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Education Hardware Hacking Build Science

Weird Science Offered As University Class 137

Posted by kdawson from the matter-of-degree dept.
ludwigvan968 writes "The ACTLab at the University of Texas at Austin is making waves with its Weird Science class. The link is to the TA's blog with documentation of some of the projects: a laser harp, a 3D environment constructed with fog and an LCD projector, and a 'water bridge' using a 50,000-volt transformer. Next semester, they're introducing a new class called 'Disruptive Technologies.'"
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Weird Science Offered As University Class More

Weird Science Offered As University Class

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  • What about the girl (Score:5, Funny)

    by CaptainPatent ( 1087643 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @07:47PM (#21650135) Journal
    This is not a complete class... I read nothing about animating an uber-hot girlfriend!

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by explosivejared ( 1186049 )
      This is a science class, not a dark arts class. There is nothing rational about women. Women and creationism are on the same grounds as far as being taught in a science classroom. :)
      • No wonder everyone who seems to know anything about "Defense Against the Dark Arts" are all uber-geeks!

        Solomon

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HTH NE1 ( 675604 )
      Henry Frankenstein: The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!

      Garry: That's not a bad idea.
      Wyatt: What?
      Garry: Making a girl. Actually making a girl. Like Frankenstein... except cuter.
      Wyatt: You're serious?
      Garry: Look me in the eye. Do I look serious?

      Victor Moritz: You're crazy!
      Henry Frankenstein: Crazy, am I? We'll see whether I'm crazy or not.

      Wyatt: Gary Wallace, that's-that's gross! That's sick! I am not digging up dead girls!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nmb3000 ( 741169 )
        Garry: Making a girl. Actually making a girl. Like Frankenstein... except cuter.

        Wait, didn't they do that movie already? I could have sworn... of course!

        Fredrick: Would you mind telling me whose brain I did put in?
        Igor: And you won't be angry?
        Fredrick: I will *not* be angry!
        Igor: Abby Someone.
        Fredrick: Abby Someone. Abby Who?
        Igor: Abby Normal.
        Fredrick: Abby Normal.
        Igor: I'm almost sure that was the name.

        There you go. I'm sure Frankenstein and Abby would be quite the couple.
    • They really wanted to, but the prerequisite was that everyone in the class had to wear sunglasses, slicked hair and a polyester suit. So that killed the idea :(

    • I read nothing about animating an uber-hot girlfriend!


      You dumb - any decent slashdotter would know that there are NO SUCH THINGS as girlfriends. Face it, IT'S A MYTH!
    • Oh the pure joy of a 10 year old hearing Kelly Le Brock say the word "wanker" and realising that adults do swear and they should STFU and stop telling kids to use foul language.

      Oh yes, Queen's English is not dead yet and Great British cusses can hold their own against the cultural imports like "MoFo", "bee-atch" and "Ho's". Small victories indeed.

  • I want a mythbusters class as well (Score:5, Funny)

    by Joe The Dragon ( 967727 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @07:48PM (#21650141)
    I want a mythbusters class as well

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yeah, can't wait to hear someone ask about god in it.

    • And I want a Real Genius class (Score:4, Informative)

      by plover ( 150551 ) * on Monday December 10, 2007 @08:30PM (#21650421) Homepage Journal
      As long as we're going along with the '80s "edu-movie" theme, I always liked Real Genius [imdb.com]. Iced stairwells, auditorium beach parties, disassembled-and-reassembled-in-the-dorm-room vehicles (oh, wait, I already did that one) and Big Fscking Lasers.

      And popcorn. LOTS of popcorn!

      • Don't forget the cute girl down the hall who never sleeps and rushes into the bathroom to show you the sweater that she made you =]
    • With Kari Byron [wikipedia.org] as the teaching fellow.

      Seriously, you would spontaneously explode.
    • TASER - Thomas A Swift Electric Rifle NOT TAZER

    • Re:I want a mythbusters class as well (Score:4, Informative)

      by Lane.exe ( 672783 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @09:14PM (#21650725) Homepage
      Not to cramp the style of your joke, but they do have that class. It's Physics 471 -- Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. One of my favorite classes at UT.
      • That sound's more like Penn and Teller's class than Jaime and Adam's. For all the flaws with what they do on MythBusters, things aren't being dismissed out of hand. They spend real money, time, and effort to at least attempt demonstrating the workings of myth. Organized skepticism seems to be more about berating dumbasses who should know better. That can be entertaining but if someone is stupid enough to believe John Edwards can make a long distance phone call to his relative in heaven then a stern talk

  • Disruptive? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Colin Smith ( 2679 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @07:48PM (#21650143)

    Next semester, they're introducing a new class called 'Disruptive Technologies.'"
    Would that be like a Tazer/Stun Gun?
     

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by beavioso ( 853680 )
      I think the class requires students to use cell phones with "catchy" ringtones.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Cjstone ( 1144829 )
      Or a breadboard with flashing LEDs attached to a sweatshirt.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      No, that would be the EMI/RFI emissions from the water bridge. That's probably where they got the idea. :-)

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by joaommp ( 685612 )
      To test them, they're going to ask a student to pretend to be doing something that is really not anything special but that any over zealous paranoid security officer would love to think it is a security threat.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by MonkWB ( 724056 )
      Actually they are going over the various incarnations of windows.
    • No, that would be *Disruptor* Technologies.

      Chris Mattern
    • I made a simple "tazer" at school.

      It goes something like this:
      9V battery
      Relay (naturally-on or 2-way variety)
      Button
      Couple of wires.
      Wired like this: Battery->Button->relay coil->relay switch->battery

      The dangerous points are the connections either side of the coil on the relay.

      Because it's a naturally-on switch, that will be a circuit. It will power the relay's coil, causing it to flip the switch, breaking the circuit. The coil is now charged, but can't discharge because the circuit is broken. If

  • The next logical step... (Score:5, Funny)

    by billius ( 1188143 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @07:48PM (#21650149)
    Mad Science. Seriously, I'm dying for some funding on my research dealing with the re-animation of human flesh.

  • Great (Score:3, Funny)

    by LostInTransportation ( 1012423 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @07:49PM (#21650155)
    Now we're all stuck with thoughts of gym class taught by Kelly Brock.
    • I was thinking more along the lines of sex ed taught by Kelly Brock myself... ;)

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        You were thinking of a sex ed taught by a 47 year old mother of 3?
        • The 47 year old mother of 3 probably know a lot more about the subject than the 25 year old Kelly LeBrock from Weird Science.

  • Cool Stuff (Score:3, Insightful)

    by j_kenpo ( 571930 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @07:57PM (#21650217)
    I remember when I was working for a production company, a buddy of mine would always do stuff like this. We made a smoke cannon similar to the one shown there using an old PA speaker, some plastic cones, and a fog machine. The PA speaker pushed the fog through the cones making the smoke rings. We were going to build a large one, but never did. We also talked about doing something similar to the LCD/smoke projector with a large DLP projector when they first came out to experiment on replacing the aging atmospheric effect laser projectors. Of course, it still wasn't as impressive as a 10 watt white light laser with a color changing crystal. But its cool to see people out there playing with some of this kind of stuff. The water bridge was friggin cool.

  • Heard in class (Score:5, Funny)

    by Conspiracy_Of_Doves ( 236787 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @07:57PM (#21650227)
    "We'll be having a lab session today, so get a bra from the cabinet by the door and make sure it is securely fastened over your head before going to your lab station"
    • And don't forget to hook up the doll!

      We are sick and tired of having to replace the floor every time one of you little fools creates an ICBM instead of a woman!

  • Obligatory --and how! (Score:3, Funny)

    by rts008 ( 812749 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @07:59PM (#21650231) Journal
    I welcome our new Kelly LeBrock Overlords!
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090305/ [imdb.com]

    Truly one of Canada's great contributions to the rest of the world. Kelly ROCKS!!!
  • But for god's sake, I hope they don't forget the doll!

  • former actlabbie here (Score:3, Informative)

    by CharlesV ( 22919 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @08:10PM (#21650293)
    You end up making so much awesome stuff you never knew you had in you in these programs. definitely made my college experience worthwhile. some of mine:

    http://home.actlab.utexas.edu/~charlesv/ [utexas.edu]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Fizzl ( 209397 )
      Interesting, but the color scheme gave me an aneurysm. Was that supposed to be part of the experience?

  • Laser harp? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by davidsyes ( 765062 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @08:20PM (#21650347) Homepage Journal
    Talk about cutting edge music. Hopefully it's not "ear-splitting" music...

    Truly disruptive technology might be an "intestinal auger" with rheostat. Somehow, I suppose the FDA won't allow that piece of equipment to be added to the body...
  • You might want to stay away from the dining hall on the day this class meets. Greasy pork sandwiches served in dirty ashtrays get tired after a while.

  • Anthony Michael Hall (Score:3, Insightful)

    by techstar25 ( 556988 ) <techstar25@gmail. c o m> on Monday December 10, 2007 @08:28PM (#21650409) Journal
    Unless it's taught by Anthony Michael Hall, you can forget about it.

  • 3D Fog Environments (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bones3D_mac ( 324952 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @08:31PM (#21650435)
    This is something I've found kind of interesting ever since I first heard of it a couple years ago. However, we may not be limited to simply looking much longer. For example, a newer application of the Wii Remote that allows users to convert any display into a digital white board [cmu.edu] could allow fog display users to directly manipulate both the fog and the image being projected over the affected area simultaneously, making it possible to do things like carve directly into the display itself. (Though, much of it may initially come off as a gimmick similar to some of Apple's interactive quicktime movie demos, such as realtime water ripples created on mouseclicks.)

    Eventually, I'd love to see a way to do this that doesn't require the fog, like maybe using lasers to intersect at a single point in 3D space in such a way that the polarization reflects the light back to the viewer at that point, while remaining invisible elsewhere.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by CryoPenguin ( 242131 )

      Eventually, I'd love to see a way to do this that doesn't require the fog, like maybe using lasers to intersect at a single point in 3D space in such a way that the polarization reflects the light back to the viewer at that point, while remaining invisible elsewhere.

      Photons don't interact with photons. It doesn't matter whether it's lased, polarized, or whatever; two or more beams of light will just pass through each other.
      (This is also, btw, why photons aren't regularly used as qubits in a quantum computer

      • Re:3D Fog Environments (Score:4, Interesting)

        by JohnFluxx ( 413620 ) on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @06:41AM (#21653753)
        Actually that's not quite true - photons can bounce off each other. It's just rare.

        On a different note, what you can do is have the beams have enough energy density to be close to breaking down the air. Then where they intersect there will be enough energy to break down the air and create a plasma. This will be a reflective point. It's kinda loud though.
        • I was working with an enormous UV laser and at one point in the beampath, (for reasons I don't understand) it had a focal point. It did exactly what you're talking about: there was a little glowing ball of spark-filled plasma just sitting in the open air (since it was an invisible beam.) That was pretty cool, but definitely not where you wanted any part of yourself to be. To make it more fun, we pulsed the laser, especially when warming it up or checking for dark spots on the optics, so it'd be running a
          • I too work with lasers. And I can attest to the beam going places you don't intend it to - I once nearly blinded myself with a pulse laser :( I was blind for about half a day, and had to have an injection in my eye. Gotta be careful.
            • A major reason I'm now in electronics is that every laser place I worked, the majority of the people doing the work had permanent eye damage. With the UV excimer system, the PhD who designed it had severe astigmatism from DIY lasik -- he'd flattened his cornea with a blast when a laser that was supposedly off let out one last pulse. I later was working with ultrafast freq-doubled copper ion lasers, and there, both the PhD's who spent time in the lab and the other tech had blind spots from green getting pa
              • So very true. Everyone I worked with had an accident. I too got out of that business for the same reason. I was so scared that I'd lost my eyesight.

                Now I do theoritical particle physics. Most I have to worry about it dropping a heavy book on my foot. :-)
  • Will this revolution be televised? Maybe youtubed?

    I'd like to see projects like this trickle into the anemic science materials at the highschool level and make learning science fun. Hopefully they contribute their materials to one/some of the several open coursework sites.

  • Disruptive techonogies is a real area of study (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Raul654 ( 453029 ) on Monday December 10, 2007 @09:08PM (#21650683) Homepage
    Disruptive technologies is a very real area of study. Supercomputing 2006 and 2007 even had a panel on it [supercomp.org]. (My phd adviser is one of the people listed there) Although somewhat buzz-wordy, the idea is to signify technologies that have the potential to bring about great change within an industry.

    Just to name one kind of such technology for computing, if someone could get automatic parallelization to work reliably, that would be a very disruptive technology. (20 years of research has yet to achieve this, but people keep trying)
  • I thought this was about "Intelligent Design".

  • I really enjoyed watching the Physics for Future President's course from UC.

    http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978373 [berkeley.edu] or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ysbZ_j2xi0 [youtube.com] (if you don't like real player!)

    Kind of lightweight and zero math involved but entertaining for non science nerds.

  • When I went to U.T. Austin in 1981 I took a class called "Fantastic Theories and Sobering Facts". U.T. Austin has always been a leader in classes for non-science majors. Oh, and HOOKEM!
  • http://cws.org/ [cws.org] still exists, and it used to have some content years ago. This actually goes back at least to the '80s when I was living in Austin. Not sure I should name any names, but I wonder if any of he same people are involved. I was only peripherally aware of it, though I did have one of the official CWS pencils. My recollections are fuzzy after all these years, but I think the menu venue of weirdness was called "Slope House", somewhere on West 6th street, where a number of the principals lived at th
  • I'd take that class. Have Frank bring some models.
  • ...and many are immensely profitable ones.

    If you'll pay to take the class, they'll offer it. There's not much mystery there.

  • Keep Austin Weird!
  • I love it!

    This will bring the "Marty" out in all the potential future engineers out there, it may seem like a joke to many - but its dead serious! Weve had a decline in general science interest amongst kids these days - too much effort and too little actual "fun" - thats how they perceive science, but science is so much more - and anything WORTH doing costs patience and dedication.

    The weird science classes will hopefully be a "springboard" for many students to "leap" into science and be fun enough to un
  • AKA, physics lectures for the frosh--great for getting their attention.

    /Meltzer is god!

  • Laser Harp (Score:3, Funny)

    by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Tuesday December 11, 2007 @07:16AM (#21653961) Journal
    Do not look into laser harp with remaining eye.
  • "All right, what would you little maniacs like to do first?"

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