Spooky miasmic gas bricks hospital iPhones (mwah ha ha ha)
Apple devices haunted by helium. Continue reading Spooky miasmic gas bricks hospital iPhones (mwah ha ha ha)
Tag Archives: Helium
Helium can Stop Your iPhone — Maybe Other MEMS, Too
Sometimes hacking isn’t as much about building something, it’s about getting to the root of a particularly difficult problem. [Erik Wooldrige] was facing a problem like that. He’s a system specialist at a hospital near Chicago. Suddenly a bunch of iPhones and Apple watches were failing or glitching. The only thing anyone could think of was the recent install of an MRI machine.
Sure, an MRI machine can put out some serious electromagnetic pulses, but why would that only affect Apple products? Everything else in the hospital, including Android phones, seemed to be OK. But about 40 Apple devices were …read more
Continue reading Helium can Stop Your iPhone — Maybe Other MEMS, Too
Autonomous Spaceplane Travels to 10 km, Lands Safely 200 km Away
Space balloons, where one sends instrument packages to the edge of space on a weather balloon, are a low-cost way to scratch the space itch. But once you’ve logged the pressure and temperature and tracked your balloon, what’s the next challenge? How about releasing an autonomous glider and having it return itself to Earth safely?
That’s what [IzzyBrand] and his cohorts did, and we have to say we’re mightily impressed. The glider itself looks like nothing to write home about: in true Flite Test fashion, it’s just a flying wing made with foam core and Coroplast reinforced with duct tape. …read more
Continue reading Autonomous Spaceplane Travels to 10 km, Lands Safely 200 km Away
Radiosondes: Getting Data from Upstairs
Ever since I first learned about radiosondes as a kid, I’ve been fascinated by them. To my young mind, the idea that weather bureaus around the world would routinely loft instrument-laden packages high into the atmosphere to measure temperature, pressure, and winds aloft seemed extravagant. And the idea that this telemetry package, having traveled halfway or more to space, could crash land in a field near my house so that I could recover it and take it apart, was an intoxicating thought.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods over the intervening years, but I’ve never seen a …read more
Give a High Five to This Robotic Arm Made of Balloons
At less than three pounds and up to 65 feet long, the snakelike Giacometti Arm can be transported almost anywhere. Continue reading Give a High Five to This Robotic Arm Made of Balloons
Ham Antenna Rises to the Occasion
There was a time when you could do what you wanted in your yard and hams could build giant antenna farms. These days, there are usually laws or deed restrictions that stop that from happening. Even if you can build an antenna, you might want to quickly put up something temporary in an emergency.
[Eric’s] solution? Suspend a wire from a weather balloon filled with helium from the local WalMart. The 8 foot balloon took two containers (18 cubic feet) of gas before it would rise sufficiently. Once you have a floating balloon, the rest of the concept is simple: …read more
The Dubious Claim of a World Helium Shortage
If you’ve been reading the news lately, you doubtless read about the find of a really big new helium gas field in Tanzania. It’s being touted as “life-saving” and “game-changing” in the popular media, but this is all spin. Helium is important for balloon animals, scientists, and MRI machines alike, but while it’s certainly true that helium prices have been rising steadily since 2000, this new field is unlikely to matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.
The foundation of every news story on helium is that we’re running out of the stuff. As with most doomsday …read more
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