Tim Samaras is insane. Why else would a grown man who has seen the movie Twister willfully drive into the path of killer storms and tornadoes? It's all in the name of science, Samaras would say. And for those sexy storm chaser groupies.
Samaras will be on Monday's episode of "The Screen Savers" to show off the heaps of storm chaser tech inside his souped-up minivan. Get all the info below.
Watch incredible tornado footage
On May 7, 2002, Samaras and partner Brad Carter made storm-chasing history by deploying weather probes directly in the path of a roaring twister.

Click here to read the story and watch the amazing video

'Out There'
Samaras' groundbreaking tornado research was recently the subject of an episode of Out There on the National Geographic Channel.

Click here to watch Samaras' multimedia profile

Twister tech
Here's a list of the gear mounted inside Samaras' white minivan, most of it accessible from the driver's seat.
The hardware
The PC at the heart of the operation is a Pentium III 1 GHz with 512MB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive, a KDS 17-inch LCD, and a wireless keyboard. Included with the hardware is the following:

• Boltek lightning detection card
• FireWire card
• National Instruments 12-bit analog-to-digital convertor card
• ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder video card (64MB)
• Four-port RS-232 expansion card
• PCMCIA expansion slot with an Ositech Cellflex Cellular modem card

The software

• Boltek Lightning Detection System for azimuth and distance of lightning strikes
• Pinnacle Studio: Video-editing software for cutting footage on the fly
• National Instruments LabView: Graphical programming software for internal instrument measurements
• ATI television tuner and video recorder
• DeLorme GPS mapping software
• SwiftWX: Software for gathering weather data on the road
• Icom PCR-100 VHF scanning software
• Davis Instruments: Data-logging software for weather measurements

Other gadgets and gear

• Two VHF/UHF amateur transceivers
• Motorola Startac cellular phone with hands-free adapter and a custom-built interface for cellular data
• Davis weather station
• Sony TRV-900 camcorder
• Sony DSS receiver
• KVH TracVision LM satellite tracking system to obtain weather data from the Weather Channel

Custom contraptions

• Tim designed an auxiliary battery system using a 250AH lead acid battery system with a custom-designed charging system that powers a 1,500-watt DC-to-AC inverter.
• The latest redesign will include a two-way satellite link for 400-Kbps to 1-Mbps Internet access.
• Everything in the van is custom-built and installed, including the camera mount, desktop computer housing, camera tripod holder, LCD screen holder, and so on. It's all designed for one thing: storm chasing!

Tim Samaras is an electrical engineer with Applied Research Associates. For the past 25 years, he's engaged in a wide variety of research projects including the TWA Flight 800 crash investigation, the Oklahoma City bombing investigation, and experiments to measure the velocity of a speeding bullet.