Hobbies for a STEM nerd?

[nataliadonnelly]

Hi all,
I am looking for some hobbies to get into that have to deal with STEM. My favorite subjects are math and science, but especially astronomy / astrophysics, as well as a bit of Chemistry and physics. I am getting a bit more into environmental science as well. I'm also a big fan of urban transit. I also am taking Calculus III at a local college, so I am pretty advanced in math, if that helps. What are some fun hobbies to recommend? I also highly request solo activities that aren't too active.

 

[Jarhyn]

Hi all,
I am looking for some hobbies to get into that have to deal with STEM. My favorite subjects are math and science, but especially astronomy / astrophysics, as well as a bit of Chemistry and physics. I am getting a bit more into environmental science as well. I'm also a big fan of urban transit. I also am taking Calculus III at a local college, so I am pretty advanced in math, if that helps. What are some fun hobbies to recommend? I also highly request solo activities that aren't too active.

So, I have a hobby which is essentially like running a virtual ant farm.

Look up Dwarf Fortress by Bay12 games. Your job in this game is to engineer either an avatar or an outpost, or potentially both. To do that you need to effectively design a number of operational logistics systems.

You can be as active as you like on it, from micro-managing to developing it into a fully automated system.

It is designed so that most problems crop up rather organically, though certain events are triggered.

Edit: I will note that because it was designed with the intent to make it operate similarly to the way our world works in many respects, the problems can be rather exotic and it can be hard to notice them even happening at all without paying attention, and there is WAY too much going on at any point in time for most people to actively pay it any attention. Before you know it you might end up with a woodcutter with a mental problem (either they have a lot of stress tantrums and end up fighting, or they just like fighting a whole lot) equipped with an axe who occasionally goes to the dining hall and dismembers a few of the other dwarves, triggering what is called a "tantrum spiral" and imagine all this happens before you even have any crutches, bandages, or even soap to clean the wounds prepared!

 

[bigfield]

Related to urban transit: You could redesign cities or neighbourhoods with better transit systems using Cities XL. I think you need some mods to give you complete control over object placement.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Computer programming.

 

[Rhea]

Crochet math surfaces

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Cosmology. Multiverses and physics. Alan Guth et al. Expansion.
Nomology. What are the basic laws of the Universe and where do these come from?
The history of modern physics. How did we get here? It is amazing how much of that was discovered by accident. The philosophy of science. So much nonsense, so litle time!

 

[Worldtraveller]

There are some board games that require a lot of thinkiness to do well at. Not necessarily to have fun, but if you want to consistently win....

 

[Jarhyn]

Also, D&D makes a great hobby if you ever feel like play-by-post