Scientists recreate Jupiter’s possible helium rain in the lab

Scientists have recreated in the lab some of the wild weather that might be found on Jupiter and Saturn. Using extremely high pressures and laser shock waves, the researchers produced “helium rain” which has been hypothesized to fall on these planets.C… Continue reading Scientists recreate Jupiter’s possible helium rain in the lab

Clever Gas Mixer Gets Just the Right Blend for Homebrew Laser Tubes

[Lucas] over at Cranktown City on YouTube has been very busy lately, but despite current appearances, his latest project is not a welder. Rather, he built a very clever gas …read more Continue reading Clever Gas Mixer Gets Just the Right Blend for Homebrew Laser Tubes

Hackaday Links: August 30, 2020

Tech history is rife with examples of bizarre product demos, but we’ve got to think that Elon Musk’s Neuralink demo this week will have to rank up there with the weirdest of them. Elon’s job here was to sell the proposition that having a quarter-sized plug removed from your skull …read more

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Portable MRI Machine Comes to the Patient

To say that the process of installing a magnetic resonance imager in a hospital is a complex task is a serious understatement. Once the approval of regulators is obtained, a process that could take years, architects and engineers have to figure out where the massive machine can be installed. An …read more

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Kitty Litter and Broken Light Bulbs Power This Homebrew Gas Chromatogram

We’re always on the lookout for unexpected budget builds here at Hackaday, and stumbling across a low-cost, DIY version of an instrument that sells for tens of thousands of dollars is always a treat. And so when we saw a tip for a homebrew gas chromatogram in the tips line …read more

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Astronomers analyze atmosphere of exoplanet unlike any in our solar system

So far we’ve spotted more than 4,000 planets orbiting stars other than our Sun, but we know very little about their atmospheres. Now, NASA astronomers have managed to probe the atmosphere of GJ 3470 b, a planet unlike any in our solar system…. Continue reading Astronomers analyze atmosphere of exoplanet unlike any in our solar system

Helium launches $51M-funded “LongFi” IoT alternative to cellular

With 200X the range of WiFi at 1/1000th of the cost of a cellular modem, Helium’s “LongFi” wireless network debuts today. Its transmitters can help track stolen scooters, find missing dogs via IoT collars, and collect data from infrastructure sensors. The catch is that Helium’s tiny, extremely low-power, low-data transmission chips rely on connecting to […] Continue reading Helium launches $51M-funded “LongFi” IoT alternative to cellular

[Ben Krasnow] Gasses MEMS Chips, for Science

Why in the world does helium kill iPhones and other members of the Apple ecosystem? Enquiring minds want to know, and [Ben Krasnow] has obliged with an investigation of the culprit: the MEMS oscillator. (YouTube, embedded below.)

When we first heard about this, courtesy in part via a Hackaday post on MRI-killed iPhones, we couldn’t imagine how poisoning a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) part could kill a phone. We’d always associated MEMS with accelerometers and gyros, important sensors in the smartphone suite, but hardly essential. It turns out there’s another MEMS component in many Apple products: an SiT 1532 oscillator, a …read more

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Smashing Security #103: An Instagram nightmare, crazy iPhone deaths, and election hack claims

One travel blogger finds you don’t have to be Kylie Jenner to be targeted by an Instagram hacker. When 40 iPhones at a hospital mysteriously die, what could be the explanation? And, surprise surprise, political parties in the USA are throwing around ha… Continue reading Smashing Security #103: An Instagram nightmare, crazy iPhone deaths, and election hack claims