iiwikidii

cjwho: Living in a twist by Faiz Baig Infinity Tower is a 306...

Sat, 25 May 2013 15:05:18 -0400

Living in a twist by Faiz Baig

Infinity Tower is a 306 metres (1,004 ft) tall 76 storey supertall skyscraper in Dubai. Its world’s tallest high rise building with a twist of 90˚.

gq: IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN.

Sat, 25 May 2013 14:50:24 -0400

gq:

IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN.

crookedindifference: The Engine Burns Blue This image shows a...

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:30:14 -0400

crookedindifference:

The Engine Burns Blue

This image shows a cutting-edge solar-electric propulsion thruster in development at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., that uses xenon ions for propulsion. An earlier version of this solar-electric propulsion engine has been flying on NASA’s Dawn mission to the asteroid belt.

This engine is being considered as part of the Asteroid Initiative, a proposal to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it. This image was taken through a porthole in a vacuum chamber at JPL where the ion engine is being tested.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

I spend half my time at work on ion propulsion so I’m into this NASA image of the day.

inothernews: WORSE THAN BARK Two-month old Bengal tiger cub...

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:27:27 -0400

inothernews:

WORSE THAN BARK Two-month old Bengal tiger cub Tily roars in an enclosure at the animal refuge Fundación Refugio Salvaje (Furesa) on the outskirts of San Salvador, El Salvador. (Photo: Ulises Rodriguez / Reuters via The Guardian)

cjwho: VIMEOS STAFF PICK: Professor Kliq - Plastic and Flashing...

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:22:28 -0400

cjwho:

VIMEOS STAFF PICK: Professor Kliq - Plastic and Flashing Lights

Wire and paper stop motion animation on Professor Kliq’s music.

pipesandpipesandpipes: collectorsweekly: Gloriously Grotesque...

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:16:17 -0400

pipesandpipesandpipes:

collectorsweekly:

Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes

holy smokes

criminology: World’s largest Lego X-wing unveiled in Times...

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:13:50 -0400

criminology:

World’s largest Lego X-wing unveiled in Times Square

5,335,200 bricks

smileprettybaby: specialkayseitz: This movie is so quotable...

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:07:42 -0400

smileprettybaby:

specialkayseitz:

This movie is so quotable :)

I learned this the hard way..

jtotheizzoe: Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your...

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:56:47 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your nanogarden grow?

Harvard engineer Wim Noorduin has a green thumb. Only his thumb is only a few microns wide. By carefully controlling gradients of chemicals, he guided the construction of flower-like crystal structures to match their larger biological forms. It’s certainly art, but it also demonstrates a masterful manipulation of chemistry on the nano scale.

Just how small are they? As NPR reports, these flowers could fit in the lapel of the tiny Abraham Lincoln statue on the back of a penny (back when pennies had the Lincoln Memorial on them, anyway). These electron microscope images are false colored to recreate fantastic flowers, and these manipulations will one day help control the construction of useful microstructures.

If you’re seriously engineering-inclined, here’s the original research as it appears in Science.