Reclaimed Land
Inside Colorado’s Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, a former Superfund site that embodies the painful past and uncertain future of nuclear cleanup in America. Continue reading Reclaimed Land
Tag Archives: Radiation
Hackaday Prize Entry: An Open Radiation Detector
For his Hackaday Prize entry, [Carlos] is pushing the boundaries of what can be built with PCBs. He’s designed a very low-cost radiation detector that leverages pick and place machines, off-the-shelf components, and very simple electronics. It’s a novel ion chamber design, and if you ever needed a low-cost, easily manufacturable radiation detector, this is the project you want.
Instead of a Geiger tube or a spark detectors, this radiation detector uses an ionization chamber to detect radiation. This project was inspired by the work of [Charles Wenzel] and [Alan Yates], and the implementation is actually pretty simple. A metal …read more
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Global Thermonuclear War: Tweeted
[Andreas Spiess] did a video earlier this year about fallout shelters. So it makes sense now he’s interested in having a Geiger counter connected to the network. He married a prefabricated counter with an ESP32. If it were just that simple, it wouldn’t be very remarkable, but [Andreas] also reverse-engineered the schematic for the counter and discusses the theory of operation, too. You can see the full video, below.
We often think we don’t need a network-connected soldering iron or toaster. However, if you have a radiological event, getting a cell phone alert might actually be useful. Of course, if …read more
Multiple vulnerabilities found in radiation monitoring gateways
The gateways are used to prevent the illicit trafficking of nuclear and radiological materials. Continue reading Multiple vulnerabilities found in radiation monitoring gateways
Best Product Entry: Open Source Internet of Dosimeter
[Radu Motisan] Has entered a cool project into the Best Product portion of this year’s Hackaday Prize. It’s called an Open Source IoT Dosimeter. It has a Geiger tube for detecting radiation levels along with Internet connectivity and a host of other goodies.
Dubbed the KIT1, this IoT dosimeter can be used as a portable radiation detector with its Nokia 5110 LCD as an output or a monitoring station with Ethernet. With its inbuilt speaker, it alerts users to areas with excessive radiation. KIT1 is a fully functioning system with no need for a computer to get readouts, making it …read more
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Radiation-Resistant Mutants at Chernobyl Pave the Way for Life on Mars
Radiotrophic beer is involved. Continue reading Radiation-Resistant Mutants at Chernobyl Pave the Way for Life on Mars
Radioactive Cats and Nuclear Priests: How to Warn the Future About Toxic Waste
Nuclear waste can remain toxic for tens of thousands of years. How do you warn the future that they’re standing on nuclear waste when there’s no one around to translate? Continue reading Radioactive Cats and Nuclear Priests: How to Warn the Future About Toxic Waste
Radioactive Cats and Nuclear Priests: How to Warn the Future About Toxic Waste
Nuclear waste can remain toxic for tens of thousands of years. How do you warn the future that they’re standing on nuclear waste when there’s no one around to translate? Continue reading Radioactive Cats and Nuclear Priests: How to Warn the Future About Toxic Waste
A Brief History of Radioactivity
More than one hundred years ago, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium emitted penetrating rays similar to those used by Wilhelm Röntgen to take the first X-ray image (of his wife’s hand), starting a new era of far-reaching applications. There are of course many dangers that come with the use of radioactivity, but there are also many beneficial uses for our society.
WHAT IS RADIOACTIVITY
The nucleus of an atom is made of protons and neutrons. Because protons have positive charge, they repel each other, so there must be a force that holds the nucleus together, and the neutrons don’t help, …read more
Heat Shrink Tubing and the Chemistry Behind Its Magic
There’s a lot to be said in favor of getting kids involved in hacking as young as possible, but there is one thing about working in electronics that I believe is best left as a mystery until at least the teenage years — hide the shrink tube. Teach them to breadboard, have them learn resistor color codes and Ohm’s Law, and even teach them to solder. But don’t you dare let them near the heat shrink tubing. Foolishly reveal that magical stuff to kids, and if there’s a heat source anywhere nearby I guarantee they’ll blow through your entire stock …read more
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