NANO-SCALE MODEL OF THE USS ENTERPRISE FROM STAR TREK

This nano-scale model of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise measures just 8.8 nanometres long, a nanometre being a 'rather small' size - just one-billionth of a metre. It was made by Takayuki Hoshino and Shinji Matsui of the Himeji Institute of Technology, one of three campuses at Japan’s University of Hyogo.

Hoshino and Matsui used a 30 kV (kilovolt) Ga+ (Gallium arsenide) focused ion-beam that works with individual atoms to etch patterns and models on a submicroscopic scale. Equipment like this is widely used in the semiconductor industry - for example, your computer would not be possible without similar machines in computer chip production.

As for the model’s scale, there are various estimates for the size of the movie Enterprise, but one we found quoted several times is around the 760 m (2494 ft) mark. So that makes this invisible-small ion-carved replica somewhere in the region of 1:684 billionth scale! Yikes!

View USS Enterprise models and collectibles here.

FUTURISTIC BERTONE CONCEPT CAR AT THE GENEVA MOTOR SHOW 2010

Our friends from the Yellow Wheels automotive site came back today from the 2010 Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, positively bubbling with the amazingness of the concept vehicles on display there. Top among the YW raves was the Pandion flip-up-door car, from the revered Italian design house Bertone. In the words of the Yellow Wheels pit crew:

“Bertone Pandion Concept docks in Geneva Show space-station. 100 years of Alfa Romeos would be good cause for celebration, so Italian design house Bertone decided to mark the occasion by taking the mechanicals of an Alfa Romeo 8C and plonking a body from the planet Zorg onto its chassis. Zorg is a place where strange creatures fused from old-tech and future-bio wander fearfully. Plant-like skeletal structures weave a protective internal cage while external clamshells protect space warriors from the rain of carbon shard, mini-meteorites in the scorching acid atmosphere. A white organic mesh encapsulates the Avatar-style seating and contrasts with the sharp menacing detailing of the wheels and rear thrusters...”

Yes, well...! Of course you sci-fi movie-buffs may remember that Zorg was the character Gary Oldman played in the classic 1997 movie The Fifth Element and here’s another dose of Zorgness - we reckon Oldman would have looked just perfect greasing down a highway in this Bertone design. It’s a great looker, but of course five-metre long flip-up doors are not so practical for garage parking. In 100 years time, maybe the wheels will be superfluous, with anti-gravity units taking their place, so the Pandion could park in mid-air with no roof space needed.

Visit YellowWheels here.

View some available diecast models of other concept cars here.

GREETINGS TO YOU ALL

Humbling is hardly the word with this video. Developed by the American Museum of Natural History, it puts our day-to-day concerns into a truly cosmic perspective. It's part of the exhibition Visions of the Cosmos showing now at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York.

Big as our universe is, the video takes us only to the edge of known space, beyond which light simply hasn't had time to get to us yet. Who knows what's beyond...

Happy Christmas!

Video shown courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Art, which you can visit here.

MONSTROUS BEAUTY FROM NORMAN BEL GEDDES

Flying boats were all the rage in the 1930s, and some designs were spectacular, such as the huge Norman Bel Geddes concept, seen here in poster form flying over New York.

The NBG never got built, which was probably just as well - it would have struggled to get airborne, even with 20 piston engines roaring away. Still, flying boats of all kinds - Boeing, Sikorsky, Short were just three manufacturers - opened up the international airways, and their grace still resonates in much the same way as those giants of the skies, airships and dirigibles.

The sight of a three-engined Dornier Do-24 flying boat taking off from St Helier Bay, Jersey, a couple of years ago was amazing. Hundreds of us watched as a fine mist of seawater cascaded from the hull as she (definitely a ‘boat’ then!) took to the air, and a ripple of applause greeted the unlikeliness of it all. Aaah, what a sight!

Will we ever see the huge clippers return? It’s unlikely, sad to say - the economics of long-haul jet flight demand the efficiency of a high-flying tube with turbofan engines (aka Boeing 747, Airbus 380 et al), something that flying boats cannot match. However, all is not lost - smaller designs such as the 12-passenger Dornier Seastar will continue to fill a niche role in littoral waters around the world. Just make sure you take a flight when it’s on offer!

Buy a model kit of a Dornier here

Visit Dornier's website here

STEAMPUNK RAYGUNS FROM NEW ZEALAND

These highly collectible rayguns are produced at Weta, the special-effects outfit that has worked on a host of leading edge movies, from Narnia to Lord of the Rings.

Steampunk as a genre has come on like a train in the last few years, with books and comics aplenty. On the big screen, several movies have used steampunk elements, but nothing as yet with the genre as its core. Here's hoping - maybe John Carter of Mars, now on the production line at Disney, will do the biz.

For more on Weta's killer collectibles, and a video interview with the man who dreams them up, visit our related site at Scale Model News.

NASA PROBE TO EXPLORE LIFE ON EUROPA

Here's a video that talks about a future NASA probe to Europa, moon of Jupiter. It's an ice-covered little world, but one that appears to have a vast sub-surface ocean... and where's there's water, they may be life.

Meantime Starcruzer's new site is looking good for launch later this year. Check back often.

STARCRUZER BOLDLY GOES TO A NEW SITE

Starcruzer is moving to a new site very soon, so please check back from time to time to view progress.

See you in the new dimension.