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Evan Ackerman

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Evan Ackerman is a native Oregonian who now lives, somewhat unwillingly, in San Francisco. He has a background in creative writing and astrogeology, neither of which are necessarily appropriate for someone who is now a full-time blogger. Evan also writes for IEEE Spectrum's robotics blog, and when he's not parked at his computer with his eyes glazed over, you can find him getting injured on a soccer field or playing bagpipes excellently.

16 geeky gifts — from space!

Evan Ackerman
Friday, December 7, 2012 - 2:02pm
 
Space buffs can be hard to buy for. I mean, it's not like you can just run out to space and pick something up: getting stuff into space, and then back again, is very difficult and frequently very expensive. We're not talking about "space gifts" like telescopes and model rockets and that sort of thing, but rather, actual gifts that have spent time out in the cosmos. And some of them, remarkably, are even affordable.

3D-printed gun parts last six shots in live-fire test

Evan Ackerman
Monday, December 3, 2012 - 8:11pm
 
Earlier this year, amateur gunsmiths got together to see if they could print out some parts that could be used to construct a fully functional AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Last weekend, a 3D-printed lower receiver was tested to failure shooting real bullets, and made it through six shots before suffering what you could legitimately call a catastrophic structural failure.

Nano polymer light bulbs outclass the LEDs you don't have

Evan Ackerman
Monday, December 3, 2012 - 4:17pm
 
We've been waiting for the end of the light bulb for what feels like decades. Incandescent lights are little more than poisonous shatter-prone fire hazards and it's high time we trade up to something better. That something better was supposed to be CFLs, then LEDs, and then OLEDs, but now it's looking like it might be nano-engineered polymer matrices instead.

North Korea discovers unicorn lair

Evan Ackerman
Saturday, December 1, 2012 - 12:01am
 
North Korean archaeologists, well known throughout North Korea but nowhere else for being the most amazing archaeologists in the entire world, have discovered the lair of a unicorn. Yes, unicorns have lairs, and anyone who tells you differently is perpetuating western imperialist dogma.

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