Here's an inspiring project for budding scientists out there. Kosta Grammatis a 21-year-old student at California State University, Channel Islands recently graduated with a special research prize for his Air Sampling Balloon project, which he has worked on for the past three and a half years.

A keen amateur photographer himself, Kosta's says he was inspired to pursue the project by the aerial photography of Yann Arthus-Bertrand. He originally wanted to build a stable platform on which to mount a camera. But his tutors encouraged him to include more scientific elements.

So he built a completely novel air sampling system from scratch. "I sat down with a bunch of chemists and asked them what they needed," he told me by phone. The resulting sampler is unique, and cost only $14,000 to make. The disk-shaped contraption sits below a 4-metre-wide ballon and uses a series of motors to seal air samples inside small tubes. A small on-board computer controls the sampler and instruments that record temperature, GPS coordinates and video footage.

Here's a more detailed (and entertaining) description of the project, some pictures and even a video presentation that Grammatis made.

Magdalena Kogutowska, New Scientist intern.

Labels: air-sampling, balloon, chemistry, DIY