3D printing with a twist!

Think of smartbots which can self assemble and disassemble at will or as needed. The second one might be easy! However, assembling pieces into a nice structure is the tricky part. And we love it. That's why DIY stuffs are so famous! If you had trouble assembling an Ikea book-case,  you would simply love it!
But, for a big picture, just think of throwing your spaceship into space and getting the rover self-assembled in Mars and beyond!!!
Yes, researchers are working on 3D printing technology and giving it a new dimension of self-assembly!
You ship the printed sheets, put them together, shake them or give them some self-assembling energy, and voila!
No I am not talking about the inflatable chairs and robots! just follow the links below for the details...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21614176
http://www.sjet.us/SJET-MIT.html



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Tenth of 911 on our pale blue dot

If you are not sure why ten is ever special than any of its neighboring numbers 9 and 11, there is this movie telling the power of ten.



Looking at the voyager image taken from the edge of solar system, Carl Sagan once reflected:
From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Video from the Cosmos by: Carl Sagan:




Peace!

Being a Scientist is ...

Remember the famous story...
"The Emperor's New Clothes"?

It is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes invisible to those unfit for their positions or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!"

Kids can tell the truth!

So some experiment was done. See what they have to say...  http://ed.fnal.gov/projects/scientists/

BEFOREAFTER

My scientist is a very good man. He is very smart and went to school for many years. He is somewhat of a workaholic. . . . He never got into sports as a child; he was always trying to get his straight A grades even higher.I realized that scientists aren't very different from everyone else. . . . They are very smart. As children, they had very good grades. Mostly A's. . . . Their strong subjects were math and science.
Claire

Science Mapping Program in Nepal

Ministry of Science and Technology (Government of Nepal) is collecting information about Nepali researchers (M. Sc. and above in pure science and Bachelor's degree and above in technical fields). Ref. http://planeta-observatory.gov.np/science.mapping.php?

They already have data of hundreds of Nepali Researchers and a 'profile' is being prepared.
They have requested me to 'edit' the information and to help in publishing the profile.

There are relatively less number of entries from natural sciences (especially, Physics and Chemistry).
May I request you to send your CURRICULUM VITAE as early as possible to me (plasmanepal@hotmail.com) or to the Ministry's address planetarium@most.gov.np

Can you please forward this message to all (Nepali) M. Sc. and above in pure science (Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology,....)

Please note: Only the information received within June 2010 will be possible to include in this edition.
-----------------------------
Dr. Raju Khanal
Central Department of Physics
Tribhuvan University
Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal


Related:
http://ajabgajab.blogspot.com/2008/09/mission-possible-locating-nepali.html(SEPTEMBER 20, 2008)

http://ajabgajab.blogspot.com/2008/05/milestone-in-nepali-science-national.html (MAY 14, 2008)

Who said science is hard and boring?

Study the science of art and the art of science.
--Leonardo da Vinci

Princeton University is hosting fourth Art of Science competition. The exhibit includes work by undergraduates, faculty, research staff, graduate students, and alumni.  The theme for the 2010 Art of Science exhibition was “energy”.

If you have experience of working (hard) in a lab, you know the instant pleasure of seeing something beautiful and artistic. I wonder how much influence that has onto creativity. I have few such experiences of non convergent bubble graphs during my Monte Carlo runs. I will certainly post few of them in future... to me they looked beautiful.

Credit: http://www.princeton.edu/artofscience/
The pictures presented there were produced during the course of scientific research. 
Here is the video from Vimeo:



URL: http://www.princeton.edu/artofscience/gallery2010/
While you are there do not forget the previous year's archives.

OK OK... It may be hard; but it is not boring :P

Contest to Win from, Buzz Aldrin, the Moon Man!

. What name did MTV originally give to the Video Music Award statue ‘The Moonman’?
2. What was Buzz’s mother’s maiden name?
3. How many months will it take for the Aldrin Mars Cycler to reach Mars?

If you know the answer and if you are lucky, you  can win  Nike 6.0 Buzz Aldrin Rocket Hero Mavrk Mid 2 shoes.
Head on to...
http://buzzaldrin.com/community/buzzs-newsletter/contests/
 

Buzz meets Buzz

Buzz Aldrin, the second person to set foot on moon after Neil Armstrong, meets buzz:




Follow Buzz on twitter:
http://twitter.com/therealbuzz
Guess what he had his background on twitter before he had current one?
Orbits!!!


Friend with Buzz on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/buzzaldrin

Buzz on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/therealBuzzAldrin