I’m not much of a chess player. Thanks to my dad I know how the pieces move and I know the rules. Beyond that I’m a pretty hopeless case, but Paul Fryer’s vacuum tube chess set, dubbed Chess Set For Tesla (in honor of the eccentric and enigmatic inventor Nikola Tesla) could possibly inspire me to maybe learn a little bit more about this interesting and intricate game.
The set has electricity running through the board to light up the red and blue tubes, and the tubes actually maintain power for a short time when they are unplugged from the board as you move them. From what I can tell in the photographs each piece has an identifying symbol on the top to indicate which piece you are moving, since apparently only the King and Queen are of unique shapes.
Paul Fryer himself seems to be an interesting character as well. He’s gone from being an electropop singer to transvestite DJ to poet to contemporary artist. After only a few minutes research I discovered most of his art to involve light and electricity. He’s even published a book of poetry with artwork by the controversial Damien Hirst (whose $50 million diamond skull is probably one of my favorite pieces ever). He’s worth a look if you are interested even remotely in contemporary art.
Sadely it’s unlikely that anyone other than the few people Fryer made this custom set for will ever get a chance to use it, or purchase one for themselves. This is art after all, and not a commercial endeavor. Which is really too bad as I know my friend The Neon Cowboy would simply keel over if he ever got to own a chess set that went along with his Tesla tattoo.
WIth the Tour De France underway and my hometown hero, Lance Armstrong, performing as strong as ever (I hope nothing happens between now and the time this actually posts), I thought I’d post some tech related to cycling.
Cycling may seem like an awfully low tech kind of sport. It involves lots of muscle and sweat, and pretty much no electronic gadgets at all, but you wouldn’t believe the amount of science that goes into helmet design.
The Rudy Project Wingspan TT Helmet, which was just announced for the Tour and is in use by the German team Milram, has shown between and six and thirteen second benefit over competitors in a 40km test trial performed by an independent testing lab.
I’m sure you know that races like this can be won and lost based on milliseconds. So every advance they can make in aerodynamic helmets gives an edge to the competitors.
I myself don’t cycle for speed and therefor won’t be spending the $299.99 they’ll be asking for this helmet when it comes out on the market.
But I’ll definitely be interested to know how much of a difference it will make for the German team who are sporting them this year.
Here is their (rather uninformative) YouTube video for the helmet:
Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned the distinct lack of chemistry sets on our shelves in the last few decades. Well I was shopping at Book People the other day (one of Austin’s very cool local bookstores) and I came across National Geographic’s Elements of Science kit.
For $74.95 you can do 100 experiments in biology, chemistry and physics. It includes 112 page book that covers optics, light, electricity, chemical reactions and much much more. It’s a pretty basic kit for ages 10 and up.
But then I found this on the DiscoverThis website:
The Chem3000 kit is a comprehensive chemistry set for ages 12 and up that covers over fifty topics relating specifically to chemistry.
The kit includes dozens of actual chemicals along with all the supplies needed to do 360 different experiments (including ones covering fuels and combustion… the most fun part of chemistry in my opinion).
Obviously these experiments need to be done with adult supervision. But I’m willing to bet that any parent that gets this kind of kit for their kid will have just as much fun helping with these experiments as their kid will have doing them. I know I would (now I just have to get around to having kids and raising them to age twelve… dang!).
There are dozens more kits on the DiscoverThis website covering everything from Astronomy to Zoology. They have Robot Kits (!!!) and Genetics and DNA kits too. Hopefully if more kids learn to have fun in science early on the US of A won’t be so woefully behind in producing the worlds leading scientists anymore.
This is just about the coolest news I’ve heard since they transported that atom a fews years ago!
Engineers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IMPS) have designed a pair of glasses with an embedded head-up display and eye tracking technology. The images, projected by a 19x17mm CMOS chip embedded just behind the hinge, are directly projected onto the retina and appear as though they are about 1m from the user.
What makes this different from previous attempts at HUD spectacles is it’s interactive abilities.
The eye tracking allows the wearer to change the projected content by moving their eyes and focusing on a specific point. So no hands needed! Which will be super convenient for a number of folks I’m sure.
To deal with ambient lighting issues they have designed the glasses to use OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes), which ensure the display can be seen clearly against changing backgrounds.
Primarily this tech is targeted at the medical and engineering fields. However, once they’ve had their turn I personally can’t wait to try them on, especially if they are really as stylish as the picture makes them out to be. I’ll be navigating the virtual world like one of William Gibson’s cyber-punk miscreants in no time.
Last in my five part Star Trek inspired series has more to do with theory than practical application, at least right now anyway.
It’s a cloaking device (no, this is not an automated butler that helps you on with your coat).
It’s an actual invisibility generator that has been constructed by engineers at Duke University.
Light reflecting normally off a bump on a surface:
Bent light removing scattered beams to make bump “disappear”:
So far it only works on items places on a mirrored surface, but even that is pretty darn impressive.
As expected this has to do with the ability to bend light around an object. To do this the engineers used mathematical algorithms to engineer artificially structured “metamaterials” (materials that have properties not found in natural materials).
Said metamaterial is what actually does the bending of the light.
According to the Duke University professor it’s similar to the mirages created on the road in the summer. The mirage is “cloaking” the road below it.
Practical applications include protective shields and improved wireless communication (by making signal-blocking obstacles “disappear”).
I wonder if this will put magicians out of business. Pretty soon Chris Angel might have to start looking for a new job.
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