NASA plays with cereal and crayons
NASA Will Use Cereal and Crayons to Test Jet Engine Sensors
Water forms a cyclonic twist as it is intentionally sucked into the test engine of a U.S. Air Force transport aircraft during the VIPR project (NASA/Tony Landis)
NASA engineers will feed cereal and crayons into jet engines in a test of new aircraft engine health monitoring technology designed to provide early warning of engine problems, including the destructive effect of volcanic ash. NASA's Aviation Safety Program is developing technology for improved sensors to help spot changes in vibration, speed, temperature, and emissions that are symptomatic of engine glitches.
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California will let jet engines suck up crayons and cereal in an upcoming experiment with a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo transport. The cereal and crayons will leave a colorful trail of grains and wax that the researchers can see and study to gauge how well the sensors work.
The test, in early 2013, will use cereal and crayons to verify that the sensors can detect tiny bits of debris. After that, engineers will conduct a test with very hard, glass-like particles that mimic volcanic ash. Because it is difficult and risky to create problems intentionally on a jet engine in flight, the aircraft will remain on the ground for both tests.
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A step toward optical computing
A left-brained camera? NYT
This Camera Doesn’t Take Pictures. It Describes Them.
By NICK BILTON |
Photos via Matt Richardson Innovega's dual-focus eyewear to make augmented reality battlefield-ready
By Jan Belezina
05:27 April 19, 2012
Innovega's dual-focus contact lenses allow the wearer to focus near and far at the same time
Finally! The button I've been looking for!
Don't delay; click here. You'll be glad you did.
not the ipad 3--but very cool
Can $35 Raspberry Pi computer teach kids to program?
Somehow, I don't think so. There are lots of much more attractive programming environments around that are accessible to kids through schools and libraries. I don't see any great benefits to this approach. But I'd love to be wrong! :-) JO
MORE (LA Times)
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MIT Technology Review: DIY Biotech in your bedroom
Do-it-yourself: Cathal Garvey, 26, poses in the biology laboratory he created in his mother's spare bedroom.
Deirdre Brennan
In a spare bedroom of his family's house in County Cork, Ireland, Cathal Garvey is repeating the feats that led to the dawn of the biotechnology age. He's growing bacteria. He's adding DNA. He's seeing what happens.
"To transform bacteria was once a huge deal, a new method," he explains. "Today, you can do it with Epsom salt and an over-the-counter brand of laxatives."
Garvey, who is 26, dropped out of a PhD program at a big cancer lab two years ago. Instead of giving up on science, however, he started doing it on his own, spending $4,000 to equip a laboratory in his parent's house. As a member of the "do-it-yourself" biology movement, Garvey takes inspiration from the early days of hobby computers, when garage tinkerers spawned companies like Apple and the rest of the PC industry. The idea now is that anyone—not only big-budget academic labs or large companies—should be able to practice biotechnology. More