to transport energy,” she says. Her 2-mm-by-3-mm electronic implant is powered through the body with a credit-card-sized source (charged independently) outside it.
Her team found a unique method to manipulate the waves so that they propagate and pass through live tissue. The power source generates near-field electromagnetic waves of a specific pattern. As the pulses hit and interact with live tissue, they become a new type of wave, called “mid-field.” “When you place [our power source] over the body, the properties of your tissue actually convert the waves,” she explains.
Hyper-collage photography by Jim Kazanjian, from Dezeen:
These fictional views of imaginary architecture and landscapes are photographic collages produced by American CGI artist Jim Kazanjian.
Kazanjian never takes any photographs himself, but instead combines as many as 50 images found on the internet to create each collage in the series. “My method of construction has an improvisational and random quality to it, since it is largely driven by the source material I have available,” says Kazanjian. “I think of the work as a type of mutation which can haphazardly spawn in numerous and unpredictable directions.”
…The artist cites the horror novels of early twentieth century writers H.P. Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood as inspiration. He explains: “I am intrigued with the narrative archetypes these writers utilise to transform the commonplace into something sinister and foreboding.”
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!
Pay Homage To Classic Arcade Games With8 Bit Gaming Roller Blinds. via English Blinds
Made to Measure 8 Bit Gamer Blinds
If you’re a fan of classic arcade games, an old school gamer or just love that geeky pixel look, this new collection of digitally printed roller blinds created by the team at English Blinds offers a great way to add some retro gaming fun to the windows. Prices will start from £95 and they’ll be available to buy online shortly.These retro chic blinds pay homage to classic games of the late 70’s and early 80’s such as Space Invaders and Pac Man and are perfect to give your pad that 8 bit look. With a choice of alien characters and classic game action dressing the windows has never been some much fun!
Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!
Find a Google Glass and kick it from the network.
The below script will find and detect Google Glass on the local network and kick them off.
Born and raised in the Philippines, New Jersey-based artist Gregory Halili is deeply influenced by the vegetation and wildlife he experienced as a child. His latest series of work involves a fusion of the human form with the natural world in these amazing bas-relief shell skulls. Halili carves and then paints with oil on raw, gold-lip and black-lip mother of pearl found in shells collected from the Philippines. The pieces will soon be exhibited at Silverlens Galleries in Manila and Nancy Hoffman Gallery in NYC, but for now you can see much more in this Facebook gallery. (via Junk Culture, Skullspiration)
Bunker.jordanCOOL. I want a bunch of these so I can make myself a helmet and suit of armor that folds up into a briefcase.
[Andreas Bastian] has been working on a device that turns an off-the-shelf laser cutter into something capable of selective laser sintering of powdered plastics into 3D objects. He’s put in a lot of work, but now he gets to see the fruits of his labor: he’s successfully printed a few objects out of wax and powdered nylon.
Unlike just about every other inexpensive 3D printer, [Andreas]‘ design doesn’t rely on either squirting plastic onto a bed or curing liquid resin with UV light. Instead, a fine layer of powder is spread over a build platform and melted with a laser. The melted layer drops down, another layer of powder is applied, and the cycle repeats until the part is finished. It’s a challenge to build one of these machines, but [Andreas] had the great idea of retrofitting an off-the-shelf laser cutter, allowing him to focus on the difficult task of designing the powder and piston system.
It’s an extremely interesting project, and most of the custom parts are made from laser cut acrylic: easily cut to size on whatever laser cutter you’re retrofitting with 3D printing capability. There’s a lot of info over on the Wiki, and a few videos showing the sintering process and powder distribution below.
[Jongwon Park] and his team of students at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have created a fast biped robot based upon the Velociraptor. Raptor weighs in at just 3Kg, and stands only 470mm tall, yet it is capable of running at 46 km/h. That’s almost as fast as Boston Dynamic’s Cheetah.
Raptor uses carbon fiber composite legs to absorb and release energy while running. The system is similar to that used in high performance prosthetic legs. A rotating tail assembly further helps to balance Raptor on rough terrain. We have to admit, the tail system does look a bit dangerous for any humans who might need to interact with the robot. It does work though, as evidenced by Raptor bounding over Styrofoam blocks.
The Raptor robot is quite impressive when running at full speed. Considering this project’s budget was nowhere near the resources of Boston Dynamics, it’s an amazing accomplishment. The video reminds us of Boston Dynamics founder [Marc Raibert's] early robots at the MIT Leg Lab. We can’t wait to see what this team produces in the future.
[Via Engadget]
Here’s part 2 of my scrap metal inspired Giger Alien Xenomorph suit – designing and printing the hands in rigid ABS and Ninjaflex rubber. More pictures and details over on the main project page.
Bunker.jordanI guess I have no excuse now
Tarkun Gelstronic wants to build a cheap and inexpensive 3D printer that anyone can afford. His goal was to build such a 3D Printer for less than 100 Dollar/Euro.
This article Poor Man’s 3D Printer for under $70, using old PC/printer parts is first published at 3ders.org.
Bunker.jordan... right
Called the Moonhouse project, Genberg wants to place a self-constructing house on the Moon – a red house white corners that will bring the barren, dead moonscape to life.
This article Swedish Artist to install self-assembling 3D-printed house on the moon in 2015 is first published at 3ders.org.
Bunker.jordanWANT
This week’s selection is freelance 3D artist Andrew Jerez’s “Unholy Cross”.
As you can see in the image above, this is a rather large 3D print composed of many separate pieces glued together.
Jerez composed the piece in ZBrush and amazingly 3D printed it himself on his Ultimaker 2 personal 3D printer.
The final assembly was painted, as the parts were apparently printed using differently colored plastics.
While the design of the work is incredible, the act of printing it on a personal machine is also fairly complex. Jerez had to carefully divide the original model into printable segments that not only fit within the Ultimaker’s build envelope, but also were geometrically suitable for optimal printing.
Via Behance
We’re checking out a new product from UK-based OmniDynamics: the Strooder, which converts plastic pellets into 3D printable filament.
The Strooder’s name is not the only cool aspect; it’s design is very clean, simple and friendly, with a triangular design theme. A small 1L hopper (also triangular) accepts pellets of ABS or PLA, which are then precisely melted and extruded into filament. It’s our understanding they can adapt the machine in the future to accept a wide variety of other material pellets.
Strooder is not the first attempt at a personal filament maker, but there have been very few attempts because filament makers are challenging for several reasons. They must produce very consistent quality filament to be used in 3D printers that, by and large, are quite sensitive to the filament diameter, shape and chemistry. We know of large-scale manufacturers that have had lots of trouble producing good quality filament, even with massive and expensive industrial gear. So to do this in a desktop device is challenging.
In spite of the challenges, Strooder seems to have done a nice job with the human interface. A handy color control panel clearly shows the system configuration and status. The idea is to pre-set the machine for particular types of plastic to avoid user frustration.
Strooder provides several nozzles that enable the production of 1.75, 2.85 and 3.00mm filaments, all the standard sizes you’ll likely need.
What doesn’t seem to be included is a method of collecting extruded filament. We think this is very important as neatly coiled filament is possible only when it’s right out of the oven.
Via Kickstarter
Meme Monday brings you- IF I HAD A DOLLAR FOR EVERY TIME SOMEONE TOLD ME MOTORCYCLES ARE DANGEROUS…. I’d be filthy rich. Because I’d be rolling naked in my room full of dirty dollar bills.
