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Tim Peake's space capsule will live on at London's Science Museum
Tim Peake's voyage to the International Space Station (ISS) made plenty of headlines over the past year for good reason: he was the first British astronaut to explore space in over 20 years. While floating 220 miles above the earth, Peake took some time out to help the BBC make its first broadcast into space and completed a marathon, helping inspire millions of young children across the UK (and the world). In an attempt to build on that momentum, the Science Museum Group announced today that it has bought the spacecraft that made it all possible.
ICYMI: Sea drones, pigeon pollution patrol and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-599630{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-599630, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-599630{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-599630").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: A more affordable ocean-going drone is about to hit the market for about $3,000. We doubt it can reach the amazing things continually being sighted along the Mariana Trench, but it's fun to dream. People at the Science Museum in London are trying to rebuild the first British robot. And this happened a month ago but we just discovered it and can't stop talking about it: Pigeons in London were sent on test flights to collect pollution stats in their tiny air quality smart vests. Please take in the splendor of this image and share with every animal freak you know. If you're into art, you might appreciate these modern pop-up books. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
London Science Museum wants to rebuild the UK's first robot
The Science Museum in London is on a mission to rebuild the UK's first humanoid robot. "Eric" was invented by William Richards and Albert Herbert Reffell, two veterans of the First World War, in 1928. He was a large, burly machine covered in aluminium, and was able to stand up, move his arms and change the position of his head. Eric's movements could be controlled remotely over a wireless connection, or directly using voice commands, much to the amusement of the public. He was built initially to open an Exhibition of the Society of Model Engineers in London, but later travelled the world, meeting politicians and celebrities.
Nottingham's National Videogame Arcade could be the best museum ever
Nottingham's probably best known for its infamous sheriff, but next year it'll have another claim to fame when a museum dedicated to gaming opens in the city. The National Videogame Arcade, said to be "the world's first cultural centre for gaming," will become the new permanent home to over 12,000 pieces from the National Videogame Archive -- a collection of hardware, software and all manner of other gaming paraphernalia established by the Science Museum and Nottingham Trent University in 2007. Spread over five floors, the museum is being set up to "promote the cultural, economic, educational and social benefits of gaming" by GameCity, an organisation that runs an annual festival and other events that celebrate video games.
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.
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 pumps cash into UK classrooms, will buy Arduino, Raspberry Pi sets for kids
Eric Schmidt has said that Google will make cash available through its investment into Teach First to buy Raspberry Pi and Arduino units for British schoolchildren. He was at the UK's Science Museum to talk about Mountain View's partnership with the charity, which puts top university graduates into schools to teach disadvantaged kids. The Android-maker wrote a cheque to fund over 100 places on the scheme, aiming to get bright computer scientists to reintroduce engineering principles to pupils. Mr. Schmidt hoped that with the right support, kits like the Raspberry Pi would do for this generation what the BBC Micro did three decades ago.
'Kraftwerk Who?' Pioneering '50s Synthesizer unearthed in French Barn
So there Dr. Mick Grierson was, wandering around a French barn, minding his own business when all of a sudden he happened upon an antique: one of the earliest modern synthesizers. Grierson, a professor at Goldsmiths University in London did what any expert in the field of electronic music would do, and whisked it back to the motherland for restoration. The Oram "Oramics" Synthesiser (sic) was built by Daphne Oram in 1957, a year before she co-founded the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to research and develop electronic music. Political wrangling within the corporation forced her to leave in 1959, and she retreated to a farm in nearby Kent to tinker with her invention. After her departure, the Workshop shot to fame for creating the original electronic theme to Doctor Who. In order to create music on the Oram, a composer painted waveforms directly onto 35mm film strips which were fed into the machine. Inside, photo-electronic cells read the light pattern and interpreted it as sound. Check out the video to see the arrival of the machinery back into England where it'll be on display all the way through December 2012. If you're really interested you can tap Dr Grierson's homebrewed Oramics iPhone app (linked below for your downloading pleasure) to create your own futuristic theme songs, '57-style.
Tone-deaf robots teach each other to sing, passionately butcher a Happy Birthday rendition
After what must've been a few painful minutes of rehearsal, a few robots built by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research have performed what we assume to be their first and last paid gig: a rendition of Happy Birthday to celebrate the 100th of the Science Museum in the UK. What's interesting about these bots -- outside of their horrible ear for music and laughable singing voices is the fact that they've actually been programmed to communicate and teach each other to sing through the process of singing to each other. Videos of both painful acts are after the break, and while we wouldn't call it art, we shouldn't throw stones: we've been in plenty of garage bands that sounded quite a bit worse.[Via robots.net]
