I don’t live that far from MIT so the presence of a Dalek at The Stata Center is a bit unnerving. Look at him, so smug sitting up there on what looks like a waffle cone made out of polished chrome. Now that I look at this, I’m not sure if I’m more perplexed by the Dalek, which can be explained away as yet another MIT prank, or this crazy building, which someone actually paid to build on purpose. I say they junk the whole thing, remake it in a Dalek’s image, and hope it appeases them enough to hold off on what could be an imminent invasion.
More images after the jump…
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I know you’ve all been hoping for jet packs and flying cars, but how about a working Star Trek phaser instead? It makes the right sounds and it shoots out a laser light that can pop a balloon halfway across the room! Guys, this is just about the coolest thing ever. Whoever built this is a genius. I’m hoping an Evil Genius because then we’re in trouble and the Vulcans will have to come help us and the age of space travel will be upon us. My only question is, should he be aiming that thing around a garage full of flammable, blow-up-able stuff?
See the video of the phaser in action after the jump…
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In the following video, our beloved Bill Nye teaches us a little something about the science of partying. Watch him dance and sing with a college band named Bill Nye and the Science Guys after the break.
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The Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination museum exhibit wrapped up its stay at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California last weekend, and I managed to put off going until almost the last day (I procrastinate, even when it comes to Star Wars). The traveling exhibition developed by the Museum of Science in Boston with Lucasfilm includes props and costumes from all six films and ties them with real life developments in technology to show the close ties the saga has to science. Medical equipment in both worlds, robotics, transportation, ships – plenty of advancements bridge the world between fiction and reality. I like knowing that our universe has some aspects in common with the galaxy far, far away, but mostly? I was there to drool over the replicas. Forget science, just give me Star Wars.
Read more about the exhibit and see lots of photos after the break.
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One of the best parts of watching sci-fi is seeing the cool gadgets that we don’t actually have, but given time and ingenuity, might someday. Transporters, hyperdrives and The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver have all been at the top of my list for years. Now, thanks to scientists at the University of Dundee, the sonic screwdriver has become a reality. No, I haven’t been hitting the Romulan Ale. These guys have done it! Their sonic screwdriver is capable of turning objects around with sonic waves and they expect it to prove useful to medical doctors in treating patients. Now, if they can just get to work on jet packs and flying cars we’d all be happy.
See the real sonic screwdriver in action after the jump!
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Although Stephen Hawking has developed theories for basically everything in the universe, there’s still one thing he can’t seem to grasp… women. In an interview with New Scientist, Hawking states that women are what he thinks about most during the day, saying “They are a complete mystery”.
He also took time to answer more serious questions, such as “If you were a young physicist just starting out today, what would you study?”, to which he replied: “I would have a new idea that would open up a new field.” Beyond this, Hawking also admitted that he’s made scientific errors, specifically mentioning his previous belief that information was destroyed in black holes – a theory that was disproved in 1997.
In recognition of Hawking’s upcoming 70th birthday, the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, University of Cambridge, is hosting a symposium entitled “The State of the Universe” on January 8. In addition, an exhibition of his life and work will open at the Science Museum, London, on January 20.
(via Geekosystem)
Using anti-pill fleece, Minky, stretch knit, wire and safety eyes, Ayaka Darkly created this plush example of Science the Rat, who you may remember as Princess Bubblegum’s pet in the Adventure Time episode “From Bad to Worse”. The plush has posable legs and tail and stands roughly 12″.
Ayaka has an Etsy shop, and we can only hope that Science will be appearing there at some point.
(DeviantArt via SuperPunch)
In Portal 2, GLaDOS is temporarily put into a potato battery. Now you can make a PotatOS of your very own. This science kit comes with everything but the potato. Get one from the grocery store, and you’ll be making it light up and play one of 17 clips from the game in no time.
Product Page ($29.99)
Realizing that many students in his school’s technology club enjoyed chess, St. Louis chemistry teacher produced this chemistry themed chess board on the fly using flasks for pawns, the tops of pipettes for rooks, crucibles for knights, beakers for queens, 10ml volumetric flasks for bishops, and graduated cylinders for kings.
(via Make)
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In a bit of news that will surely have the attention every Star Wars fan, a team using data from NASA’s $600 million Kepler telescope have discovered a planet that has two suns. Although its official title is “Kepler-16b”, scientists at NASA and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute [SETI] have informally named the planet “Tatooine” – a nod to George Lucas and the Star Wars universe. According to SETI’s Laurance Doyle, who led the team of researchers:
“When we first discovered it … I sent around a message, ‘Hey, you know guys, we should ask George Lucas if we can nickname this guy Tatooine. Suddenly and unexpectedly after years of looking for a circumbinary planet – we got a beauty.”
Doyle also reported that a double sunset on the real Tatooine would be much more dramatic that what we see in “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.” For someone standing on the planet’s surface, one of the suns would appear orange and the other red. If you’re hoping for a trip to the newly discovered planet, it’s probably not going to happen. It is located about 200 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. Getting there would take about two centuries if you were going at light speed, or 186,282 miles per second.
Check out the video after the break to learn more.
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