Play the Rings of a Tree Trunk Like a Record
What would a tree sound like if a cross section of it were played like an LP? Bartholomäus Traubeck attempts to find out.
Earth Science
Solar Heater From Can Lids and Woven Plants
An interesting experiment from students in a course at Humboldt State University called Appropriate Technology Engineering 305. The parabolic form is essentially a large, shallow basket woven with fibers of locally-gathered Himalaya blackberry, which the students identify as an invasive species. In good weather, their dish could boil a jar of water in about two hours. I always like to see the clever thinking that can result from radical design constraints. [via No Tech Magazine]
The XKCD “Giant Head” Enhanced Depth Perception Project
Many of you will probably have seen this one from late August, already. I haven’t found any indication that Mr. Munroe has actually done this, yet, but there’s no reason the idea shouldn’t work, in principle. To do so requires a viewer with an individually addressable video display for each eye, but these are not too hard to come by. And large-parallax static stereograms taken using widely-separated synchronized cameras are well known.
Analog Tide Computers and the D-Day Invasion
Bruce Parker, former Chief Scientist and eleven-year veteran of NOAA’s National Ocean Service, wrote this fascinating article in the September issue of Physics Today. It covers the technical history
of the science of tide prediction leading up to the beautiful mechanical computers developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to quickly extrapolate recorded tide patterns into useful predictions, and goes on to explain how those computers were critical in planning the Normandy landings.
QR Code Island Concept
QR Code Island is a delightfully hare-brained concept design from Mat Barnes and Eddie Blake, which will continue to delight me until news appears that someone is actually trying to build such a thing.
BYOB: Build Your Own Biosphere This Weekend at BioCurious
We’ll be making DIY ecosystems — fully self-supporting and sealed from the outside world, with some plants, animals, and a few drops of pond scum, in a Mason jar. These same biospheres sell in airline catalogs for hundreds of dollars.
Compressed: Ferrofluid and Bubbles
Kim Pimmel of San Francisco, CA, created this “experimental art video of ferrofluid and bubbles.” I combined everyday soap bubbles with exotic ferrofluid liquid to create an eerie tale, using macro lenses and time lapse techniques. Black ferrofluid and dye race through bubble structures, drawn through by the invisible forces of capillary action and magnetism.
