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Time is running out for those who still have (some of) their holiday shopping to do, but we are here to help! We know that buying gifts for the science people on your list can be challenging; however, it is not rocket science...

The collection we have assembled ranges from vintage to cutting edge. We are sure you will find something fresh, stimulating, and fun for the inquiring minds on your gift list.

• Irrational wall clock - Designed by a mathematician, usable by everybody.
• Vintage Metal Microscope Slide Box - Old school charm, still just as functional.
• AMEP prepared Glass Specimen Slides - Insects, plants, and lots of other topics

• EXO Labs Microscope Camera - This is no ordinary camera. It was designed to work with an iPad. With the appropriate adapter, the EXO will let the user share what is under... [more]- RainyDayGiftGuide: Science gear & gadgets

The great thing about instruments like microscopse and telescopes is that they extend our senses, open up new worlds, and let us explore right from our chair. The big limitation is that the experience was difficult to share, until now. A company call EXO Labs has created a camera which lets the user share what they see with the person next to them or a person on the other side of the world. We are thrilled to be able to take a RainyDay FirstLook at the EXO Labs' Focus camera and accessories today.

The EXO Focus camera's sensor is CMOS, 24-bit color, with a resolution of 2048x1536 (1.75µm x 1.75µm). However, it is much more than just a high resolution camera. It is designed to connect with an iPad (v2 and newer, iOS 6 or later, 30-pin connector) so that what is seen by the camera may be easily shared. By streaming the image to an iPad, the user can then... [more]- EXO Labs: iPad Microscope/Telescope camera

The Human Body did not come with a user's manual. If it did, more of us would have a better idea how our body works. So, perhaps it is fortunate that life evolved in such a way that most of the processes which keep us alive run on auto-pilot. Just imagine if we had to spend our waking moments remembering to breath, manage our circulatory system, and yet still be expected to process all of the stimuli bombarding our sensory receptors!!!

The Museum Of Science's new exhibit, Hall of Human Life, is an ambitious attempt to take visitors on a journey inside their own body for a glimpse at some of the interesting biology which occurs in there, literally right under their noses. The MOS makes it happen with a combination of technology, hands-on demonstrations, and... [more]- MOS: Hall of Human Life

Got some time this weekend? How about curling up with a good book on math? No, really. We have noticed that we have forgotten a little bit/a lot of the math we had learned in high school. We thought we knew many of the concepts, like imaginary numbers, natural logs, and that weird number "e." However, when we tried explaining them, mostly to the interns when they asked us what they thought was a "simple question," we realized we couldn't really answer them.

When the nice folks at Pragmatic Programmers asked if we would be interested in checking out their new book Good Math, we immediately agreed. The book is AWESOME. Mark C. Chu-Carroll was able to take complicated (to us) and sometimes confusing (possibly to you) concepts and... [more]- Good Math

Union Square in Somerville, Massachusetts was turned into a DIYer/makers playground this past weekend. Artisan’s Asylum hosted a gathering for artists of all types so that they could show off their creations to the community. The RainyDayProject folks stopped by for a look and ended up staying the entire afternoon. Ok, part of it was because there was some excellent Octoberfest beers being served, but there was also a lot of interesting stuff being exhibited.

The buzz for DIYers this year has been the emergence of "affordable" 3D printers. We first reported on 3D printers in 2006. Back then 3D printers were strictly for companies like Nike and Apple because they were the only ones who could justify using them for rapid prototyping because of the... [more]- Makers Faire: Somerville MA

We set up the new BirdCam Pros this week, invited our Blue Jay friends to stop by, and ran through some of the camera's features to get a better feel for how they compare to the original BirdCam. After working with the Pro for a few days, here is a summary some of our FirstUse thoughts.

BirdCam Pro features and what they mean for the user:

• Improved weatherproof casing: longer camera life
• Higher resolution 8MP camera: more detail
• LED flash: useful for night shots
• WiFi SD card compatible: convenient for hard to reach setups
• Physical buttons for often used settings: quick and simple setup
• Precise focus adjustments: see discussion below
• Color LED display: see discussion below

Getting the focus set precisely is now possible with the Pro. This is because the focus ring is no longer constrained to four click settings. However, some trial and error is still required to... [more]- BirdCam Pro FirstUse

The Audubon BirdCam has made it easy to get snaps of visitors to the bird feeders in the RainyDayGarden. Wingscapes, the maker of the BirdCam, released an update to that amazing automated camera a few weeks ago. Today, we are going to take a FirstLook at what is new about the BirdCam Pro.

The BirdCam Pro now has a higher resolution 8 Megapixel sensor and a built-in LED flash. Like the original BirdCam, the Pro will take photos when the infrared motion-detector is triggered. However, the Pro's triggering capabilities have been extended to include a timer. So now it will be possible to not only capture birds visiting the feeder, but flowers opening, spiders web-spinning, and... [more]- BirdCam Pro FirstLook

We posted a FirstLook of the Tristand a few weeks ago. We have been wanting to take the tripod out for its FirstUse, but the New England weather has not been cooperative. Our opportunity came last Thursday night with the Harvest Moon. The moon was huge, the night was still warm, and the sky was completely clear. We could not have asked for better conditions to try out the new-to-us Questar Tristand!!!

When we saw how bright the moon was, we wanted to get some shots of it. We have taken closeup photos of the moon before and it was not difficult. The last time we did it, we mounted the body of a DSLR to the rear of the scope. That setup meant we could not use autofocus or any of the other features of the camera. This time, we thought we would try a different... [more]- Questar Tristand FirstUse

Questar telescopes are known the world over for their quality instruments. We had a chance to see them first hand at the NEAF conference in 2011. While we were certainly impressed with the quality of the telescope's optics, we were also struck by their tripods that supported their scopes. We had never seen anything like them before. They were compact, very portable, and rock stable. Everything we would want in a telescope stand.

When we started putting together our portable deep-sky astro-imaging system, we looked for components which were easy to transport, quick to set up, and simple to use. Our current PDSI setup consists of the following:

• Celestron C6 OTA
• Hyperstar lens
• Starlight Xpress H9C digital camera
• ASGT CG-5 tripod

The ASGT tripod, though, while extremely stable turned out to be less portable than we wanted. Also, we realized that with the fast f/2 Hyperstar lens, we didn't need to track. Recalling our positive impressions of the Questar Tristand, we began keeping our tabs on EBay, Astromart, and Craigslist for a used one. As a Tristand is made only when it is ordered, there aren't a lot of them around and they don't show up for sale too often (maybe a few times a year). We would estimate that only a few hundred of them have ever been made. A few weeks ago... [more]- Questar Tristand FirstLook

The Audubon Birdcam got us thinking about different ways to remotely trigger (IR, wireless, cable) cameras (cellphone, webcam, DSLR, point-n-shoot). After thinking about what kind of projects would be interesting to attempt with the help of a remote trigger (water splash, insects flying, etc), we decided to look around to see what's available.

After a bit of research (OK, a lot of web surfing) the interns were able to compile a list of vendors and gear which could be good matches for what we want to do. A few meetings later, we were able to pare the list down to three of the most... [more]- Remote Triggers Preview

Our guess was that the office on the second floor was too warm and dry. So we moved everything down to the basement where the temperature was a constant and cooler 55º. Sure enough, with in a week, we had a bunch of little mushroom caps popping out everywhere! Once they got their little mushroom engines going, they grew quickly. On some days, they would... [more]- Grow Your Own Mushrooms Update

The IKEA Socker Bird Feeder DIY project succeeded beyond our expectations! While the installation of the window feeder occurred more than a few weeks ago, the birds did not feel comfortable feeding from it until the beginning of this week. They did a lot of fly-bys, but nobody was brave enough to actually land on it.

One of the ways we coaxed the birds to use the new feeder was to stop putting bird seed in the other feeders in the RainyDayGarden. Eventually, they started to come around to the idea that if they... [more]- IKEA Socker Hack: Window Bird Feeder Update

There is nothing like a few days of steady rain to give us some space to think up new DIY projects, such as homemade terrariums. We came up with a 10-minute RainyDayProject of making little desktop terrariums out of small jars, tiny cups, and whatever little bottles we had laying about. The best are the glass ones with a lid or a stopper.

When the sun finally came out and things dried up a bit, we ventured outside and looked for moss suitable for the project. Once we started looking, we found interesting growth everywhere. Without really knowing which... [more]- Tiny Terrariums

Using items from IKEA for DIY projects is something of a phenomenon on the Internet. A quick search brings back thousands of hacks and ideas. When we first came across IKEA's Socker portable greenhouse, we knew that this little gem would be perfect for all kinds of projects. Today we would like to share one of them with our readers.

There are a lot of feeders in the RainyDayGarden. While we get plenty of visitors, the feeders are a little too far away from the office windows to get a good view of our visitors. We tossed around ideas on making a feeder which could be placed close/next to a window. There are a few builds of such feeders floating around the Web. Some of them look like they work, but they all seem a bit clunky AND more work than we were willing to put into such a project. The ones available for purchase are very nice, but can cost over $100. IKEA's Socker greenhouse solved all of those problems in... [more]- IKEA Socker Hack: Window Bird Feeder

After we posted in early April that we had put out some bird cottages in the RainyDayGarden, a few readers suggested we also put out a house or two for Mason bees. While we know nothing about keeping bees, we have always been intrigued by the thought. Mason bees get their name from the way they seal their nests (after laying their eggs) with a mortar-like application of mud, like masons with masonry.

There are a lot of DIY ideas for making Mason bee houses, but we found a very attractive ready-made version from Gardener's Supply Company. The house is made entirely from... [more]-Mason Bee House

The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the city Qumran in 1947, is one of the most significant antiquity finds of modern times. The sequence of events which led to its discovery and excavation reads like an Indiana Jones plot. Beginning this week and running until October 20, visitors to the Museum of Science, Boston will have an opportunity to see up close this ancient handwritten text, along with the most comprehensive collection of Israeli antiquities ever organized.

RainyDayMagazine got a first-hand look at Dead Sea Scrolls: Life in Ancient Times, which premiered last Sunday. This is the scrolls' amazing story: in 1947, a Bedouin goat herder was chasing after a goat who had scampered through a small opening leading into a cave. In the cave were jars containing some scrolls. The herder's chance discovery eventually led to the unearthing of... [more]-MOS: Dead Sea Scrolls

Astrophotography is an interesting challenge, but a challenge anyone with a telescope can take on. The pursuit has been made infinitely more rewarding since the move from film to digital. By letting a camera's sensor "collect" photons over time, the telescope can reveal images not visible to the naked eye, no matter how dark the sky. And unlike the days of shooting with film, digital imaging results can be seen almost immediately.

However, taking images of dim points of light at night still has plenty of difficulties, one of which is getting the focus spot-on. Getting it right was a LOT of trial and error. Things were made less frustrating when Pavel Bahtinov gave the world the Bahtinov Mask. The mask made use of an interesting phenomenon known as diffraction. It is very clever and the use of a diffraction mask made focusing by eye easier, but still subjective. That is because even though such a visual-only technique can be pretty good for observing (subject to the expertise of the user), it is usually insufficiently precise or repeatable for astrophotography.

In order to to address those deficiencies, Dr. Winter of Gold Astro designed the GoldFocus system. For those interested in the details, there is an extensive discussion on focus and collimation on the Gold Astro site. The Gold Astro method, by using a combination of a proprietary mask and software, is an objective approach to achieving critical focus, unlike the subjectivity of the experience of the user. While the principle of the GoldFocus mask is the... [more] - Gold Astro FirstLook

Jeff Han set the user-interface world on fire with his FTIR-based multi-touch technology presentation at the 2006 TED conference. The interface's ease of use was partly responsible for the unprecedented success of Apple's iPad tablet. It was clear that "touch" was the next big thing in user interfaces. A few years later, there are plenty of clips on YouTube showing three-year olds frustrated when they cannot "resize" images in a paper magazine. The next generation of computer users are declaring the days of the mouse and keyboard as the primary methods of interacting with computers are numbered.

Multi-touch-enabled devices are just a part of a class of human-computer interactions known as natural-user-interfaces (NUI). The RainyDayScience folks followed the progress of the various types of NUI research over the past few years with great interest (SixthSense, Kinect, NeuroSky). Some of the research have begun to move from the labs out to the marketplace. When Microsoft released the Kinect camera for their xBox 360 platform, the device created a huge swell of interest in... [more] - NUI FirstThoughts

Some of you may have seen Toyota's commercial of a Tundra pulling the Space Shuttle across a freeway. Our first reaction when we saw that commercial was, "That's not real." To our surprise, the video is 100% real. A Tundra was towing the Space Shuttle Endeavor across a bridge on LA's 405 Freeway on its way to its new home at the California Science Center, which we visited while we were in LA.

The California Science Center is huge. With several galleries spanning more than 400,000 sq. feet, it is a model for science learning by combining exhibits with the on-site Science Center School, and... [more] - CSC Visit

Mushrooms are amazing. They are fascinating to photographers, biologists, and cooks the world over. As we are interested in photography, science, and food, we have found mushrooms to be absolutely captivating. One of our earliest memories of mushrooms is in the episode of The Twilight Zone where aliens invaded Earth in the form of mushrooms. They would take over the minds of the people who ate them. Of course, what makes for fun television bears little resemblance to reality (except, of course, if you eat the wrong ones). Still, that was the first thought which came to mind when we heard about the "Grow Your Own Mushroom Garden" kits from the folks at Back To The Roots.

We have seen mushrooms popping up in the RainyDayGarden after a rainstorm and have always been intrigued by how quickly they can show up. However, as we know nothing about wild mushrooms, we would never consider eating them. So when we learned about a ready-to-grow kit available for... [more] -Grow Your Own Mushrooms

The RainyDayKitchen folks had been wanting to make yogurt for years. This holiday season, we made room on our counter top and added a small batch yogurt maker to our collection of kitchen gear.

The Artisan Yogurt Maker from Kidsline is a compact unit and takes up hardly any counter space, but should make plenty of yogurt to meet our needs. The unit consists of a thermostat-controlled heating base, a see-through top lid, and... [more] -Making Yogurt

Happy New Year! What better resolution for a new year than to resolve to be healthier? One easy way to do that by adding probiotics to the diet. Probiotics are live microorganisms (bacteria, yeast) that may confer a health benefit on their host (aka people). Fermented food such as yogurt, sauerkraut, and kefir are beginning to be recognized for their importance in providing a healthy gut flora.

Recently, we had an opportunity to sample a variety of Lifeway's BioKefir and Frozen Kefir products. While most people are familiar with yogurt and sauerkraut, many have not heard of kefir. Kefir grains are a combination of bacteria and yeasts in a matrix of proteins, lipids, and sugars. Now that more people are... [more] -Healthy New Year