The Scorpion is designed as a possible replacement for the current, heavier munitions on Predator drones, or, in concert with a "Gunslinger" deployment pod (not unlike a plane-mountable version of the aerodynamic ejection pod seen above) as a way retrofit heavier larger, typically less-armed planes with laser-guided bombing capabilities. Despite being years into the development process (these internal videos date back to 2006), Lockheed hasn't secured any buyers yet. And yeah, as far as weapons technology goes, the Scorpion is a relatively minor upgrade. But what isn't at all minor in the number of times I've watched these videos today, each time expecting an explosion, and never, ever getting it. [Danger Room]

BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here.

Lego: It's not really a secret that Lego building blocks are widely loved. They're perfect for any age, but a particularly fun gift for an engineering or physics nerd who lacks some brightly-colored fun. Whether you go for a Millennium Falcon, a Mindstorms NXT robot set, or a smaller kit, just be sure your beloved recipient has time for construction. If you've got a younger nerd-in-the-making, check out programs like Dean Kamen's FIRST, which encourages learning and development of science, math, and technology through hands-on activities (many of which are Lego-based). Prices vary widely [Lego; Image Source]

BuckyBalls: 216 pellet-shaped rare earth magnets may scream "physics lesson," but in reality they're a jar full of fun. Your science nut can construct all sorts of 3D shapes for hours of mindless—or extremely brain-intensive—entertainment. And should he ever manage to get bored with the balls, he can just use them for one heck of a refrigerator magnet collection. $30 Link; Busted Tees]

DON'T BUY A Star: I don't know how you could imagine that getting someone a sheet of paper proclaiming that you've named a star after her is a clever idea. It's a scam to begin with and even the most thoughtless gift certificate would be a better idea (and won't leave you stuttering that you thought she "likes space and umm..stuff").

Photo by jared

I've never seen a stocking that didn't like being filled with a bit of awkward science-themed, cotton-based humor and somehow science nerds in particular have a soft spot for geeky shirts. You can head to ThinkGeek, Threadless, and Snorg Tees if you're looking for some of the shirts we've mentioned in the past—my personal favorite is still the ingredient shirt. $19 [Snorg Tees]

Chemistry Experiment Kit:This one's more geared to the younger lab rats, but no science nerd should miss out on a proper chemistry set. This C3000 set is a nice splurge, and even guides you through building a DIY fire extinguisher for when experiments go wrong, but you can certainly go for a smaller kit or even put one together on your own. $230 [Scientifics]

Casio EX-FC100: Science types want to document the entire world in pictures and video. Thanks to technological advancements, falling prices and MythBusters, highspeed slow-mo photography has carved out a nerdy niche in recent years. Casio's EX-FC100 may not be an EX-F1, but it's nice and small and has most of that slow mo covered, plus some nice nature-watcher tricks in still shooting, too. Despite the fact that still picture quality isn't as high as a similarly sized Canon, the FC100's set of unique talents make it a worthwhile toy for active observers of the physical world. $226 [Review; Amazon]

Giant Plush Microbes: If you're in need of a stocking stuffer for a biology nerd, these plush microbes are a sure thing. They're cute (just look at syphilis!) and add a bit of silliness to many all-too-serious subjects. $12 [Think Geek]

Processing Time on a Supercomputer: If you've got a mad, crazy, number-crunching, super science nerd on your hands—along with your own pretty thick wallet—then you can go through a company like Exa and get them some quiet time with a supercomputer. Your nerd will be able to run her insane calculations using high-performance computing and save quite a bit of time, so be sure to have some hot chocolate for two ready for a calm evening after. Prices vary, but they're gonna clean out your pockets [Exa]

Photo by Argonne National Laboratory

Don't forget to recommend your own favorite gift ideas for science nerds in comments—include pic and pricing if possible.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favorite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We'll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

Nissan's engineers were originally tasked to simply recreate the sound of an engine. But, says 30-year veteran noise and vibration expert, Toshiyuki Tabata:

"We decided that if we're going to do this, if we have to make sound, then we're going to make it beautiful and futuristic. We wanted something a bit different, something closer to the world of art."

The sound will kick in automatically when the car starts, and turn off at about 12mph (when tire noise is enough to warn pedestrians).

Of course, it's not the first time we've seen this sort of tech. Fisker Karma's electric car will use a similar system designed to sound "like something between a formula One car and a jet plane". That's cool and all, but I think I'd still take the Sci-Fi option. [Nissan via Bloomberg via LA Times]

The modest distance (and height of about 5 feet) isn't a bad start in human-powered flight for a do-it-yourselfer. Dutchman Jesse van Kuijk hopes to go further in the future, without the bike chain powering his propeller slipping off its cog.

Though he's never flown in a real plane, Jesse says he studied self-powered craft like the Gossamer Condor and the English-Channel crossing Gossamer Albatross. He also got tips from the Albatross' pilot, American Bryan Allen, who is now a software engineer for the Mars exploration project.

So, what did you do this Summer? [Spiegel via Inhabitat]

"Most people think it's a spaceship," Schaller said of his silver creation that measures 56 feet long, 20 feet wide and 17 feet tall. "It was originally designed to be a hovercraft. Now it looks like it's going to end up as a houseboat. I won't live long enough to get enough money to make it a hovercraft - not unless I went back to work full time; and then I wouldn't have the time to work on it."

Much of the vessel is constructed out of found materials—like a travel trailer he found in the woods, a former acid dipping vat from the Piper Aircraft plant and an old satellite dish. It's brilliant—like a free association sculpture from a genius engineer. Seriously, this guy built his first solid-fuel jet engine in a high school shop class. I built a toolbox. Advantage: Schaller. [TCPalm via Fark]

The pump is just a small part of a larger $14bn plan to seal up New Orleans' levees and bolster the city's disaster preparedness, but it's without a doubt the most visually impressive. PopSci's thrown together a couple of diagrams to give us a sense of scale, and trust me, they're necessary—see that little white thing next to the diesel engine? That's a full-sized human being. There aren't a whole lot of companies that make combustion engines that cartoonishly huge, so my money's on something from a company like Wartsila-Sulzer, which makes engines like this to spin the props on ultramassive cargo ships, and conceivably, pumps:

At any rate, the pump is expected to be operational—and NOLA slightly safer—by 2011. More at [PopSci]

It's actually an early concept proof of the Chime Generator for the 10,000 Year Clock. It can generate unique chime sequences every day for 10,000 years, and there are over 3.5 million possibilities. Brian Eno even used the same algorithm for his album "January 07003 – Bell Studies for the Clock of the Long Now."

The brainchild of Computer Scientist, Danny Hillis, The Clock of the Long Now is designed to operate with minimum human intervention (winding, easy maintenance), and is constructed of largely valueless materials to limit looting by future civilizations.

The first prototype began working on December 31st 1999—in time to chime twice for the new millennium—and is now on display in London. The two more recent prototypes are in San Francisco.

Pics below:
- First working prototype of Orrey—or planetary display—for the 10,000 year clock
- Prototype of a Solar Synchronizer to maintain the clock's accuracy using the sun.

This is Funchal Airport's runway, in the Island of Madeira. It was one of the most dangerous in the world because its runway was just too short for large airplanes. It had to be extended and engineers had two options: Extend the ground base with extra soil and concrete, or build a platform on top of 180 230-foot pillars. The answer just looks spectacular.

And probably as safe as it is scary. [Premier Holidays via Dark Roasted Blend]

And, also, forget Twitter—I need the narrator of these videos to just follow me around and annotate the minutiae of my life in that glorious 1940s radio voice. Now that would be entertainment.

[via Make]

The 11-people gang—facing now up to five years in prison—did the covert engineering work to avoid paying import taxes and because vodka is incredibly cheap in Russia.

Now I'm thinking into building a beer pipeline between my house and the german bar downstairs. [Daily Telegraph]

Developed by Kansas State University engineers, the working prototypes use humble calculator solar panels to power a NASA/KSU-developed "Mars Chip" radio transmitter. The transmitter sends data every five seconds, allowing constant updates of bridge stability in real time.

As of now, the team has to do more testing as to which frequencies are most reliable through various external interferences while keeping in mind other ways of powering the device (like thermal and mechanical energy). But it seems like a pretty simple way to upgrade our infrastructure for the all-around better. [K-State via Treehugger]

They erected huge towers on either side of the valley to anchor the bridge, first off. Next, they attached 3,200-foot cables to rockets, accurately firing them across the valley to the other side. While other large bridges took care of this process using helicopters or kites, that was just too practical for these guys.

But hey, it worked perfectly, so who am I to judge? The bridge is still under construction, but at this point the really hard part is done. You know, the part with the rockets. Who wants to be the first to drive across it? Anyone?

[DeputyDog via Dvice]

So Jha wasn't joking when he said the earliest Motorola could start to turn things around is in the second half of 2009. But to be so thoroughly tripped up on Android, a platform that is built specifically to be easily mated with a diverse range of devices with relatively few engineering headaches (and zero licensing costs, remember) is kind of shocking. I guess there is some merit in waiting until you get things right, but wow—you'd think they'd have been preparing for this since the Android SDKs have been out for, oh, a year or so already?

According to Moconews, who was on the call, Jha explained his company's sluggishness thusly:

One of the things that we need to do better is execution on software strategy. Execution has been poor. Talent we are looking for is software execution. Have great software talent around the world. Ex Good Technology staff working on forward-looking developments. In terms of time to market, once we get these platforms solidified and delivering products, will have much better oiled machine and will be competitive with other folks in the industry.

Goes to show how difficult it is to overcome the intertia of failure a wrecked corporate culture can generate. [Silicon Alley Insider, Moconews]

Communicating in space presents a bunch of problems—the Earth's rotation causes senders and receivers to be constantly changing positions, and the long distance causes equally long delays. Our current radio-based network is tailored to almost every new mission, meaning that older equipment can't be repurposed for newer shuttles.

Cerf, who more or less co-created the internet, is now figuring out new protocols that'll work in the final frontier. The project, called Interplanetary Internet, will be tested aboard the International Space Station in 2009. If it works out, space missions in the future will be able to use the same systems, ultimately making communicating from above much, much cheaper and easier. I wonder what their ping rates will be. [Technology Review]

Unlike its conventional counterpart, the free-piston engine doesn't have a mechanical connect between the piston and a crankshaft. Instead, magnets at the center of the piston's rod move past metal coils to create an electrical current. The engine's configuration allows it to combust fuel quicker, improving efficiency, emissions and easily optimized for different fuels.

The bad news: they're hard to control (variations in combustion cycles can cause poor performance) and they're incredibly loud (the quick explosions need to be muffled somehow). But automakers such as GM and Volvo are already investigating putting the engines in future vehicles. Lets hope their forays into this don't take as long as their exploration of fuel cell options. [Technology Review via Treehugger]

And these are no ordinary textiles either: they're transparent and way stronger than a sheet of steel. The team's technique involves chemically-growing "forests" of nanotubes that self-assemble, and is reported in Science currently. If it proves true we may see nanotube materials replacing metals like steel pretty soon—though I'm not sure how many people would balk at flying in a plane with wings you can partly see through. [Physorg]