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Yeah, I'm a science geek
    #7927120 -

I'm not a super tech-savvy fellow, but I've always been fascinated with silly scientific shit. While the other kids were playing with G.I.Joe I had a chemistry set. They all wanted to go ride their bikes and I wanted to build stupid, random electronic gadgets that did nothing more then make noise and light up. They wanted to catch frogs to chase girls with, I wanted to catch frogs to dissect. They wanted to burn ants with a magnifying glass, I wanted to make slides with ants on them to look at with my microscope. They played sports and learned sports stats, I had a telescope and studied astronomy.

And I guess its the kind of thing you never outgrow. A few years back I got on a magnet kick. Bought some really strong rare earth magnets to play with and I even still have my permanent magnetic levitator (not the kind with the top that has to spin, this gadget will actually levitate a magnet permanently. It just hangs there in space forever).

Now I think I need to move on to lasers. If I can rustle up an old DVD burner I might build a nice high powered pointer. This guy has a pretty cool tech. If I had money to burn I'd probably already own a bunch of high powered lasers just for kicks. Maybe get me one of them cool blue lasers.

Yep, I'll never grow out of my childhood fascination with scientific toys!


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You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: ToTheSummit]
    #7927164 -

i got an old dvd burner.. gonna check that out.

are you applying your love for science to your career?

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: im_on_a_boat]
    #7927172 -

drkrobotnik said:
are you applying your love for science to your career?


No, I'm applying another childhood love of mine...playing in the dirt.
:smirk:


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You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: im_on_a_boat]
    #7927203 -


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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: DieCommie]
    #7927223 -

DieCommie said:



You need to find a much nerdier pic. Those guys score way higher on the 'cool scale' then I do!


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You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: ToTheSummit]
    #7927273 -

haha, then you are not as cool as I! 

To make it even better, its from a trip to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and its posted on the bottom floor of the physics building.  :rocket:

(In case you cant tell, we are all doing the right hand rule  :tongue: )


edit:  anyway back to the case at hand...  I love tinkering as well.  One of my class mates was just showing me a site on making a powerful laser from  a DVD burner.  Maybe trendal will chime in, I think he is the resident laser expert.

Edited by Qubit (01/24/08 10:39 PM)

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: DieCommie]
    #7927287 -

:lol:
So which one is you?


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You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: DieCommie]
    #7928911 -

I've been on the lookout for a DVD burner lately... :wink:

One thing I have been rather concerned about is the number of people who play with the lasers from a DVD burner without any eye protection at all. These are 200mW lasers...well into the range that will cause retinal damage. The laser can have specular reflections that will be very strong, potentially causing eye damage if one hits your eye. As well, objects that you don't normally think of as reflective will have a pronounced specular reflection at laser light frequencies.

Please be careful when using things like these lasers (and anything over 5mW, for that matter). That includes wearing eye protection that is specific to the wavelength of laser you are using. Check ebay if you're having trouble finding a pair, and expect to pay anywhere from $50-$150.


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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: DieCommie]
    #7929163 -

do you go to caltech?

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: ToTheSummit]
    #7929298 -

ToTheSummit said:
drkrobotnik said:
are you applying your love for science to your career?


No, I'm applying another childhood love of mine...playing in the dirt.
:smirk:


:thumbup:


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After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action.  If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it.  - Ernest Hemingway

If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it.  In the law courts, in business, in government.  There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent.    -Cormac MacCarthy

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.  - Aeschylus

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: ToTheSummit]
    #7929415 -

Do you know what got you into science?

I think my dad forced it on me :wink: He always came up with experiments, "technical" projects, and stories about the world(physics for a child) that always excited me.

Once we made a counter that counted when a bird flew in/out the birdbox they nested in. He introduced me to the commodore 64 when I was 5 years old. We always repaired everything in and around the house together. We looked at the stars and modelled the solar system with lamps, oranges and grapes (to show me different reference frames). We wrote games in BASIC. We looked at everything we could find through a microscope.

The more I think about it, the more I'm sure he really "forced" it on me :laugh:. In a good and fun way.

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: Annom]
    #7929510 -

Two events that occurred close together sparked the science genie in my head...both occurred when I was 4 or 5.

One was my watching a cup of water boil inside a microwave. I was completely floored by the idea that invisible rays of light could cause this cup of water to boil.

The second was the explosion at Chernobyl. I learned about it a few days later, when my (paranoid) mother wouldn't let me go outside because, as she said, "someone split the atom". For some reason I pictured this as a lumberjack slicing an apple in half with his axe, and I decided that it was the apple seeds that were at fault (having previously heard that apple seeds were poisonous).


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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: Annom]
    #7929547 -

Annom said:
Do you know what got you into science?


I don't ever remember not being interested in science.  My parents never pushed it on me in any way.  I would ask Santa for things like a microscope or chemistry set every Christmas.  And my parents made sure I got it.

But my Dad was into things like HAM radio and photography (we even had a darkroom) so that might've been an unintended influence.

Still, my Dad said I was an odd child.  If I would get antsy (as kids are wont to do) he'd just tell me to go read a book.  I'd grab a book on some scientific topic and disappear to my room for hours on end!  When I emerged I'd want to share all kinds of details about astronomy, biology, or whatever it happened to be that I had read.
:wtf: What kind of 7-year-old does that?

...yeah, true science geek at heart!


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You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: trendal]
    #7929607 -

Quote:
I was completely floored by the idea that invisible rays of light could cause this cup of water to boil.


I had as somewhat similar experience when I learned that a sailboat can sail to a point that is in a direction opposite to the direction of the wind.

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: ToTheSummit]
    #7930617 -

ToTheSummit said:
Bought some really strong rare earth magnets to play with and I even still have my permanent magnetic levitator (not the kind with the top that has to spin, this gadget will actually levitate a magnet permanently.  It just hangs there in space forever).


The cool little deal with the rare earth magnets and pyrolytic graphite....?
Don't have the faintest clue of what you are talking about....    :tongue:

I haven't submerged myself in the laser stuff yet, but I have a few books for when I do....  :thumbup:
Kind of stuck in a mineral/crystallography phase right now....


>^;;^<


--------------------
I'll be your midnight French Fry....  :naughty:

"The most important things in life that are often ignored, are the things that one cannot see...."
>^;;^<

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: PhanTomCat]
    #7931320 -

PhanTomCat said:
The cool little deal with the rare earth magnets and pyrolytic graphite....?


Yeah, thats the one. Kinda trippy to watch that magnet just float there in space, nothing touching it. I like to give it a light tap so it spins really slowly. Maybe I'll set it up and take a short video to post.


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You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: ToTheSummit]
    #7931349 -

And I guess its the kind of thing you never outgrow. A few years back I got on a magnet kick. Bought some really strong rare earth magnets to play with and I even still have my permanent magnetic levitator (not the kind with the top that has to spin, this gadget will actually levitate a magnet permanently. It just hangs there in space forever).

It may levitate for an exceedingly long time on human scales...but forever is a long time :wink:


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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: trendal]
    #7931366 -

trendal said:
And I guess its the kind of thing you never outgrow. A few years back I got on a magnet kick. Bought some really strong rare earth magnets to play with and I even still have my permanent magnetic levitator (not the kind with the top that has to spin, this gadget will actually levitate a magnet permanently. It just hangs there in space forever).

It may levitate for an exceedingly long time on human scales...but forever is a long time :wink:


:lol:
Yeah.  But it levitates long enough to impress me. :smirk:


--------------------
You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: ToTheSummit]
    #7933748 -

dude screw buying a DVD burner and using the laser diode off that.
Go here:
http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.911

Their cheap as with free shipping.

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Re: Yeah, I'm a science geek [Re: hillbilly32]
    #7934361 -

hillbilly32 said:
dude screw buying a DVD burner and using the laser diode off that.


Who said anything about buying?  I'm just gonna look for an old one that has been discarded or is not wanted.  Usually something else dies in a burner but the laser diode is still good.

I actually have a spare here right now, but I don't wanna destroy it.  I'm supposed to put it in my machine so I have two of them.  Of course, I've been saying that for 6 months and I'm still just using the single burner.
:shrug:


--------------------
You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!

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