Tag Archives: Science

Feel the rush

The title of this work by Leonid An is called Deadline! and aptly depicts the molecular structure of epinephrine (more commonly known as adrenaline) and a shadowed clock with one minute until midnight. I really like the use of the magnifying glass and the T-bars for the hydroxyl groups. This totally takes me back to when I was in college organic chemistry ten years ago — minus the stress of studying for tests!

Deadline!

RIP Stephen Hawking (1942 – 2018)

World-renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has passed away at the age of 76. While his professional accomplishments are well-known (and too numerous to list here), he was also a staple of popular culture, making cameos in numerous television shows and even becoming the subject of a 2014 bio-pic.

Among the many parodies of Professor Hawking was the LEGO version that I built 11 years ago, which continues to be rediscovered by people across the web to this day. Over the past decade I’ve had fun watching him pop up in mass media, and have also featured him in a variety of comical new situations. And exactly 1 year ago this week, this little LEGO model travelled on the same zero gravity flight that his real-world counterpart had taken 10 years earlier …the event that had inspired me to create this build in the first place. Thank you for allowing us to ride your coat-tails, Mr Hawking; rest in peace, and congratulations on beating the odds and having an amazing life that was an inspiration to us all!

In the laboratory with Madame Curie

As every schoolchild knows, Maria Skłodowska-Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win one in two different fields (Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in 1911). Sadly, this Polish-French luminary of science died young due to her work understanding the nature of radiation. Polish builder Crises_CRS has captured Madame Curie in her laboratory, surrounded by the equipment she used to discover Polonium and Radium.

Laboratory of Maria Skłodowska-Curie

The Polish LEGO club Zbudujmy is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence this year with a series of LEGO creations. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what’s in store from this very talented community of builders.

LEGO Ideas 21312 Women of Nasa [Review]

LEGO recently unveiled its latest LEGO Ideas set, 21312 Women of Nasa. The set includes four minifigures depicting women astronauts, scientists, and engineers from throughout the US space program’s history. LEGO sent The Brothers Brick an early review copy of the set, which is due out on November 1st.

21312 Women of NASA

While the minifigures are certainly the heroes of the set, the set also includes three mini-builds, with 231 pieces. When released, the set will retail for $24.99. Given the science-oriented, minifig-centric nature of both LEGO Ideas sets, comparisons to 21110 Research Institute will be inevitable among LEGO fans, and we’ll do our best to compare and contrast them along the way.

Click through to read our full review of LEGO Ideas 21312 Women of Nasa

LEGO Ideas 21312 Women of NASA unveiled [News]

Back in February, we shared the news that LEGO Ideas chose Maia Weinstock’s Women of NASA project as one of their newest additions to the LEGO family. Today, LEGO is unveiling 21312 Women of NASA, available November 1. The primarily minifigure set has 231 pieces, and will retail for $24.99 USD.

21312_Box1_v39

The model, similar to LEGO Ideas 21110 Research Institute, includes four minifigures based on real-life NASA pioneers: astronomer and educator Nancy Grace Roman; computer scientist and entrepreneur Margaret Hamilton; astronaut, physicist, and entrepreneur Sally Ride; and astronaut, physician, and engineer Mae Jemison.

21312_Top

21312 Women of NASA also includes three mini-builds illustrating three areas of science including programming software for the space program, a model of the Hubble Space Telescope and a mini Space Shuttle Challenger with three removable rocket stages

21312_Prod

More photos and info about 21312 Women of NASA after the jump

The Manhattan project’s Trinity test

No, it’s not the tagline of a new superhero blockbuster, it’s Brian Kescenovitz‘s LEGO version of the day in July 1945 when humans created the world’s largest synthetic firework display ever seen, proving conclusively the destructive truth behind Einstein’s famous formula: Mass times the speed of light squared really does equal a whole lot of kinetic energy.

Trinity test

Brian’s chef-hatted mushroom cloud looks just like one of the old photographs of this event. The stunning lighting effect was achieved using a tight-beam flashlight shining straight down and shooting with a long 1.6 second exposure. I love how the miniature New Mexico mountains and blurred objects in the foreground give this micro-scale fulmination a real sense of magnitude.

Disclaimer: Playing with nuclear weapons is really a very silly idea.

A natural selection of LEGO parts

We are all born winners. Right from the start, we can say that we have won our first race. Kosmas Santosa has captured that first race in nature in LEGO using the Panel 4 x 4 x 13 Curved Tapered with Clip at Each End to shape the little swimmers’ heads. The grayscale palette and some nice lighting really help these fun little guys look their best on their big day.

The First Competition in Our Life

Einstein’s mass squared off in bricks

BrickHeadz are a bit like Marmite, dividing opinion into “love them” or “hate them” camps. It seems that even this famous theoretical physicist is not immune to becoming a squared mass of bricks. Krzysztof J has chosen to depict Einstein with his infamous tongue sticking-out pose next to a blackboard demonstrating his widely known equation E = mc 2. I love the 1×1 tile representing the ‘squared’ part of the equation and the builder’s clever use of a grille tile for Einstein’s furrowed brow.

Albert Einstein

LEGO Ideas 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V – you are go for launch! [Review]

The Saturn V moon rocket is a masterpiece of engineering and remains the largest rocket ever successfully launched. Between 1967 and 1973, thirteen rockets left earth, taking us to the moon and building Skylab, the United States’ first space station. So it’s fitting that LEGO Ideas 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V is the largest Ideas set produced to date, clocking in at a massive 1,969 pieces in an homage to Apollo 11. When countdown ends and the rocket set launches on June 1, 2017, it will retail for $119.99. Included is the Saturn V rocket in three stages, the command and service module, lunar lander, and command module with floatation device.

21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V

21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V

Click to read the full review

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for April 30, 2017 [News]

We’ve featured some pretty big news here at The Brothers Brick this week, along with our usual fare of LEGO models, reviews, and more. In case you’ve missed any of it, here’s your weekly Brick Report for the last week of May 2017.

TBB NEWS, REVIEWS & INSTRUCTIONS: LEGO news this week was dominated by back-to-back announcements of two upcoming LEGO sets.

OTHER LEGO NEWS: The new Saturn V set is a hard act to follow, and the rest of the web was buzzing with that news this week as well. We’re also starting to see rumors and leaks of summer LEGO sets for products that weren’t unveiled at Toy Fair in February, but we’ll hold off covering those until we have more reliable, higher-quality information — our readers rely on us for trustworthy LEGO news, and we’ll bring that to you as soon as we have it.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for April 2, 2017 [News]

The Brothers Brick gives you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our Weekly Brick Report for the first week of April 2017.

TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: This week we have news about two things to look forward to and one thing to get your calculator out for.


LEGO Stephen Hawking: Instructions

TBB INTERVIEWS & INSTRUCTIONS: You can build your own scientist or smash a MOC. It is your choice. Click a story below to choose your own adventure.


OTHER NEWS: There was a good amount of LEGO news from other places around the web this week. Here are a few items we noticed and thought you might enjoy.

LEGO is a worse investment than gold [News]

Contrary to popular belief, LEGO bricks are not a better investment than gold, based on findings from a new study we’ve conducted. The study analyzed each substance without bias to test the popular notion that the world’s best-selling toy is a better investment plan than stocks, bonds or precious metals.

Gold imitation bricks, available from Amazon.

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