Wednesday, July 11, 2007

ProScope HR: Coolest Geek Toy Ever?

In preparation for my impending fatherhood, I've been keeping an eye out for fun things to do with my daughter once she's got a few years on her. Like any good geek, I'm looking for fun, geeky things to do that will pique her interest in the world around her and stimulate her little brain. I think I found something that fits the bill: the Pro Scope HR.


We were watching Alton Brown's Pretzel Logic episode and he was using this microscope hooked up to his PowerBook to look at the differences between various kinds of salt. Apparently it's also featured heavily on the various CSI shows.


I remember the microscope I had growing up. It was your standard light microscope; I think it went up to 200x magnification. It came with a number of prepared slides of various microorganisms, which were cool, but making new slides was kind of tedious. Plus, dealing with a microscope while wearing glasses has always been a pain. With a ProScope, you can take a look at anything you damn well please, not to mention taking high-resolution still photos and live-action and time-lapse videos. I can just see us following our daughter around the house, laptop in tow, looking at everything from pennies to raspberries to bugs in the backyard to our cats' paws.


I think that'd be pretty cool, anyway.


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