Adafruit: Learning Electronics The Fun Way

​Adafruit, the brainchild of Limor Fried for teaching electronics, has debuted a wonderful cartoon called Circuit Playground. Being an electrical engineer, I love seeing simplified attempts to describe the complexity behind the things that everyone uses - everyone plugs in a lamp!

The video below describes what current actually as - a flow of electrons. Most electronic devices have a suggested rating for amps (normally listed as A)​ in honor of scientist André-Marie Ampère. Amps is a measure of the amount of electrons that flows per second. Too little amps and the electronic device won't function.  Too many and it'll fry!

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Credits:

• Ladyada – Limor Fried
• Andre-Marie Ampere – Collin Cunningham
• ADABOT – Collin Cunningham & Phil Torrone, Puppet by Annie Fresh, design by Bruce Yan
• Music: Tom White & Collin Cunningham
• Intro animation – Bruce Yan
• Written, filmed, edited, directed and produced by – Collin Cunningham, Limor Fried, Phil Torrone and the Adafruit team

Three Planets Party Like a Rock Star

The shot above is the from the Solar and Helioshperic Observatory (SOHO), a joint collaboration by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to study the Sun. I know, you may be thinking that somehow there is a huge observatory in the SOHO neighborhood of New York, but no, this is actually in space! SOHO recently captured a fantastic video of Venus, Mars, and Uranus all crowding into to the same picture with the sun.

The coronal ​mass ejection on the picture are giant bubbles of gas and magnetic fields which are ejected from the sun.  Mars will be so close to these fields during April that it will limit the contact that we have with the Curiosity rover that is currently digging its way around the red planet.

If you can't see the short video below, please click here.​

Reduce Your Work Commute With A Rocket

Check out the below infographic for information on how we've managed to reduce the time it takes to get to the International Space Station from two days to six hours! This has been used on automated missions but never for manned spaceflight until today.  Just imagine if you could reduce your work commute by the same 1/8 ratio - an hour commute would become 7.5 minutes!

The Soyuz capsule is a very tiny and cramped spacecraft, so the less time in it, the better for the astronauts. It can only fly autonomously in orbit for only about four days total, so the faster rendezvous frees up more fuel, oxygen and other supplies for possible use in an emergency.  More importantly, this saves a ton of money for the space program since there is less time needed at Mission Control in Houston to monitor the launch.​ 

Keep in mind, the Earth itself is moving, and the ISS is moving in orbit around the Earth at about 5 miles a second.  From the moment the Soyuz capsule launches, everything is in a different place, so we are aiming for a moving target.​

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Women In Chemistry Documentary = Awesome

I had the pleasure of attending a screening of the Women in Chemistry documentary (trailer shown above) by local NPR affiliate WHYY in Philadelphia. This amazing documentary profiles eight women that have changed the course of chemistry and science in general.  Afterwards, we were treated to a Q&A moderated by Maiken Scott  with two of the women profiled in the video - Uma Chowdry and Mary Good. I asked a question a;bout getting kids engaged that don't have a support system that pushes science.  Both Mary and Uma told me to start with the problems that students are facing, and design solutions while focusing on the math and science aspects.  This is a winning idea!

The full list of profiled women is below:

• Nancy Chang, cofounder and former CEO of the biopharmaceutical firm Tanox;
• Uma Chowdhry, retired senior vice president and chief science and technology officer of DuPont;
• Mildred Cohn, first female president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology;
• Mary L. Good, former president of the American Chemical Society, undersecretary for technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, and recipient of the Priestley Medal;
• Kathryn Hach-Darrow, cofounder of the Hach Chemical Company and the only woman to receive CHF’s Pittcon Heritage Award;
• Paula Hammond, David H. Koch Professor in engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
• Stephanie Kwolek, former research associate at DuPont and inventor of Kevlar; and
• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder, chairman, and managing director of Biocon Limited.

The full hour-long documentary is embedded below - checked it out.

Another Successful Landing by SpaceX's Dragon

Dragon spacecraft landing. ​Photo via SpaceX Twitter

The Dragon spacecraft, by private company SpaceX, has successfully left the International Space Station and splashed down for landing in the ocean!  These missions will continue for the next few years and eventually manned space flight will return to US soil. Check out this panorama of the inside of the craft!

NASA indicates that the following experiments were returned to earth: ​

• Investigations included among the returned cargo could aid in food production during future long-duration space missions and enhance crop production on Earth. Others could help in the development of more efficient solar cells, detergents and semiconductor-based electronics. 
• Among the returned investigations was the Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures (CSLM-3) experiment, which also launched to space aboard this Dragon. CLSM-3 studies how crystals known as dendrites form as a metal alloy becomes solid. The research could help engineers develop stronger materials for use in automobile, aircraft and spacecraft parts. 
• Dragon also is returning several human research samples that will help scientists continue to examine how the human body reacts to long-term spaceflight. The results will have implications for future space exploration and direct benefits here on Earth.