11 cheap gifts guaranteed to impress science geeks Science comes up with a lot of awesome stuff, and you don't need a Ph.D, a secret lab, or government funding to get your hands on some of the coolest discoveries. We've got a list of 11 mostly affordable gifts that are guaranteed to blow your mind, whether or not you're a science geek. Click on any image to see it enlarged. 1. Also known as frozen smoke, Aerogel is the world's lowest density solid, clocking in at 96% air. Aerogel isn't just neat, it's useful. Price: $35 2. Inside these sealed glass balls live shrimp, algae, and bacteria, all swimming around in filtered seawater. EcoSpheres came out of research looking at ways to develop self-contained ecosystems for long duration space travel. Price: $80 3. NASA has been trying to figure out how to get a sample of rock back from Mars for a while now. Every once in a while, a meteorite smashes into Mars hard enough to eject some rocks out into orbit around the sun. Price: $70+ 4. Price: $150 5. So what's next year's new color going to be? 6.
Magenn Power Inc. How to Forecast Weather | Ever wondered how to forecast the weather without actually using instruments? Check the Clouds: Clouds can tell us a lot about the weather. For example, they can tell us if it’s going to be warmer on a particular night by simply being there. Check the Humidity: If you’re one of those people whose hair gets all curly when it gets really humid out, you know exactly what this is about. Check the Animals: Birds only fly in the sky when they expect fair weather ahead. Look at the Rainbow (but only in the west) and look for a Red Sky: If you see one in the west, it means a major storm front is coming. Check the Air: If it smells like a compost heap, expect some rain soon. Check the Moon: Seen any red moons lately? Check the Wind: If you can tell which way the wind is blowing, you can tell if there is a storm approaching. A Few More Ideas: Make a campfire – If the smoke goes straight up, clear skies ahead. Check the grass – if it’s wet and dewy, that means it probably won’t rain.
Why Do You Work So Hard? / Is it maybe time to quit your safe job and follow your path and infuriate the establishment? There remains this enormous and wicked sociocultural myth. It is this: Hard work is all there is. Work hard and the world respects you. Work hard and you can have anything you want. This is the American Puritan work ethos, still alive and screaming and sucking the world dry. Call it "the cafe question." Of course, they're not. It's a bitter duality: We scowl at those who decide to chuck it all and who choose to explore something radical and new and independent, something more attuned with their passions, even as we secretly envy them and even as our inner voices scream and applaud and throw confetti. Our culture allows almost no room for creative breaks. Case in point No. 1: I have this sister. She got in. Oh you're so lucky that you have the means to do that, we think. And truly, this mind-set is the national plague, a fate worse than death. Case in point No. 3: Not long ago, the CEO of one of the largest and most powerful international real estate firms in the nation quit his job.
Line Block Cable by Junbeom So, Lee Ji Eun, Yi-Seo Hyeon, Heo-Hyeoksu & Jeong Minhui Line Up The Tangles The problem addressed in the Line Block Cable is so true to home, it’s the one most of us face when we hook up too many gadgets in one area. Not that we can help it, it’s ideal to have the TV, CD player and the music housed together. As a result, their cables leading up to the socket can get messy and unsightly. Line Block cables are constructed in such a way that they can tag 2 or more wires in a piggy-back fashion. Essentially this means that if the gadgets have this unique structured cable, they line up one-atop-the-other and split out only near the socket, to give a neat finish. Designers: Junbeom So, Lee Ji Eun, Yi-Seo Hyeon, Heo-Hyeoksu & Jeong Minhui
Surface Area and Wind Power Click for bigger version. Credit: Land Art Generator Initiative. Putting Things in Perspective The picture above has been making the rounds of the internet lately (sadly it hasn't always been attributed to the Land Art Generator Initiative). They did the same thing with wind power (again, you can click on the pic above to see a bigger version): A 5 MW turbine can be expected to produce 17 GWh per year (they are 40% effective from their peak rated capacity - 5 MW x 365 x 24 = 43.8 GWh). Of course, nobody's suggesting creating a kind of "clean energy monoculture". Via Land Art GeneratorMore Solar and Wind PowerJapan's Moonshot? StartupNation Snowflakes Up Close: A Small, Fragile World If you’re one of those people who likes to ponder things while looking out a frosty window on a cold winter day, these pictures will clear up one of those long standing wonders: each snowflake really IS unique. Some look like roman columns, others circuit boards or spaceships. Taken under high magnification using a microscope, these images bring a fragile and beautiful world into view. See Also HARMFUL VIRUSES MADE OF BEAUTIFUL GLASS They say that every snowflake is different. Source: akirathedon.com Known in some circles as the most amazing man in the universe, he once saved an entire family of muskrats from a sinking, fire engulfed steamboat while recovering from two broken arms relating to a botched no-chute wingsuit landing in North Korea.