Cool huh?
Yes, an amazing scale model of an NMR spectrometer made from LEGO® bricks has its chance to become a regular purchase off the shelves!!
“LEGO Ideas” invites fans to submit new, original, and creative ideas to be considered as future LEGO products in the form of ‘projects’, which are them hosted on the Ideas website.
The ideas are given a calendar year to raise enough support for the project to reach a special phase. 10,000 supporters are needed before a LEGO Review will be conducted.
A review board of set designers and marketing representatives evaluates projects and hand-picks projects to become new LEGO Ideas sets.
The model has all of the major components of a high field NMR spectrometer:
A superconducting magnet in a large insulated ‘can’ to hold the liquid nitrogen and liquid helium needed to keep the magnet core superconducting.
2 probes, which are used to hold the sample in the strongest part of the magnetic field and transmit and receive signals to and from the sample.
A pre-amplifier unit, handling signal transmission to and from the probe and console
A console cabinet to house the signal generators, receiver units and amplifier.
A Computer workstation for the scientist to control things from.
Besides looking cool on your desk, the set would be an ideal aid to education in helping explain how a system is operated, and could be a very early hook for our budding young scientists. The set would introduce a high tech piece of modern scientific equipment in a simple and interactive way, encouraging more opportunities for learning about science and research. A new scientist (NMR Spectroscopist) minifig could even be included!
Give your support to the project on the LEGO Ideas website.