Couch potato scientist - a list by ScienceWannabe

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Gear for tyros like myself who love science and engineering but who never mustered the stamina to get out and earn that degree.

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Orion SkyQuest XT6 reflecting telescope

First to recommend

3 people recommended this item

Description

An ideal starter telescope for the amateur astronomer, the XT6 IntelliScope has a smooth action that makes it easy to point. For the beginner, this is a completely different experience from those little, white telescopes that you buy in department stores, so weak that you (and your child) are guaranteed to lose interest in the whole field. When this baby arrives in three big boxes and you start assembling it, you know you've acquired a REAL telescope. Point it at the Moon and see how much it can show you.

Updated Nov 17, 2006

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Photographic Table of the Elements

First to recommend

Description

Each element is illustrated with a vibrant, detailed photograph of the actual material itself. Rough-hewn chunks of metal; noble gases glowing with electrical current; items manufactured from pure ingot...you name it. Eyecatching wall decoration for the wannabe scientist.

Updated Nov 20, 2006

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Das Keyboard

First to recommend

Description

It's blank. No letters, no numbers, no F5. For the touch typist who is clearly badass and wants everyone to know it. And if you still have fond memories of those original IBM PC keyboards with the deliciously decisive clicking action, this baby's gold-plated mechanical key switches will feel like coming home.

Updated Nov 20, 2006

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The Curta Calculator

First to recommend

Description

A small Internet religion surrounds this achingly elegant jewel of mid-century engineering. Like the Shakers, this religion doesn't reproduce, but you have to appreciate the perfection of their deity, nevertheless. The Curta calculator is basically a hand-crank babbage machine that surveyors and other mathematicians on the go bought from ads in Scientific American after World War Two. A 100% mechanical calculator you could wear on your belt, it was built for portability, mechanical precision and "ease of use," a phrase that had more to do with the smooth clickety-click of the apparatus than with the training you would need to do to learn how to use it (be prepared to spend a little while). Nobody's ever manufactured anything like it before or since, and there aren't all that many left in the world, so good luck finding one in good shape and at a reasonable price.

Updated Nov 17, 2006

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Nerd high culture

Updated Nov 21, 2006

Arts and letters for those who accept the nerd moniker but hunger for a culture beyond Monty Python and Douglas Adams.

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