Lego Man Helps Prove Rogue Wave Idea

Researchers at ANU, the University of Turin, and the Hamburg University of Technology used a fish tank, wave generator, and a Lego pirate to study rogue waves, giant waves that sometimes appear -- seemingly out of nowhere -- in relatively calm seas.  The power of Legos shines through again! Read more about the study here.

Lego Orrery!

I just learned that some people associated with NASA's Kepler mission have created a Lego orrery! An orrery is a device that shows the relative sizes and distances of planets in a solar system. The Lego orrery will demonstrate the transit method, the method NASA scientists will use to try to find planets outside of our solar system. (Finding extrasolar planets is Kepler's mission.) The satellite includes a telescope that will detect faint waverings of light emitted by stars, waverings that will indicate that a planet has passed in front of the star, briefly blocking its radiation.

http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/education/ModelsandSimulations/LegoOrrery/