Category: Experiments

Photography Snapshot: Exposure Triangle

Helene McLaughlin

In the last couple months my Photography Snapshot series has focused on the theory of light and how it behaves as it created images in an optical system. I’m planning to shift my focus now from the theoretical side of photography to the practical components of taking magnificent photos. This snapshot will focus on creating the perfectly exposed image and the three most important elements in determining exposure. So pick up your camera, its time to play.

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Truncated Icosahedron: Maker Faire NYC Most Memorable for Kids

Helene McLaughlin

While attending World Maker Faire in New York earlier this month, I was surrounded by hundreds of DIY projects that had been dreamt up by hackers and makers around the world. The projects were magnificent! From the moment I walked through the gates for set-up on Friday till we had to leave to drive home on Sunday, there was one display that I was magnetized to. From afar it imply looked like a large wooden sculpture of an soccer ball. I had to know more. I immediately went up and started taking pictures, it was massive and very impressive. The structure was a truncated icosahedron and I hadn’t even seen the best part of the sculpture at that point. Rob Marshall, owner of Hamlet Construction, had turned this ancient design into what he calls the “Happy Fun Ball.”

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Don’t Sit Up Straight: Why a Natural Posture May Be Better

Laura Grace Weldon

I come from a family of slouchers and after a typical day at the computer I have ample reason to worry I’ll develop the dowager’s hump my grandmother had by the time she was in her late 50’s. Worse, my husband suffers from an increasingly painful back after a bad car accident.

That’s why I’m on a quest to find out all I can about our spines and our posture. It has taken me in some unexpected directions. Here are some crumbs along this trail.

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Dragon*Con Diary: My Two Favorite Science & Space Track Panels

Patricia Vollmer

As I’d mentioned in an earlier Dragon*Con Diary post, my family felt the most at-home at the Space and Science Tracks throughout our Dragon*Con weekend. While others had chances to meet such sci-fi stars as John Barrowman, and attend panels with the cast of True Blood, my family was not going to be as patient with those incredibly long lines and levels of uber-fandom that we don’t quite have. The Science and Space Tracks were perfect for us! Here are summaries of my two favorite panels from those tracks.

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Photography Snapshot: The Power of Lenses

Helen Barker

This article is the third in a series teaching the basics of photography. We started by learning about the properties of light and how an image is created, we also learned how a lens bends light to focus individual rays into a single bright image. This lesson we are going to finish learning the scientific theory of lenses and how to use lenses for magnification in addition to brightness.

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RIP Neil Armstrong, A Huge Loss for Mankind

Helen Barker

Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon made him famous, but his “one small step for man… one giant leap for mankind” immortalized him. Today GeekMom, NASA, America, and the entire world, lost a great man. Neil Armstrong passed away today, at the age of 82, of cardio-vascular complications after undergoing heart-bypass surgery. Armstrong lived in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife Carol.

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Photography Snapshot: Why is Light Important?

Helen Barker

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share a number of lessons dealing with the essentials of photography, some of the science behind the images, and products that are likely to make your pictures easier or better. This first lesson will deal with the basic properties of light and the most basic ways to capture that light. Future lessons will talk about the exposure triangle: aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

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Pensacola MESS Hall: A Hands-On Science Experiment Museum

Patricia Vollmer

My sons and I have already paid two visits to Pensacola, Florida’s newest science museum, the Pensacola MESS Hall. Where MESS = Math, Engineering, Science, and Stuff. My husband is now bugging us to go. At the MESS Hall, everything — and we mean EVERYTHING — is meant to be hands-on. There is guidance for math and science activities, but the kids drive it all. Yes, really. There is no wrong answer at the MESS Hall.

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NASA Grant Brings Us $1.1 Billion Closer to Commercial Manned Spaceflight

Helen Barker

Friday August 3rd marked a significant milestone for three companies vying for commercial rights to manned space flight. After a year-long review of the current status of commercial manned spaceflight technology readiness, NASA awarded three grants totaling $1.1 billion to Boeing, Space X and Sierra Nevada Corp., to be paid over the next 21 months. These three companies are vigorously working to provide safe and cost-effective vehicles that can transport NASA astronauts and supplies to and from the International Space Station within the next five years. The awards are part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) under the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

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