Greenwood Lab School

Title: Cool Stuff Exploded

Author: Chris Woodford

Pages: 1-243 (of 243)

This book talks about modern technology and shows some cool futuristic stuff blown apart so you can see all the parts. Ever see a bucket excavator twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty? How about a fuel cell bike that runs on hydrogen gas and only releases harmless steam? Take a look at nanorobots, robots that hunt down viruses and will eventually be small enough to inject in our bodies. Or learn about smart glasses, lenses that allow people to zoom in and out and uses satellite navigation and maps to assist those that are lost. It’s amazing how far we have come and what lies ahead.

One of the best parts of this book was learning about things that are to come in the future. For example, how cool will it be when the 3-D printer gets here. It blasts around billions of atoms, runs off water and produces a 3-D object in less than 5 minutes. This book relates to me because a lot of the things in it are everyday items you find at home. These include such things as a microwave, computer mouse, video camera, laptop, guitars, piano and more. But this book offers a fresh perspective by showing you great color pictures of all the individual parts. I thought this was a really great book. I would give it a 5 out of 5. Some of the things I didn’t really care about, such as how a trash can is made. But, the book comes with a cool CD which rotates the items and explodes them on your computer screen. Awesome. It really brings the book to life. I would recommend this book to anyone that is into technology, science and futuristic stuff.

Book: Military Technology
Author: Ian Graham
Pg 1-46 of 46

This book was about military technology and new advancements. I did learn some cool new things that I did not know. For example, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier costs up to $4.4 billion and the F-35 fighter jet should be used all around the world by 2011. Future soldiers will be able to wear robot-like legs to help them move faster and carry more weight. Exoskeletons are being tested today and soldiers will be able to lift a 240-lb load as if it were only 10-lbs. Non-lethal weapons are also in development and are expected to soon be in use. These include electric shock weapons, acoustic weapons and heat rays. When aimed at troops or rioters up to 2,500 feet away, heat rays, which work like a microwave oven, make water molecules in the skin vibrate and heat up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. They say it feels like your skin is burning. On the intelligence side, micro air vehicles with a wingspan of just 12 inches will serve as effective spy planes. They look just like toy planes.

I thought this book was really neat. There were lots of pictures so you could actually see what the advancements looked like. I wonder how many soldiers will be saved because of this new technology. I really liked reading about the robot-like legs. This will allow soldiers to work harder without tiring them out. This could be very important if they are still at war in the desert like we are now. This book relates to me because my mom was in the military. She works at Missouri State and has toured the Jordan Valley Innovation Center here in Springfield. Some of the scientists there work with nanotechnology and design stuff for the military that is extremely tiny.  Our family has also watched some shows on the History Channel about some of this technology. This book was good so I give it a 4 out of 5. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in technology or the military. If you go to the end of the book, there are also some websites they list to go to for more information. I’m going to check out the one on “How Military Robots Work” which is at http://science.howstuffworks.com/military-robot.htm