Inspired by the 19th-century designs of Valdemar Poulsen’s wire recorder, this kit from Gakken Japan looks like it could be fun to play with. Once you put it together, you set the recording head on top of any metal surface that will hold a magnetic charge, drag the control across the surface and speak into the microphone. You can use anything from a metal tabletop to a common kitchen knife to store your secret messages. Once recorded, flip the playback switch and you’ll hear your scratchy voice played back as you move the magnetic head. The video below shows how it works. Feel free to jump ahead to around 50 seconds in to get to the interesting bits.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Keep in mind that the instructions for assembling this kit are entirely in Japanese. But they do seem to have enough visual detail that you should be able to build the wire recorder successfully. Want one? You can order the wire recorder kit over at the Maker Shed for $38.99 (USD). Just don’t try putting this anywhere near your old VHS tape collection.

Also known as “The Crown Joule of Laser Science” (I’m not kidding, check out their website if you want proof), the NIF’s laser can deliver up to 2 million joules of ultraviolet energy. It can heat a packet of hydrogen “smaller than a match head” to temperatures of up to 100 million degrees and subject it to 100 billion times the normal atmospheric pressure at the same time. So what’s the point of creating such a powerful device? Mainly for nuclear science -  scientists hope that they will gain a better understanding of the physics of nuclear weapons with the NIF, and maybe even discover the trick to harvesting energy from nuclear fusion.

Check out the full article at Neatorama for more interesting trivia.

[image via NIF gallery]

Let’s start off with something spooky. Those are some spooky eggs, from the Spooky Insect. Okay I don’t know what insect comes out of those eggs. Which adds to the mystery, don’t you think?

It’s easy to see how mystery eggs number 2 may freak the hell out of other insects and animals. They look like tiny webcams.

That’s a Papaya fruit fly, depositing its “milky, white eggs” into a fruit. Good thing I don’t eat papayas.

These Spined Soldier Bug eggs look like something out of a Contra or Metroid game. As you may have guessed, their shiny, spiny shells deter would-be predators from munching on them. The shells stiffen as time goes by, further protecting the critters inside.

Check out the original article at Webphemera for more strange, and sometimes disgusting insect eggs. Don’t forget to check your fruits for eggs.

[via The Presurfer]

Created by Uncle Milton’s (the same guys who made the original ant farm over 50 years ago), this updated version features a brightly illuminated green environment for your 6-legged friends to crawl around in. Instead of sand, the tunnels are loaded with a moist, nutritious green gel (I prefer to call it goo). The see-through colony is designed to be break-proof and escape-proof, so that should keep the ants inside where they belong.

The entire contraption is illuminated LEDs to give you a bright, up-close-and-personal view of your budding ant civilization. You can even connect multiple farms to create a massive above-ground ant city. All you need is a magnifying glass and the power of the sun, and you’ll be all set.

If you don’t have any spare ants lying around, Uncle Milton’s will ship you about 25 to 30 (non-breeding) harvester worker ants to populate your world with (assuming you can wait the requisite 3 to 6 weeks for delivery).

You can grab the Uncle Milton’s LED Gel Ant Farm over at Entertainment Earth for $29.99 (USD).

Geeky jewelry is common, but it’s usually restricted to the realms of science fiction rather than actual science. The collection has all sorts of cellular-inspired items that you can hang about your person.

Petri dish-inspired earrings: better than wearing actual petri dishes on your ears. Trust me on this one.

[via Etsy]

Okay here’s the real deal (via Missouri State University):

That’s a fire ant on the left, looking just fine and fiery, ready to bite your little toe off. And here’s what could happen after the phorid fly’s Brain Buster attack: (via USDA-SABCL)

Ouch. Rob Plowes of the University of Texas summarizes the epic battle thusly: “…as the maggot eats a fire ant’s brain the ant begins to rove around mindlessly. After about two weeks, the ant’s head falls off, allowing the fly to emerge, seeking another fire ant to begin the cycle again.” The plan won’t eradicate the ants totally, just control the annoying ant’s population. And that’s good, because 20th Century Fox just got a hold of representatives from the warring insects and signed them on for a trilogy.

So they went and tried to see if they could strengthen another biological material – in this case spider silk – by adding metals to it. After trying various metallic compounds, the scientists found that “all of the compounds dramatically increased both the tensile strength of the silk, as well as its extensibility. In short, the researchers had taken an unusually tough material and made it even tougher, with the best results produced by the aluminum and titanium treatments. ”

Here’s where it gets better: The scientists further theorized that this sort of spider silk can be mass produced. Woohooo! Segway schmegway: web slinging is the future of pedestrian transportation. Please let it be so.

[via Ars Technica]

Created by flickr member Pixel Fantasy, this work-in-progress table offers layout diagrams for many classic joysticks, paddles, and other console input devices. As an added bonus, the chart includes many handheld gaming systems, as well as the names of the systems’ creators and their CPU information in many cases.

Click Here to check out the full resolution version of the chart to see it in waaaaaaay more detail.

The “I Survived the Large Hadron Collider” shirt celebrates the fact that we’re still alive even after the LHC was turned on. If you’re going “whaaaaaat?” right now then you might want to try this shirt, which explains the fundamental sciences in uber-layman’s terms:

What’s that? It’s way too corny?  So you want something more offensive? Then slay your Physics professors with this insult ala particle physics shirt:

Okay so it’s still corny. But at least you got the joke. All of these shirts – and other designs – are available at Neatorama’s shop. They’re all on sale too, down to $10 from $15. If you don’t want them, maybe your teachers will. *wink wink*

Now here is what separates geniuses from the rest of us: 50 IQ points. What? No. Here is what really separates geniuses from the rest of us: Theodore Gray misunderstood Sacks and thought that Sacks was referring to a table table, as in furniture. When his genius neurons kicked in seconds later and he realized his mistake, Gray also realized that a periodic table table was actually a great idea. See? Even at their dumbest moments they’re intelligent. So with the help of his friends, Theodore Gray – clearly a man possessed by his love for knowledge – built what is undoubtedly one of the geekiest and most useful pieces of furniture in the universe.

How geeky? Well aside from the fact that it’s a periodic table table dammit, each of the element groups – e.g. alkali metals, noble gases, etc – is represented by a different wood type, “with suitably clever analogies made between wood grain and chemical properties.” I know your nose is bleeding by now but this is just a glimpse of Theodore Gray’s nosebleed inducing awesomeness. Here’s a closer look at the periodic table table:

Have a look at another close -up while I stick cotton balls up my nose:

As you might have guessed, each of those tiles are removable. Beneath those tiles are compartments containing actual samples of the corresponding element, although I don’t think he has samples for all the elements yet. “By the way, if you have any depleted Uranium from Afghanistan, I could use it,” says Theodore “Nose Bleedingly Awesome” Gray.

Gray soon found himself building a website to catalog his element samples. Then his awesomeness emanated waves of awesome that simply could not be ignored: In 2002 The Annals of Improbable Research awarded his table the “Ig Nobel Prize”, an accolade given to “scientific work that cannot and should not be reproduced.”

His awesomeness doesn’t end there: Gray realized that he could use his new found popularity to share his knowledge and his love for knowledge, so he kept on improving his website. Now his website “contains the largest, most complete library of stock photographs of the elements and their applications available anywhere, as well as a large and growing collection of 3D images documenting hundreds of samples rotated through 360 degrees.”

Trust me, the amount of knowledge in the website – as well as the approachable and enjoyable manner in which that knowledge is shared – makes periodictable.com the best online reference for budding and even amateur chemists.

That’s the website’s frontpage. As you can see samples of the elements are shown as well. Clicking an element takes you to a more detailed page for that element:

I cannot stress enough the synergy between Gray’s philosophy behind his website and the tone and approach of his entries about the elements. Gray wants to encourage people – the youth in particular – to be curious about their surroundings, to go out and explore nature and to realize that even in our immediate surroundings we can find examples of elements, compounds and other things that we usually think are only present in labs, to be handled only by experts. In short, Gray wants kids to learn by handling stuff and doing all sorts of things with them, instead of being limited to passive and indirect means of acquiring information.

With that in mind, the information on his website is delivered in an approachable and totally non-textbook language. He uses interesting samples and applications as well. Take a look at one of his entries on the applications of Tungsten:

Wouldn’t it be nice if all learning materials reached out to people in this way? Anyway, I’ve said too much; if you love science or literature or art visit his website. Gray is also selling several fun and geeky chemistry kits, such as periodic table posters, place mats, and even a customizable banner, where you type in something and the website generates a banner that spells out what you typed using the symbols for the elements.

You can then order a printed copy of the banner; the price varies according to the size you want to order.

Theodore Gray should receive a Nobel Prize for Making Science (& Furniture) Fun. Him and Professor Beakman.

[via The Presurfer]

Just get your hands on the $6.95 U-Fizz kit, a box of baking soda, some vinegar and a couple of soda bottles, and you can make everything from carbonated juice drinks to more offbeat concoctions like CO2 loaded Jell-O. Hmmm… That gets me thinking… I wonder what would happen if you dared to put some Diet Coke and Mentos in this contraption? Maybe the world would explode.

Now from what I can tell, the U-Fizz (aka the Soda Shaker) looks like about 50 cents worth of plastic tubing and bottle caps, so the markup seems a little excessive. But who among us has time to run out to the neighborhood scientific supply store to buy all the stuff you need to make your own? I certainly don’t.

So head on over Edmund Scientifics and tell us about the craziest carbonated concoction you come up with. Me? I’d like to see what happens when I make my own Starbucks bubbly half-caff no whip 120-degree grande macchiato mochacinno- extra bubbly, please.

For those of you science geeks out there, here’s a handy presentation on the subject called “How Carbonation Works“. I’m definitely using that PowerPoint deck at my next business meeting.

I actually tried to justify to myself this gadget’s dimension-shattering existence, thinking that it might be useful for very young kids or people with special needs, such as amputees. But look at what’s inside the box: battery box, plastic rings, nuts, wire, plastic suction cups, sticky pads, screws, plastic discs with pulley, connecting sleeves, terminal block, screw driver, base plate with guide, motors and detailed instructions. Batteries not included. Tell me, Middlesex University, which would be easier: to ask someone to assemble the motherflipping contraption, or to ask someone to launch a paper plane? Using their built-in hands?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I don’t care if the paper planes it launches move at the speed of light. This is like someone eating your food for you. Someone that you have to purchase for $16 and build. Notice also that the box says “kits created by specialists who teach teachers”, and not “kits created by specialists who create kits”. The second one would have been so much more reassuring.

Kids: remember what happened in WALL*E? Use your limbs. For the sake of humanity.

[via computersight]

Eagle this is Houston, what’s poppin? Over?

“Yeah, so.. I float over to where the cooler’s supposed to be, but in it’s place there’s this…I’m looking at this machine labeled “Urine Recycler”. Over.”

Don’t tell me it’s broken again! Dammit Timmy, I thought I told you to fix the Urine Recycler on the Endeavour!

“Houston, Houston: I don’t think it’s broken.”

What? So what’s the problem?

“The concept is the problem Houston. I have a problem with the whole freaking concept behind this machine.”

Eagle we spent $154 million on the Urine Recycler –

“And I spent half of my life training to do what? Drink my own — Jeebus Houston! How much does Gatorade cost nowadays?! How much for tap water?! What is this, Jackass? Am I being Punk’d or something?”

Eagle it’s not always urine; it also recycles moisture and sweat–

“I’m crashing the ISS on your ass in 3-2-1 you sadists.”

[via Scientific American]

Einstein’s formula for the equivalence of mass and energy states that anything that has mass possesses a certain amount of energy whether or not it’s at rest. Meanwhile, as mentioned in the article, particle physics says that protons and neutrons – from which atoms are made of – are made up of quarks, which are bound together by gluons. What is strange is that gluons have zero mass, while quarks account for just 5% of an atom’s mass, which leaves 95%, or practically all of it, unaccounted for. The physicists discovered that the rest of the mass is actually the energy arising out of the “movement and interaction of quarks and gluons.” In other words, mass is equivalent to energy. Which is what Einstein said. In 1905. Tsk. Ye of little faith.

So what did we learn today? That Einstein’s brain is larger than France, Germany and Hungary plus a bunch of Michael Phelps/LeBron James class of supercomputers put together. His hair was probably made up of brain cells for all we know. Yup. One smart dude.

***Crickets***

In other news, Brock Lesnar won me $8 by beating Randy Couture.

[via The Age via Slashdot]

Unlike the electrostatic charges you run into on a cold, dry day, this new technology uses millions of tiny “nanogenerators” to throw off electricity.

Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have devised microscopic wires which can generate minuscule amounts of current when flexed. To create power from motion, pairs of textile fibers are covered with zinc oxide nanowires 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. One fiber in each pair is plated with gold to provide an electrode. As they move, the fibers throw off a teensy, tiny bit of power thanks to the piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of zinc oxide wires.

According to Georgia Tech Regents’ Professor Zhong Lin Wang, the technology should be capable of generating up to 80 milliwatts per square meter of fabric. By taking thousands of these tiny fiber pairs and weaving them together into clothing, they could generate enough energy to power MP3 players, phones and other mobile devices. They could also be woven into other fabric that moves such as flags, tents or curtains to throw off small amounts of electricity.

Sounds like a cool idea, but they haven’t quite worked out all the kinks. The zinc oxide coating doesn’t hold up well when wet, so they’re trying to create a protective coating that would preserve the wires better. Regardless, I wouldn’t want to be walking around in the rain wearing electric clothes. I’m guessing the consequences could be quite shocking.

[via Reuters]

The Portable Dry Ice Maker can crank out a one-pound block of dry ice in less than a minute. For those of you who don’t know about dry ice, it’s a super-cold ice that chills out at a teeth-chattering negative 109.3° F (-78.5° C). Although its practical use is to keep food and drinks cool for long journeys, it’s best known among the geek set for the awesome low-hanging fog that it produces when immersed in warm water.

So if you need to freeze a lot of stuff, or are just looking for that cool fog effect, you can pick one up form Hammacher Schlemmer for $499.95.

[via GadgetGrid]

The computer controlled toast burner uses a specially modified CNC fabricator with a hot air gun in its carriage. As the system moves along the horizontal and vertical axes, the heat source is modulated by a computer.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

And voila… totally custom toast. Now all the guys over at Evil Mad Scientist need to do is figure out a way to mass produce these.

[via Coolest Gadgets]

Without getting into all of the scientific details (I flunked biology,) the researchers screened a group of almost 500 Portuguese water dogs (a breed with lots of size variance,) and sequenced their DNA to identify the differences. They saw that differences in a specific gene had a strong correlation to the size of the dogs. Later, they studied additional breeds, and saw similar patterns. The gene, known as IGF1 (insulin-like growth factor 1,) has also been identified in humans and mice as being a determinant in body size.

Now that this gene has been identified, it’s only a matter of time before some evil genius figures out a way to develop permanently miniaturized versions of large breed dogs that we can carry around in our pocket.

[via arstechnica]