Written by Camille Cannell, Camp Photography and Digital Media Intern.
Between school, homework, practice and spending time with loved ones, it’s easy to miss out on the latest in science, technology, engineering, art and math. But don’t worry, Thinkery’s got you covered. Here are some of our favorite family-friendly STEAM discoveries from the previous week. It’s fuel for your weekend.
We’re seeing spots! NASA recently took a high-resolution image very close to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. (If you need a refresher, Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun, and it’s the largest planet in our solar system.) The image itself is distorted due to its proximity to Jupiter’s horizon (as well as the planet’s giant size), so NASA has made the image file available to the general public in a crowd-sourcing effort to correct the perspective distortion. I’m loving the different interpretations of the image—check ’em out!
In the world of aerial photography, one of my favorite photography Instagram accounts is @dailyoverview. Daily Overview shares stunning images of Earth from a unique perspective—from above! The account recently posted John Sonntag‘s jaw-dropping image of an iceberg—roughly twice the size of Delaware—that separated from the Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Take a look!
Whoa! Using footage filmed in 1878 by British photographer Eadweard Muybridge, scientists were able to encode and store the brief movie in the DNA of living cells. They assigned each pixel’s information to a piece of DNA, and then injected this DNA into bacteria, which the bacteria then replicated with each new cell division. Learn more about this fascinating project!
Check out this giant camera made out of 32,000 straws and photo-sensitive paper! The “lens” consists of 32,000 drinking straws arranged parallel to one another with a piece of photo-sensitive paper at the back, capturing the light from each straw. The images produced with the “Straw Camera” are described as how a fly would view the world—with each straw being a pixel produced from a different perspective, coming together to form a disco ball-effect. So cool!
A new innovation in film development will debut this September. Since film is light-sensitive, you typically have to keep film in a changing bag or a darkroom the entire time you are developing your photographs. This means you either have to have access to a darkroom setup, or trust the technicians at a film store with your images.
A few entrepreneurs have designed and developed Lab Box, a small, portable light-proof box that allows you to easily transfer your film onto a reel and develop it with a small amount of chemicals—all while inside the box. Learn more!