My friend Jon Singer sent me a link to this fellow’s homebrewed Panaplex display, using a jam jar as the vacuum chamber. Panaplex is a kind of gas-discharge plasma display tech related to the Nixie tube. The builder, Lindsay Wilson, explains the basic setup for his display: The entire thing is based on using a […]
Nikon Small World – Gallery via BB. Here’s the winner, Jonas King, Anopheles gambiae (mosquito) heart (100X). The Nikon International Small World Competition first began in 1974 as a means to recognize and applaud the efforts of those involved with photography through the light microscope. Since then, Small World has become a leading showcase for photomicrographers […]
Kristin St. Clair sent over this AWESOME homemade owl pellet how-to from the Crafts Department of Martha Stewart. This project makes me happy on so many different levels — the project is referred to as Homemade Owl Pellets, Yuck; owl pellets are a favorite science project of mine and my kids; and these are homemade, […]
With a motion-control camera, a printout under glass, and some gaffer’s tape. It’s one of several completely nerdilicious photos from a new book called The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back by J. W. Rinzler. More pics and anecdotes over at Vanity Fair. I especially like the long shot of the iconic Luke-I-Am-Your-Father scene that shows the big pile of mattresses on the floor in case Mark Hamill falls. [via Core77]
Two methods of making geometric models from drinking straws.
Entertaining video from YouTuber David Alvarez. I have a hard time imagining that he’s not working from a plan of some kind, but just from watching the video, it rather looks like he’s “free-handing” his Heath-Ledger-Joker mosaic. He just stands there, solves each cube to present the right pattern, and sets it in place, apparently without any kind of reference.
