Inside the Inflativerse

[weyrcat]

So cool! I got to sit inside one like this when I was a little girl (twenty years ago)! It's so cool. Makes me want to find a way to replicate it in my tent :D

[VapurT1]

what if you're like 234589692348576 pounds???

[Shadowmov3r]

Looks like a pedo-hideout to me, with all those happy images projected on the inside.

[Ataries]

i want one of those.

[hydrofal78]

Nice body and great mind,hope she knows how to cook

[georgiafbi]

We had this at my elementary school. Those days were awesome. That may have started my interest in astronomy.

[AlanKey86]

3:25 oops!

[sweepgomez]

nice boobs



[FHomeBrew]

So, where can I buy one? You know, since throwing money at the screen just doesn't do it for me :p

[1983Bantam]

It looks kind of shitty. But I'd go to see the scientist lady, she's at least as pretty as a star.

[WhiteTiger333]

Very cool to have a mobile planetarium! I would have been enthralled as a child, even though I was raised rural with a brilliant night sky. I would still have been enthralled! Does the compressor handle air exchange during a session, as well as keeping it inflated? (Not sure if the long entryway is to keep things inflated or to keep things dark).

[BorisHaeussler]

@WhiteTiger333 The fan is easily strong enough to keep it up. We usually turn it down even. The dome usually slightly floats (so we have kids sitting on the edge to keep it down), so there's a constant flow of air inside.

The entrance tube: Good question. I would say it's to keep it dark. There are other ways to build an entrance, though, some of which don't include crawling. For kids that's usually ok, but for older people (or wheelchairs) it makes things difficult at times.

[WhiteTiger333]

@BorisHaeussler Thank you for the clarification. I smiled at children being chosen to sit along the edge to keep the dome from floating. What fun - they must enjoy that 'job'! :D

[SigmundSkjelnes]

Toured our community with an Starlab back in the last century sometimes, and made an show for all the schoolkids. Quite successful.

[Batsenl]

Hot and Smart.. I Love it

[Thr89ust]

Amazing how an attractive woman can turn an educated audience into a bunch of chimps. Ooh ooh. *scratches himself*

[billp1955]

Claustrophobia in an inflatible dome......geeeez

[bmbirdsong]

Adding it to my Christmas wish list.

[polycysticovaries]

That girl is hot!

[enrgutierrez]

sexy cassiopeia, she rotates around the pole every night....

[killer2611]

where was this when i was young?

[onthegrill23]

I wish my professor were somewhat as pretty as her...

[Astrodicted]

Pls nothingham,remove hot nerdy girls from yr vids...i totally lose focus then

[odaymustdie]

The universe expands just like my penis, and will contract because my penis does so too...

[SabibabyS]

I like to listen to good looking women when they're talking about science stuff.

[HansTheAtheist]

Stellarium has a spherical mirror projection setting, if you like to experiment.

[BorisHaeussler]

@HansTheAtheist We use Stellarium on a normal laptop and projector occasionally. Unfortunately we don't have a spherical mirror ;-)

[craigfromnewcastle]

I'm so sorry to recognise your sexual appeal before anything else - (girl!) - but it looks like fun for kids, yes.

I'm going to bite my tongue now.

[Skindoggiedog]

I don't understand the point of teaching 'constellations', or signs of the zodiac, in any context other than a brief aside to history.

What relevance could they have outside of that?

[BorisHaeussler]

@Skindoggiedog It depends on the age of the kids what we do. For some groups we simply show them how to find things on the sky and then constellations are really useful. For each constellation, there's a story or some physics behind that you can use, too. Constellations simply help finding things.

We do want to teach the PHYSICS behind things, but that only works from a certain age. For younger kids, it still engages them and they'll come back and want to know more.

[Skindoggiedog]

@BorisHaeussler Aye, true, that makes sense.

[Nyphur]

@Skindoggiedog 1:55 question answered. Kids just really like stories.

[Skindoggiedog]

@Nyphur If kids liking something was justification enough for a class or exhibition we'd have Chocolate Eating, and Running Around Nude In the Middle Of The Street classes.

It doesn't answer the question.

[Nyphur]

@Skindoggiedog You're missing the point. If you bust out the science on a group of eight year olds, they won't be interested, won't pay attention and won't learn anything. But if you introduce astronomy to the younger kids using stories and save the science for the older kids (like they say they do in the video), then they'll be interested and actually learn something.

[aluisious]

@Nyphur Depends on the kids. At that age I found myths boring and was very interested in science.

[bobbytookalook]

All right --- who farted?!

[dannyboy12357]

she's adorable

[CyberNeticRodent]

is the dome fire retardant?

[123IOWNALL321]

0:19

Isn't it kind of sad that we need a fake version of the night sky to show kids...the night sky? :|

[mafiouso]

2:40 dirty astronomers

[nilbud]

watch?v=LXhSQSl0ZSo

[culwin]

How much does one of those cost?

I would like to live in one.

[KamekoBruns]

@culwin A complete package starts at about $13,000. The digital model can run upwards of $40,000. starlab (dot) com

[KayleLang]

I remember seeing this back in middle school. It was awesome.

[axotioaxo]

This reminded me of Seamus and his energy bags. Any news on his work?

[JimPrower]

Did the UoN make that, or are those available for sale? I know that we're building a new museum in my town, and they'd be really interested in something like that for school presentations!

[RogueCrockett]

I wish she would teach me about astronomy XD 

[sm0kingJay]

A universe with an entrance tube and flaps is my kind of universe!

[oisiaa]

Why do we continue to perpetuate mythology from ancient cultures?

[TheHuggy101]

Open up the flaps and crawl right in. Love it

[djwmunro]

It's too bad that we have to go inside to see stars . I live it Toronto Canada so I only see a few stars at home and wee have to go quite a long way to get away from the light pollution.

Are there any dark skies in the UK ?

[puretroubleman]

@djwmunro there are dark skys in the UK. there was an article on the bbc website which showed dark areas over the UK and it was rather interesting.

[Stormrunner0002]

@puretroubleman Are they due to the Mother ship parking there through the night??

LOL

[juggaloryan3]

Plane-arium!

[schmidtbag]

@juggaloryan3 its a shame nobody seems to get that, but i do

[juggaloryan3]

@schmidtbag Ha ha! Yes! Thanks!

[gcndavidmn]

This is like a more advanced thing I saw a decade ago! Pretty weird being about 9 and being told you're made of star dust. Anyway, we need more of these.

[MrSuednym]

So basically it's a mobile planetarium?

[BorisHaeussler]

@MrSuednym That's exactly what it is, yes.

[wafflethug]

I can picture her taking off her glasses, then undoing her hair and shaking it in the air.

[posro1988]

did she say king Neptune, she must've been thinking of Poseidon

[BorisHaeussler]

@posro1988 They are the same, just roman and greek name. Some books use the one, some the other. Some books even mix roman and greek names, it's pretty confusing.

[djwmunro]

Well done ! Do you have plans to scale it up? What is the max capacity of this universe ?

[BorisHaeussler]

@djwmunro We've had ~30 primary school kids inside and ~25 adults (plus 2 presenters and teachers). The bigger domes are much more expensive and ours is only 6 months old, so there are no plans to scale up at the moment. We want to keep it portable.

[huntingvuk]

That is COOL! :)

[Tilaron]

Mobile plane'arium!

[aqouby]

lol, bunch of nerds drooling over a woman. She is hott though.. makes my glasses fog up. shmeeeehh

[mrteemumilto]

@aqouby Rwwwaaahhh!

[RobertStyx]

I was in one of those, many moons ago when I was wee. Don't remember anything about it though. Hell, I had completely forgotten about it until I saw this video XD

[puretroubleman]

When I was in primary school we had some people turn up one time with one of these things, although I think it was general science based rather than astronomy. as all I can remember about it was them using 2 tin cans on string as a phone.

[Films4You]

5 Minutes for this instant for our real Universe to Inflate

[Nelob00b]

How long has this inflatable thing been around? I remember going into a Starlab dome when I was 10 (17 years ago *sigh*)

[BorisHaeussler]

@Nelob00b In Nottingham? We purchased it June/July 2011. But yes, I've seen some being around ages ago. It's no magic behind it. The digital ones are newer, but unfortunately twice the price.

[Nelob00b]

@BorisHaeussler Nah was in Cumbria, it is a really great thing for kids to have a visit with these things since it has stuck in my memory sitting in a huge dome for an hour and being taught about constellations and things. It sticks with people being led into a big dome thingy.

It was one of like 2 memories I have from school; going to Starlab and setting fire to a toilet in Dieppe :D

[fullmetalphysicist3]

I saw this being inflated in the physics building a while ago (second year Physics undergrad at Nottingham here), probably some time in December. I wondered what the hell it was, and I guess now I know \(^-^)/

[invadingrabbid]

2:10, Wrong, Cassiopeia was queen of AEtheopia in the Greek mythology, not queen of Greece..

[BorisHaeussler]

@invadingrabbid Hehe, she actually tells that correctly in the shows, but well spotted. That makes it 3 errors, I guess. :D

[ArtypNk]

That guy could play a hobbit in a movie.

[Desmaad]

So, will Mrs./Dr. Johnson ever be seen on Sixty Symbols?

[ArndeF]

da'amn, Evelyn!

[davedumas0]

oh my god they need to design an HD projector for the dome install high powered low weight speakers and become the ultimate media experience (games movies etc)

[johncrwarner]

It would be nice to have some other mythological symbols in the sky as projections so that the idea that the constellations are a human projection on the sky is made clear.

[BorisHaeussler]

@johncrwarner There are wuite a few other filters to purchase. We only have greek and ancient egyptian, which are already surprisingly different. But there are also chinese, mayan, even inuit. It's really hard to fill a whole 20-25 minute show with them, though.

[johncrwarner]

@BorisHaeussler

I remember the Carl Sagan Christmas lectures where he moved the night sky to another planet - circling another star and then made up his own constellations and then said - what would people say to the suggestion that there was intelligent life on a planet going round a star at the arse of a six legged horse. The difference is the crucial bit - that you can look at the sky and see things differently and the constellations of the greeks are no better than those of the chinese.

[BorisHaeussler]

@johncrwarner Oh no, of course not! The greek ones are the ones we are used to and heard/know most about. And some of the others, although just as valid, are much less interesting because there's not much on it. A show about this would merely run out of things to say (at least for me) pretty quickly. Please have a look at all the available filters at starlab.com/starlab_cylinders.­html . That does of course not mean that the other ones are 'worse' or 'wrong' in any way.

[BorisHaeussler]

@johncrwarner We couldn't afford all of the filters, so we chose the ones most likely to being used. One of the activities that we might do with kids at some point is exactly what you say, btw. Simply show them the stars (or the southern sky, where the historical, 'classical' ancient greek constellations don't exist and let them draw their own ones. Then compare the outcome. Potentially a lot of fun. the starlab people have done this before, but we haven't tried it out yet.

[BeanTVYWG]

@BorisHaeussler For some reason, I can picture you saying, "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!" with the lighting as it was in the Starlab. :)

[BorisHaeussler]

@BeanTVYWG I'll give that a try in the next secondary school :D

[johncrwarner]

@BorisHaeussler The southern sky is a classic and a good idea as the constellations are not known - they were named by Europeans in the 18th century I assume with names like Microscopium etc.

[BorisHaeussler]

@johncrwarner Yes, most constellations down there have pretty bad names. I only know a few, but they include 'Fornax [Chemica]" (chemical furnace), the 'telescope' and stuff like that. Much more romantic in the north, I'd say. ;-)

[genericmember1]

Yes, my University shares our building with Birmingham planetarium and they have one of these... And the coolest thing is that they play Pink Floyd in it!

[Quintinohthree]

Oh look, the universe is expanding.

[ingsve]

Hehe, when I saw the word Inflativerse I thought it was a creative name for the multiverse in Chaotic Inflation theory. Perhaps the term should be coopted to refer to that as well.

[alancheira]

I was wondering.... isn't it dangerous? If there are a lot of people inside it and the compressor stops working or if someone tears the shell....

Nonetheless, it's a very nice thing to have!!

[alancheira]

@BorisHaeussler oh, I see, neat! Thanks.

[License2Bill]

Haha even in a science video all the comments are about how much everyone wants to rail the hot scientist, I love the internet.

[craigfromnewcastle]

@License2Bill technology can't outfight nature :)

[managarm1349]

awezome

[FelipeZucchetti]

nice work...

[IcEye89]

With all those clever astronomers and astrophysicists, is there any chance of you discussing the Sky Disk of Nebra?

[TheDingiso]

In where i live,which is Hong Kong,we've got a giant dome shaped space museum as brilliant as this.The documentaries played in the theater there are projected onto the dome, and it's amazing!

[funkfanzzify]

I want one, nice.

[doughammond8]

What happens in the dome, stays in the dome.

[Tiranozauras]

Judging from vid's name, was hoping its something about inflation theory :[

[eutectics]

Come down to the Inflativerse! All you inflatable needs, at low low prices!

[dilibau]

Yup astronomy cannot get better than this: a dark inflativerse where the only form of life is a super hot creature of opposite sex...

[nottinghamscience]

@dilibau Dr Boris is indeed a very handsome and clever man... but "super hot"?

[roidroid]

@nottinghamscience you're right we should be using the SI units: Super Dupers.

he's at least 3 Super Dupers hot.

[robdotcom71]

@nottinghamscience HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!­!

[dilibau]

@nottinghamscience I believe he's just come out of the big bang, that's why... but yeah, by "opposite sex" I meant *her* not *him* :))

[ASwiftHippie]

My school had one of these. They really are pretty cool. You have to let your eyes adjust to the dark before you can get the full effect though.

[Psy0psAgent]

I would like her to tell me an astronomy story in the inflativerse.

[TheDingiso]

I want to have a inflativerse at my home

[igext]

What do those two people do at the University of Nottingham ? Are they lecturers as well ?

[mrteemumilto]

She's hot!

[GamersBar]

@mrteemumilto where do I find a nice sexy girl like that , do i need to go to uni or a library or something - serious question

[mrteemumilto]

@GamersBar But do you understand that this woman is ELITE?! She has character and skill!

-Turn over 30

-Gradute from a doctoral school, only there are the really intelligent persons

[zombiejinpachi]

awesome

[renamorcen]

1st