LondonScienceMuseum
Latest
Inhabitat's Week in Green: The first freeform 3D-printed house
After 20 years of construction, Switzerland just completed the world's longest and deepest rail tunnel. The 35-mile Gotthard Base Tunnel runs 1.5 miles under the mountains connecting northern and southern Europe. In other transportation news, Paris just banned all cars made before 1997 in a bid to reduce air pollution. Tesla's battery Gigafactory is set to host its grand opening on July 29th, while a new report claims that Volkswagen is spending $15.5 billion to build a gigantic battery factory of its own. Consumer Reports ranked the Toyota Prius as the car with the best gas mileage it has ever tested, and Ford announced that the Fusion Energi can travel further than any other plug-in hybrid on the market.
London Science Museum catalogs 200 years of communication tech
Her Majesty the Queen took to Twitter for the first time today, but not to complain about the amount of ice in her post-brunch frappé. Instead, Liz was announcing the opening of a new permanent gallery at London's Science Museum that takes visitors on a journey through more than two centuries of information and communication technologies. "Information Age: Six Networks That Changed Our World" delves into the history of electric telegraphy, telephone and broadcast networks, as well as exploring the later development of satellite communications, mobile networks and the web: all the technology we take for granted today. Among over 800 exhibits are gems including Sir Tim Berners-Lee's NeXT computer, which hosted the first web server, the BBC's first radio transmitter, a piece of the first transatlantic cable connecting the UK to the US, and a replica of the first computer mouse. Taking pride of place at the heart of the gallery is the Rugby Tuning Coil (pictured above), a vast contraption that, in its day, was the most powerful radio transmitter in the world.
Queen Elizabeth II takes to an iPad to send her first Tweet
Queen Elizabeth II of England is pretty seriously old-school. She casually signs her name, "Elizabeth R." (the "R" stands for "Regina" or, in English, "Queen"). She wears killer matching outfits (as seen above) that would be at home in 1962. But she's also not above jumping into the modern age every now and again. Take, for instance, the tweet that she sent this morning -- her first ever -- from London's Science Museum. It's how she helped open an exhibit on "The Information Age" -- a live-action tweet from an iPad. There's some contestation over whether she sent the tweet herself; the tweet originates on an iPhone, though the Queen was clearly using an iPad. Does it really matter? Do you care? This is all a publicity stunt anyway, right? Let's all just enjoy that beautiful blue dress and the killer matching hat. The tweet, in all its glory, can be found below. Update: We've got an especially hilarious update on the did she/didn't she debate, straight from a spokesperson for the Queen of England: "If an iPhone was involved it was purely processology." And no, in case you're wondering, "processology" isn't a real word.
3D printing gets metal with European Space Agency's AMAZE project
If you're invested in the future of 3D printing, the London Science Museum was the place to be today, as the European Space Agency and its partners hosted a consortium to celebrate the launch of the AMAZE project. AMAZE, which stands for Additive Manufacturing Aiming Towards Zero Waste & Efficient Production of High-Tech Metal Products (we guess AMATZWEPHMP just didn't have the same ring to it), is a joint effort to take the next logical step in the evolution of 3D printing: manufacturing metal parts. At today's event, components made of tungsten alloy were a particular highlight, as the extremely high temperatures such material can withstand (up to 3,000 degrees Celsius) would make them ideal for use in spacecraft and nuclear fusion environments. The process of 3D printing metal would also allow engineers to design beyond the limits of traditional metal casting, as seen in the Airbus hinges above. If your consortium invitation got lost in the mail, fear not. The museum's exhibit will be open to the public until July of next year.
Google opens Web Lab at London's Science Museum, because 'the internet is incredible'
Still unable to resist its techno-philanthropic urges, Google has just unveiled the Web Lab at the Science Museum in London. Paid for entirely with Google juice and constructed in a basement area that was previously used for storage, the exhibition consists of five experiments that help us to "discover the power of the internet while we're on the internet." That might sound cheesy, but we've had a good play with each installation and they're actually very well thought out and accessible -- although, if you're already a hyper-connected nutcase then you might find it more appropriate for friends and family. We won't give too much away in case it spoils your fun, but you can get a flavor from the attached promo video we saw back at Google I/O, plus our gallery and the PR after the break. In any case, it's safe to say that each experiment involves creating and sharing media in a way you've never tried before. What's more, everything you do is stored in a little personal account in the cloud that you can access using the unique "lab tag" shown in the photo above. (Incidentally, all those symbols floating around in the background represent other individuals who are also currently participating in the project -- which ought to give you some idea of the overall premise.) The exhibition opens to the public tomorrow, is free to enter and follows the same opening hours as the main museum -- although the lab's online dimension will remain active for a distinctly un-British 24-7-365.%Gallery-160661%
Google teases Web Lab beta, an intersection of art, technology and the internet?
In case you didn't get enough Google I/O news today, the Chrome team has just let loose a video teasing the launch of Web Lab beta. We aren't exactly sure what the Mountain View crew is up to, but apparently, the Web Lab will be revealed through a series of experiments set to be launched later this summer. Apparently, the installations will make their debut at the London Science Museum, and from the video snippets we've seen, they'll leverage the web and some custom machinery to create works of art. You don't have to take our word for it, however, jus take a minute to see for yourself in the video after the break.
Apple products featured in London art exhibit
Technology has spread into everything from cars to washing machines. Even artists, who used to rely on paint and clay to convey their message, are now using technology as the focus piece in their exhibits. An excellent example of this fusion is the Electroboutique exhibit at the Science Museum in London. Russian artists Alexei Shulgin and Aristarkh Chernyshev are the geniuses behind the "Creative Consumption" exhibit which features a spiraling iPhone, a warped iPod and a dog using an iPad. According the exhibit's description, it uses "languages of pop culture, media and art histories, framed by a tongue-in-cheek appropriation of the language of corporate marketing speak." As someone who gets a lot of PR emails, I think I would enjoy this show. The exhibit debuted in November and runs through February 14 at the Science Museum in London. It's free and would be perfect for an weekend afternoon. [Via Gadget Helpline]
London Science Museum undusts Oramics machine, revisits OG electronic music innovation
Practicing its fist pump and channeling its inner Devo, the London Science Museum will be paying homage to electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram by resurrecting her old synthesizer last used in the '70s -- a device that relies on 35mm film to pump out jams. The classic clunker was found in a French barn last month and will be brought out into the open for the first time in forty years at the museum in old Blighty. "Oramics" operators "draw" music on ten strips of clear film to create a mask. The machine then reads the tape as differences in light and turns it into voltage control, which is used to switch oscillators and control the amplitude of the sound. The effect? A creepy vortex of haunting sounds. Fans of glow sticks and synth sounds can check out the exhibit until December, but if a trip to Londontown's not in your future, there's a video you should ogle after the break.
Game On returns to the UK, London's Science Museum
Sure, Europe has to wait for a lot of things, but one thing they did get first was the Game On exhibition. Game On is a touring video game exhibition started by London's Barbican Art Gallery in 2002. Since then, it's been all over Europe, Israel, Chicago (twice), San Jose, most recently Seattle, and is now returning home to the UK where it will run at London's Science Museum from October 21st to February 25th, err, rather 21 October to 25 February.Your £8.50 adult admission nets you access to a lineup of consoles, dating back to the PDP-1 (the Space War machine), drawings by Shigeru Miyamoto, and hundreds of games. Anyone hit up this show previously and care to offer a recommendation to your fellow gamers? [Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]Read - Video game exhibition announced (BBC)Read - London Science Museum's Game On infoRead - Game On tour page
