Via alookinsideamind:
Lego double helix.
You can build almost anything you can imagine.
(via freshphotons)
Source: alookinsideamind
Via alookinsideamind:
Lego double helix.
You can build almost anything you can imagine.
(via freshphotons)
Source: alookinsideamind
DNA Lego Bricks To Produce Nano-sculptures
But using tiny loops of DNA as “bricks”, Harvard (of course) scientists have developed a Lego-like set of nucleic acid building blocks. The sequences in each loop only stick to certain neighbors in certain orientations, just like real Legos. Those rules are defined by all the standard base-pairing rules that you learned in biology class. You can see some of the shapes that they’ve developed above.
DNA molecules are the building blocks of life, of course, but this take that to a new level. Take a look at some previous DNA construction projects: DNA origami and a DNA “genotypeface”.
Ed Yong digs deep into the blocks at Not Exactly Rocket Science.
Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com
LEGO Turing Machine
A day late for the father of computer science’s centennial celebration, but still amazing. A team from the Netherlands build a working Turing machine out of Mindstorms components. Watch it compute 2+2…
More at Wired, plus some how-to.
LEGO Apollo 11 Rocket by Thebrickman
I think if you guys all start putting together your money right now, you can afford to get this for me for my next birthday.
Previously: Check out these scientists using Lego robots to help grow bones in the lab. Or this Lego space shuttle flying into space on a high-altitude balloon. Or this Lego ISS built aboard the real ISS.
May the 4th Be With You
Happy Star Wars Day!
(LEGO Star Wars photos ©Avanaut, whose Flickr page you should really check out!)
It’s official. Your science is boring, and these people’s is awesome. Michelle Oyen’s lab at Cambridge has been working on growing bones using scaffolds and chemical engineering. It’s a painstaking process that involves hours and hours of dips in various bone-making chemicals in order to get a final product. Sounds like a job for a robot, right?
It turns out that Lego Mindstorm kits can do the job just fine, and for far cheaper than most robots. They plan on expanding their use to other projects in the near future.
This is so unfair. I mean, not only are they building bones in a lab, which is awesome, but they get paid to play with Legos! On second thought, maybe my childhood has provided me with a new resumé entry?
Source: fastcodesign.com
Lego Space Shuttle Boldly Goes Where No Tiny Plastic Ship Has Gone Before
Is there some sort of Lego space colony in the works that no one told me about? I mean, first we have the Lego International Space Station built on the actual ISS, and now we have this Lego shuttle taking an epic journey to the edge of space?
This is a future of space travel we can believe in. But how did they build a space shuttle with those silly little hands?
(by vinciverse)
Source: youtube.com
LEGO space station built on actual space station!
I think under “Doing Things Like A Boss” in the encyclopedia, you’ll find Satoshi Furukawa and his awesome creation.
(by collectspace)
Source: youtube.com
Lego Sorting Plant contains 28 motors, 7 processors, 37,500 bricks
In addition to science, I have a few other addictions that I address on this blog. These include time-lapse videos and LEGOs.
Take it from a maniac, this is probably the greatest LEGO creation I have ever seen.
(via Wired UK)
I'm Joe Hanson, Ph.D. biologist and host/writer of PBS Digital Studios' It's Okay To Be Smart. Check out my "Episode Extras" here. There's a lot of amazing science out there. Let's go discover it together.
"Everyone's favorite Feynman of the Tumblr era" - Maria Popova
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