Oh! Gizmo

By Jonathan Kimak

Dan Fletcher, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, along with a team of students, has developed a microscope attachment for the digital cameras on cell phones. The CellScope as it is named, attaches over the camera lens of the phone and has a clip that can hold sample slides.

It’s good enough to be able to see individual blood cells up close and has been tested to diagnose malaria. Dan Fletcher’s hope is that the microscope can be a cheap(estimated cost $100) and fast method of providing diagnosis of diseases in remote areas of the world.

A doctor (or really anyone who took high school science) can make a sample slide of blood, insert it into the microscope, snap a picture of it and send it to anyone in the world, provided they can pull themselves away from texting their buddies about the latest gadgets.

Saving the world from diseases is a fine and noble cause, but they shouldn’t forget about the market of college guys who would buy this so they could determine what exactly is growing on top of the food in the back of their fridge.

[ The Economist ] VIA [ Popgadget ] AND [ Ubergizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Ok, this is officially the coolest image I’ve ever seen. What you see on the right is a pulse of light that is 2.5 billionths of a millionth of a second long. The image was captured by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany and the flash of laser light that made it possible lasted just 80 attoseconds. (An attosecond is one billionth of one billionth of a second.) The previous record for the shortest light pulse was 130 attoseconds set in 2007, and almost halving that number a year later is an impressive feat

But don’t expect your Nikon or Canon DSLR to pull off a cool shot like this. The team responsible for it used a laser firing extremely short pulses into a cloud of neon gas which ionized the neon atoms. This then releases electrons which the researchers were able to measure in order to produce this side-profile shot of the laser pulse.

The light pulses are produced by firing longer, but still very short laser pulses into a cloud of neon gas. The laser gives a kick of energy to the neon atoms, which then release this energy in the form of brief pulses of extreme ultraviolet light.

The trigger pulses contained only one or two oscillations of a light wave so that they packed a compact energy punch when they reached the neon cloud. To do this, the researchers had to corral the trigger-pulse photons into a tightly packed bunch using a device called a chirped mirror. These multilayered mirrors make the photons at the front of a pulse travel further than the slower photons at the rear do. That gives the back markers time to catch up, in this case producing a tight pack of photons that hit the neon atoms at roughly the same time.

To find out how short the light flashes from the neon atoms were, Goulielmakis and colleagues directed them onto a second neon gas cloud. As each flash is intense enough to completely ionise a neon atom and release an electron, the researchers could use those electrons like a flashgun, to illuminate some of the original 2.5 femtosecond trigger pulses of laser light.

Since the microscopic world is still a big mystery to us, this method might eventually allow researches to visualize the movements of electrons around atoms, or even ’see’ nuclear particles like protons.

[ Fastest-ever flashgun captures image of light wave ] VIA [ Slashdot ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The days of having to decide between paper, plastic or cast iron bags at the grocery store are numbered thanks to the development of a new type of extremely tough nanopaper. The paper is made from nanosized (oh I get it!) cellulose fibers making it both stronger and lighter than traditional papers.

Conventional paper is made from cellulose, a crystalline polymer of glucose that’s the primary component of plant cell walls. At the nanoscale level, cellulose can be extremely strong, with individual fibers capable of withstanding more stress than glass fibers or steel wire. But paper processing generates relatively large cellulose microfibers riddled with defects that can break apart under stress. That leaves most commercial paper with a tensile strength that tops out at about 30 megapascals (MPa), says Lars Berglund, a lightweight structures engineering expert at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

To toughen paper up, Berglund and his colleagues kept the cellulose fibers small. They did this by breaking down wood pulp in water with a combination of enzymes and mechanically beating it further. The result: defect-free nanofibers about 1000 times smaller than typical cellulose fibers. As a final step, the researchers treated their nanofibers with carboxymethanol, which coated the fibers in carboxyl groups. These groups readily form hydrogen bonds that helped the fibers make tight contacts with one another, further strengthening the material. The final result–published in the current issue of Biomacromolecules–was a paper with a tensile strength of 214 MPa, far above the 130 MPa of cast iron and the previous record of 103 MPa for a high-strength paper.

Besides allowing you to pack a grocery bag full of canned food without the worry of it tearing, the nanopaper also has the potential to replace other expensive but strong and lightweight materials like carbon fiber or even carbon nanotubes. Maybe these researchers should hook up with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency who are trying to launch that paper airplane from space.

[ Say Goodbye to Wimpy Paper ] VIA [ Slashdot ]

By Andrew Liszewski

To anyone who thinks a toy that teaches science can’t be fun, behold the Magnetic Accelerator Kit! It’s easy to put together (no glue required) and once it’s assembled you simply roll one of the metal balls into one end of the accelerator, and another ball will come shooting out the other end at high speed. The basic principles are similar to what is being planned for future weapons and even space travel, so you can pretend you’re ordering one for your kid’s science fair project, when in reality you’ll be launching metal balls across your desk all day at work.

ThinkGeek’s got it for $29.99, and I’ve included their brief video of the accelerator in action after the jump. And if anyone feels like building one of these, but 10 times the size, we’d definitely be interested in seeing your own videos.

[ Magnetic Accelerator Kit ]

Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re a professional astronomer working with a large installed telescope, you probably already have plenty of equipment to let you know when it’s the ideal conditions to stargaze. But for hobbyists who have to drag their telescopes into the backyard in order to peep the heavens, this watch should provide all the data they need.

The LCD display on the watchface features 96 separate sections arranged in a ray pattern. Each slice represents 15 minutes of time, which adds up to a full 24 hour day. Once you choose your specific location from a list of 583 pre-programmed cities, the sections are selectively shaded to depict the hours of sunlight and darkness throughout the day. A second circular LCD display around the edge shows the times of moonrise and moonset. There’s a single 24 hour hand that moves around a 12-hour bezel for telling the time, but the watch also features a standard digital time display on the top half.

You can find it at Hammacher Schlemmer for $495.95.

[ The Astronomer’s Chronograph ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Any kid who’s ever made a paper airplane has dreamed of throwing it off a tall skyscraper to see how far it can actually fly. And at least one kid who grew up to become a professor at Tokyo University’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics has held onto that dream. But why stop at tall buildings or even mountains? Shinji Suzuki currently heads up a project that wants to launch paper airplanes from space, and see how they survive the trip back to Earth.

The first issue that comes to mind is that the real space shuttle requires bleeding-edge, heat-resistant tiles in order to survive the trip home. How would a paper airplane even have a chance? Well the origami paper they intend to use is made of sugar cane fibers sprayed with a special coating making them resistant to heat, wind and water. Shockingly, a 2.8 inch long prototype has survived speeds of Mach 7 and temperatures up to 446 degrees Fahrenheit in a hypersonic wind tunnel. So believe it or not, the plane could probably survive a trip through Earth’s upper atmosphere.

The actual paper airplane they intend to launch will be about 8 inches long, 4 inches wide and weighs about 1.05 ounces. Their last big hurdle before the ‘launch’ is to find a way to reliably track the airplane once it has been released. Otherwise the $300,000 in funding they get each year for the project will be wasted if they aren’t able to learn anything from the flight.

[ Japanese hope to launch paper plane from space ] VIA [ Popular Science ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Even if you’ve never heard of tritium before, odds are you’ve already experienced it. The radioactive material is used in compasses, gun sights, watches and other items you might need to use at night. While something like LEDs actually throw off far more light, the real advantage to tritium is that it doesn’t need a power source. In fact it will glow for years and years, even in complete darkness. The tiny piece used in this keychain will glow for about 10 years, and will ensure you’ll never lose your keys if you drop them in the woods in the middle of the night while the moon’s blocked out by clouds and you don’t happen to have a flashlight.

They’re available from DealExtreme for just $9.80 and come in either a white glow or green glow version. And while the material is radioactive, it’s safe to use in consumer products since the beta particles it emits are too weak to even penetrate human skin. (Though at one point we thought radium was safe to use too.)

[ Mini Tritium Glowring Keychain ] VIA [ Gear Diary ]

By Evan Ackerman

We’ve taken some totally sweet pictures of other galaxies, but it’s kinda hard to get a decent image of our own Milky Way… There’s just no good place to stand and point the camera. This 12cm glass cube contains a pint sized model of our home galaxy. It’s not just an abstract rendering; there are 80,000 individual points, representing the relative positions of 80,000 real stars, based on data from Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory.

According to Monty Python’s Galaxy Song, our galaxy contains a hundred billion stars, which is a far cry from the mere eighty thousand represented here. On the upside, this model will set you back 1 yen (just under a penny) per star, so if it was more accurate, you’d be paying upwards of a billion dollars instead of the $800 or so it actually costs. Oh, and before you start complaining that the galaxy is off center, this model is geocentric: Earth is in the middle. Yep, we’re kinda off in the middle of nowhere. Humbling, huh?

[ Living World Galaxy ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re worried about taking your kids outside at night to stargaze because of the risk of asteroids, falling satellites and other space debris, you can now enjoy a considerably less awesome experience indoors. The Discovery Ultimate Star Planetarium will project 88 constellations and 12 celestial objects including the 8 planets, that outcast Pluto and its moon, Charon.

A backlit navigational screen allows you to search a database of over 600 star facts and myths, while an interactive talking computer will take you through a variety of astronomy tours and settings. It uses a couple of “super bright bulbs” to project over 600 dots stars and even has a one-hour timer so your kids can fall asleep under the constellations.

You can find it at the Discovery Channel online store for $79.95.

[ Discovery Ultimate Star Planetarium ] VIA [ GadgetMania ]

By Evan Ackerman

Somewhat unusually, there are a couple things going on up in the sky this Wednesday night, at least for those of us who don’t live in Asia or Australia (sorry chaps). The first thing to look forward to is a total lunar eclipse, which should be visible in its entirety from the central and eastern US and Canada as well as western Europe. Eastern Europe and most of Africa will be able to see the eclipse beginning as the moon sets, and the western US will catch it in progress as of moonrise. The moon will be completely within the shadow of the Earth as of 10pm EST, and won’t start to come out again until 10:50pm. During that time it’ll turn a lovely reddish-orange, thanks to the sunrises and sunsets refracting light past the limbs of the Earth. If you live in North America, your next chance to see something like this will be December 21, 2010, so get your butt out there and take a look.

The other big thing that’s going on Wednesday night (in the middle of the eclipse, in fact) is that the United States is going to try to shoot down a dysfunctional spy satellite over Hawaii with a sea launched interceptor missile. If you live in Hawaii, fear not, the debris cloud is headed for central Canada, and as far as I know, nobody actually lives in Canada. Not that they’d have any toxic hydrazine propellant to worry about. Oh wait, there’s 1000 pounds of it on board. That, in fact, is the US government’s rationale for shooting the thing down: they don’t want it to crash into a populated area. Sounds reasonable, but it’s actually total bunk, according to Danger Room. In fact, it’s far more likely to be a response to the Chinese anti-satellite missile test of a year ago, despite the heavy criticism of that test from the United States. More on why the US Government thinks we need to shoot this thing down, and why none of their reasons make much sense, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »