Hasta La Gadget!

You would think that LEGO would already have made a Goonies set. I mean, the movie is all about kids having an awesome adventure and so is LEGO. Well, you can help make it happen. There is a LEGO Cuusoo project for The Goonies and the possibilities are amazing.

LEGO builder Lyonsblood has created a Skeleton Scare set, a Fratelli Fracas set, and eight minifigs – including Sloth! Interestingly, the sets look like they have a lot of moving features. Man, they look great. The Skeleton Scare set especially looks good. I wish I could buy them all. Hit the link above for more images.

I’m kind of surprised that Spielberg hasn’t gotten the remaining members of the cast back together again for an adult adventure. No, that sounds wrong. You know what I mean.

If you like the idea of a LEGO The Goonies set, head on over to Cuusoo and show your support now.

[TFW via /Film and Nerd Approved]

Google Science Fair 2013 came to a close yesterday, as 15 young scientists aged between 13 and 18 demonstrated their projects in front of Google’s expert panel. With over a thousand submissions worldwide, only four entrants were able to take home prizes, but it was 17-year-old Eric Chen who walked away with the biggest prize. By combining computer modeling and biological studies, Chen’s research focused on leads for a “new type of anti-flu medicine” to help fight the spread of the influenza virus. Australian Viney Kumar and Canadian Ann Makosinski took home awards for an early warning app for oncoming emergency vehicles and a flashlight that operates without batteries or moving parts, respectively. This year, voters got the chance to affect the outcome, awarding a new prize to Elif Bilgin, from Istanbul, who showed it was possible to create plastic from banana peel. Each winner took home a trophy built from Lego, as well as prizes from National Geographic and Scientific American. Chen, however, walked away with a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos Islands and his school gets both $10,000 and a Hangout with the boffins at CERN. Well deserved, we’d say.

Filed under: Science, Google

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Source: Official Google Blog

LEGO bricks are not just toys that will help fuel the imagination of a youngster, as these precision constructed bricks happen to be able to deliver some rather interesting real-world applications. Ranging from power tools to robots, innovative use of LEGO bricks have always been a marvelous read. A bunch of innovative students from University College London, Tsinghua University, and Peking University, decided to work together in Beijing in order to churn out what they deem as the first low-cost atomic force microscope in the world. In other words, they used some LEGO bricks to make up a nanoscope, now how about that for innovation?

Of course, this bunch of students also had help from a group of scientists, where they worked under the umbrella of the LEGO2NANO project. The main purpose of this move? To create a low-cost atomic force microscope (AFM). The AFM would be different from a standard optical microscope, as it is capable of scanning objects that are as small as a millionth of a millimeter. A standard AFM might cost more than $100,000 to build, but this LEGO inspired AFM? It cost around half a grand in comparison. We do hope to see other more innovative uses of LEGO bricks down the road, too.

LEGO Makes Cheap Nanoscope Possible original content from Ubergizmo.

We’ve seen many examples of LEGO used to build something practical. This one’s the exact opposite. LEGO enthusiast Jason Allemann built his own take on the infamous useless machine using the newly released Mindstorms EV3 kit.

Like the original useless machine, Jason’s contraption exists only to turn itself on. However, Jason programmed it to do other things before it turns itself off. For instance, it can delay the act of turning itself off, so you think that you’ve outsmarted the machine. It can also move away from you. In a hilarious bit of ingenuity, Jason also made the machine so that it can troll itself.

Head to Jason’s website to download the instructions and other files needed to build your own Useless Machine. You can buy the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kit from Amazon for $350 (USD). Don’t worry, you can do other more useful things with it.

[via Viral Viral Videos]

Of all the movies I watched this summer one of the most surprising was Pacific Rim. I went to see this movie mostly because my son wanted to go check it out, and it turned out to be a fantastic movie. The first creature we see the giant robots in the movie fighting is something called a Knifehead.

It looks like a cross between a swordfish and shark with four arms and legs to me. Now, an enterprising geek has taken a bunch of LEGO bricks to construct his own LEGO Kaiju – and the result is quite impressive. I’m always amazed by the high-quality LEGO recreations that builders are able to make without any sort of instructions.

The builder of this awesome creature is OliveSeon, who unfortunately gives no details on exactly how this massive work of geek art was created. It’s hard to tell exactly how large this LEGO beast is, but I’m betting some glue was used to hold the finished creation together. How else could it stand up to a beatdown by a Jaeger?

[via Brothers-Brick]