One small step for man

CustomBricks made this rendition of a footprint from the Apollo moon landings (seen via the blog Lego Diem).

Polymerase Chain Reaction

DNA replication is the process that your cells use to copy their genetic blueprint. This occurs every time cells divide, so that each new cell has a complete set of instructions. The process involves unzipping the two complementary strands of the parent DNA, and then using free nucleic acids and an enzyme called a DNA polymerase to construct new strands to pair up with each of the parent strands.

Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR, is a process to run this replication artificially in a laboratory. This is often used to analyze DNA samples. Typically analysts get only a very small amount of a DNA sample, and by using PCR they can create a large amount of identical DNA to study. This might be used to identify a blood sample or other evidence at a crime scene, in something like paternity testing, or to identify the DNA of a bacteria or virus to diagnose disease. The Abbott m2000(R) is an automated instrument to run PCR testing to identify various disease agents. Dave and John from briXwerX have made a number of m2000 models on commission for Abbot Molecular.

Newton's cradle

A Newton's cradle (here in LEGO by Monsterbrick) is a device that demonstrates the principle of the conservation of momentum. Five steel balls are suspended from a frame so that they are just touching. As the ball on the left is lifted up and let go, it swings towards the other balls. When it strikes them it stops, but that momentum has to go somewhere. It is transferred through the balls to the right hand ball, which swings out. As this reaches the top of its arch it swings back, repeating the pattern. If there were no loss of energy due to friction this could go back and forth forever.

Launch Complex 39A

Mick Chan built this amazing version of Launch Complex 39A (more pics).

Parkes Observatory

We are all familiar with optical telescopes that allow you to see magnified views of distant stars and planets. Visible light is only a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, though. Electromagnetic energy is a series of energies that travel as waves and they differ in their wavelength (which relates to energy). Visible light is just that section of wavelengths that our eyes can interpret. Radio is another portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with longer wavelengths (lower energies) than visible light. Stars produce energies across the electromagnetic spectrum, and to fully study them we should observe all of these different types of energy. So in addition to optical telescopes, we need other instruments. One example is the 64 meter radio telescope at the Parkes Observatory in Australia. Ross Crawford has built a couple of different LEGO versions.

Movin' rockets around

Vincez01 built the Saturn V launch pad and the Space Shuttle crawler-transporter.

July 20, 1969

Legorevolution celebrated the Apollo 11 moon landing. There's so much to love about this model. In addition to the great figure, note how he did the surface of the moon, and the frame includes Armstrong's famous quote and micro versions of the Saturn V, the lunar lander and the command module.

Flight at Kitty Hawk

Waarkjær shows us the Wright Brothers' first flight.

Pythagoras in action

LEGO is built with primarily right angles, but the Mad Physicist shows us how a little bit of math can be used to come up with all sorts of other angles. In this example he takes advantage of the pythagorean triple 8, 15, 17. That is, a triangle with a right angle and two sides that are 8 and 15 units long will have a third side that is 17 units long (he actually cuts all of these measures in half).



Here's another pythagorean triple, a 3, 4, 5 triangle in Technic beams by Blackbird.

Fusion power

There's one important source that I did not cover in my recent series on energy, because it has not yet proven to be commercially viable, is nuclear fusion. Fusion is the process that occurs in stars. As small atomic nuclei fuse together to make heavier nuclei, energy is produced. Nuclear fusion could prove to be an incredible source of energy, since the fuel source, hydrogen, would be readily available from ocean water, and the byproduct, helium, is environmentally benign. Unfortunately, it has so far been difficult to contain and perpetuate the fusion reaction process. One important step in bringing the promise of fusion to fruition is the ITER reactor being built as an international cooperative project in France. So far, though, this project has run into technological, budgetary, and bureaucratic problems, as described in a recent Scientific American article. That article was illustrated with a LEGO model of the ITER reactor by Sachiko Akinaga, and the Scientific American blog has more photos.

Bringing people into space since 1968

Pasukaru76 made the Russian space workhorse, the Soyuz Spacecraft.

NASA

Galen built this NASA logo.

Kennedy Space Center

Teazza created this amazing version of Launch Complex 39-A (including his shuttle Crawler-Transport) and the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Sylvia Earle

Sylvia Earle is one of the world's leading oceanographers, having led more than 60 scientific expeditions with over 7000 hours underwater. Pixbymaia has made a LEGO version of Dr. Earle and even had the opportunity to pose with the original.

Legoperations

Arqu medes has made a number of Legoperations - many humorous, but some mathematical.

Volcano

Shannon Ocean built this great cross section of a volcano. You can see how the cone was built up by successive layers of ash. At the bottom you see the magma chamber and the conduit leading up to the vent, with a dike leading off to a smaller vent on the side.

Solar power

All of the electricity generation discussed so far has involved turbines. Either water is heated (by burning fuel or from nuclear fission) to make steam, that turns turbines, or wind, water or waves turn the turbines directly. Solar power works on a completely different principle. In the photovoltaic effect, absorbance of light energy causes some substances to emit electrons. In a solar cell, this movement of electricity is captured as an electric current. Unfortunately, while this has great potential as a renewable resource, it is still not used very much. A couple of years ago solar accounted for 1% of US electricity and estimates suggest this will rise to 4% by 2020. Many LEGO creations, particularly futuristic ones, feature solar panels, such as Annie Corder's city,



Doctor Sinister's Aurora Station,



and Zg1134's WALL-E.



Here's a solar power installation from Legoland Billund.



LEGO has even made two official real solar cell elements that are used in a few of the educational Dacta sets.



Here Peter Hoh used one of them to make a solar-powered car.



And that's it for our little foray into understanding how electricity is produced. I'll go back tomorrow to a series of more random MOCs that have popped up recently.

Seven minutes of terror

I'll come back to energy tomorrow, but I wanted to take a moment to congratulate the scientists and engineers at NASA on the incredible news from Mars. I'm sure if you read this blog you already picked up on this, but yesterday Curiosity landed safely on Mars. The landing used a very unique system. First a parachute helped slow down the landing vehicle, then rockets slowed down the descent stage even further, until it was left hovering about 25 feet above the surface of the planet. Then the Curiosity rover was lowered down from this 'sky crane' on cables, to touch down and roll off on its merry way. Alex Kobbs (Kooberz) made a fun video of this landing.

LEGO and wind power

LEGO has an extensive record with wind power. In their educational Dacta line, sets like 9684, Renewable Energy and 9688, Renewable Energy Add-On help kids create science experiments to learn about wind power.



In 2008 they created an exclusive set, Vestas Wind Turbine as part of their cooperation with that company (see yesterday's post). Unfortunately for LEGO fans, that set was very limited, and only available to Vestas employees.



Probably in response to the huge AFOL interest in the exclusive Vestas set, the following year LEGO released 7747, Wind Turbine Transport.



Wind turbines have also been featured in the Legoland parks, such as here in Billund.



A larger wind farm is being built at Legoland Billund, to celebrate LEGO's billion kroner investment in a wind farm being built off the coast of Germany. The company is committed to using 100% renewable energy by 2020.

Vestas Display

In 2009 LEGO partnered with the Danish wind power company Vestas to create a big public display that was in the Stockholm airport. I do not know if it is still there or if it was ever displayed at other locations. The different display boxes showed wind turbines being constructed and used all around the world. There was also a large house showing all the ways we use electricity, a free build section, and a giant turbine.