Arts & Crafts for Nerds

Nerds have been busy so far this year, and not just at reading Slashdot, learning pi to 281 places, and spreading rumors about what Steve Jobs will come up with next. Some have also taken up filmmaking, music, photography, fashion design, photomosaic, beading, and stop-motion animation. Can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings.

We're Surrounded!

Or, as Gizmodo puts it, space is full of crap. It seems that in addition to the normal trash we've left in orbit, Earth is being surrounded by smaller particles and debris that are the result of explosions of old satellites and other junk. This cloud of dust could get thicker and thicker as more of the rubbish we've left up there collides, disintegrates, and blows itself apart. It causes several problems. The ESA states that "objects from 1 to 10 cm in size — about the diameter of a salad bowl — cause the real worry. These are too small and numerous to be individually tracked but could cripple or kill any craft they hit." The problem is that even though the stuff is small, it moves really fast. The ESA notes that "As of 2001, Space Shuttle windows had been replaced 80 times due to sub-millimetre object impacts. " Sometimes space junk could be made usable, but as Slashdot notes, patent disputes can get in the way of such endeavors. The ESA suggests using clean spacecraft operation techniques to reduce our litter. As this comparison shows, that could help, but it still won't solve the problem entirely.

Experiments you can actually do

There are a lot of great science experiment videos on the web, but many show reactions that require very expensive (or very unsafe) chemicals, or that are otherwise unsuitable for home or classroom imitation. (For examples, see the Top 10 Chemistry Videos Online from the March 5th post.) At least one site, however, specializes in very, very simple experiments (occasionally underwhelmingly so) that anyone can do. It's Robert Krampf's Science Videos, and it's experiments, while geared toward the elementary and middle-school crowds, are often the kind that you can watch, think "I've got that stuff in my kitchen", and immediately do for yourself. Even though as adults we might already know the information he presents, many of the experiments show practical (or at least fun) applications of things that we've only learned in principle. I'm still catching up on them, but so far my favorites are the Bouncing Balls (complete with slow-mo replay) and Orange Segments. Each video has a complete text description with it in case you missed anything.