Tag Archives: Science

Giant LEGO ISS and Space Shuttle Endeavor

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It’s been a while since a Space Shuttle orbiter docked with the International Space Station; Atlantis launched July 8, 2011, over five years ago. Since then, all astronauts have caught a ride on the Soyuz out of Kazakhstan. In a few years, they’ll be flying out of Cape Canaveral, once again, thanks to the Commercial Crew program. Until then, let us all gaze upon the beauty of Lia Chan‘s absolutely stunning brick-built ISS and Space Shuttle orbiter Endeavor.

ISS-shuttle 02ISS- Shuttle 05ISS-Shuttle 03

For a look at the shuttle pre-launch, be sure to check out our post featuring the shuttle, launch pad, and NASA’s Next Giant Leap!

LEGO and science: robot cat for scaredy rats

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LEGO Mindstorms (and indeed regular technic) are a not unusual sight in science laboratories. Unfortunately I’m not lucky enough to need ‘work LEGO’ but I have looked jealously into labs that do. Typically it’s used to automate simple procedures or make quick reconfigurable rigs.

The Kim Laboratory of the University of Washington use LEGO in a novel way: to test fear in rats using the aptly named Robogator. This is certainly the first time I’ve seen LEGO used in neuroscience and I have to admit the idea of testing fear using a bright colourful toy robot is pretty clever and amusing. They have a few videos too.

Physorg have more details and I, in an astounding reversal of the usual, found the link on Boing Boing.

From Bricks to Brains: The Embodied Cognitive Science of LEGO Robots

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Product Description
From Bricks to Brains introduces embodied cognitive science and illustrates its foundational ideas through the construction and observation of LEGO Mindstorms robots.Discussing the characteristics that distinguish embodied cognitive science from classical cognitive science, the book places a renewed emphasis on sensing and acting, the importance of embodiment, the exploration of distributed notions of control, and the development of theories by synthesizing simple s… More >>

From Bricks to Brains: The Embodied Cognitive Science of LEGO Robots