Building and using low budget but high tech devices at home is a main motivation behind hacking. A Harvard Chemistry Research Group now created a microchannel producing device using a Hewlett Packard 7550A Graphics Plotter (see some eBay prices) to perform a diagnostic protein assay with it amongst others. /See my SciFoo microfluidics coverage./
“The system works like this. By replica moulding, the pens of the plotter are replaced with PDMS versions that can deliver various types of ‘ink’. The purpose of the ink, when cured, is to create channels in a filter-paper substrate, and after experimenting with the possibilities Bruzewicz et al. found that a syrupy mixture of 3:1 PDMS:hexane did just fine. Having chosen the appropriate paper, the trick then is to use the plotter to draw channel shapes, with the PDMS syrup penetrating the full depth of the paper to create water-tight chambers in various patterns.”
Computer.
• Computer: Dell Dimension 4100, Pentium III Processor (1 GHz)
• Plotter: Hewlett Packard 7550A Graphics Plotter
• Operating System: OpenSuSE Linux 10.1, Novell Corporation. Available for free download
• Additional Software:
1. Inkscape – vector drawing program, for design of channels. Included in OpenSuSE, also available for free.
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” - said Alan Kay, computer legend in 1971.
Recently I had a comment dialogue with Chris on whether state-supported research or industrial business enterprises can (or should) lead to big progress in robust and healthy life extension technologies. Besides the government and corporation coin the research breakthrough could come from an aging focused foundation like the non-profit Methuselah Foundation behind the SENS approach, which supports research projects (like MitoSENS and LysoSENS) and scientists (like Mark and John) through cooperation with university labs. And finally, there is going to be another option to contribute:
In the last couple of weeks I became heavily interested in RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology probably because the dangerous idea of all pervasive computing and the opportunities to build sg from the bottom-up. So here is a how-to to my first installed low frequency, read-only RFID system hopefully followed by a more juicy stuff in the ultra high frequency range up to 9 meters.
Code in C programming language for using the Arduino with the Parallax RFID reader but in order to upload it to the Arduino board and make it actually work I had to put the reader activator line:
science.TV is one amongst the newest actors of the online video sharing marketplace, based in Bristol, UK.
As Matt Thurling, founder says:
“My vision for science.tv is simply to provide the best possible set of tools to enable interaction via video between the science community. My definition of the science community is probably broader than the other sites in that it includes hobbyists and school students as well as research scientists. The idea is that, given the right tools, everybody will find their level and their role in science.tv, be it creator, distributor, educator or consumer of niche content.”
With a domain name like this, I expected a lot more science content, but the emphasis at this early point is on entertaining Make-like tech and DIY videos (think of Instructables), many of them coming from YouTube. While I am in favor of merging science with tech and had a little role in popularizing tech sites like Make and O’Reilly Radar in the science blogosphere I do not think that science.TV is a good name choice for such type of combined content. However, in the long run, not the name that matters but the content. If science.TV can aggregate, share or produce quality content at the science-tech interface than it will be a colorful and appreciated member of the family of science video sites ranging from the research focused JoVE and SciVee to the less academic DNATube or Lab Action.
I am not watching to many videocasts, but the last 5 epizodes of the Make Weekend Projects with Bre Pettis are always on my iPhone and viewed every time. Now Anna over at Videovooreports on the coming Make:TV featuring half-hour episodes that will be presented in High-Def TV and streamed on the web in as early as 2008. Anna made a detailed email Q&A with Philip Torrone, senior editor and alpha nerd on the emerging video and TV side of Make:
The first Make video was uploaded on YouTube in March 22, 2006 (if I’m not mistaken), while Make TV show started to run on Blip.TV in July 2006. As for Blip.TV, Phillip Torrone senior Make editor says “we like the player, the high quality playback and the team at blip”. However, YouTube still brings more eyeballs than Blip.TV - maybe more revenue too? Since December 2007 Make magazine has been in the YouTube Partner program, so they will get some revenue from the most popular video social networking site too. In 2008 they are also getting on air more ‘officially,’ harvesting more exposure on more screens, which is a nice example of an online success story spreading out on a national TV channel well-known for educational science programs. What can we expect in 2008?
A lifecasting and human free video streaming channel for animals could easily be a lot more interesting than Justin.tv. An early video tracking system based on miniaturized, animal-borne video cameras was developed for studying the undisturbed behavior (capturing lizards, using tools, flying) of new Caledonian crows and published in Science. Of course the onlinesupporting material in this case is obviously the main stage so enjoy the online birdwatching. Some technical details on the setup: We designed tail-mounted camera units that do notinterfere with movement and ensure safe shedding of the tagwith regular molt. Units transmit a color video signal withsound to custom-built receivers and incorporate very high frequency(VHF) radio tags for simultaneous positional tracking. We deployedcamerason 18 different crows (12 males) in our dry forest studysite (21°33′50”S, 165°19′27”E), capturing 451 minof analyzable video footage from 12 subjects (38 ± 5min per bird, mean ± SE; maximum of 60 min). Hey, Makers, it’s time to set up your homemade animal videocams and install them on the Rats in the front room, roaches in the back and the racoons at the backyard. The tit picture was made with a webcam in Szentgotthárd, Hungary.
After a hard experimental week (I have now around 55 T-75 or T-175 flasks with 6 different growing cell lines in the incubator) finally I have been able to turn a little weekend attention to move a step further with my home electronics “maker” plan. Instead of buying a complete Arduino starter pack ($65) I’ve just bought an Arduino diecimila open source microcontroller and a tiny breadboard on the Austin Maker Faire. But now I moved to the closest Radio Shack to get some capacitors, resistors and transistors. With all this investment so far I am still under $70. Bu I forgot to buy wires, hookup for the breadboard, stranded to panel-mounted components like LEDs, and I don’t have proper tools yet, like soldering iron and wire striper, multi-meter and loupe. Basic reference: MAKE The home electronics issue, particularly Charles Platt Your Electronics Workbench For programing an Arduino you need a PC, and my backup laptop, the iBook G4 is just perfect for that purpose. Next issue was to make the system work, and here is a step by step process, basically you download the programing environment and install it with the USB driver, then connect a LED (positive (longer) leg of the LED to pin 13 and the negative (shorter) leg to ground (marked “GND”), plug in the Arduino and upload the first trial Blinking LED code to the board and run it. Voila, you have the system.
For open source hardware you need open source software and a modular hardware design that makes building customized hardware just as easy as writing software or web apps. In order to make the idea mainstream you need to commercialize it and that’s what exactly Bug Labs is planning to do. (Again, my bioDIY brain says, that we should apply this concept to biological components too on different levels, just like nucleotide (DNA, RNA), protein, organellar, cellular, tissue level, and make them available to home tinkerers).
One interesting session at the Austin Maker Faire was the chat on Open Source Hardware with Limor Fried and Phil Torrone and Anna recorded it with her new camcorder, so please check Anna’s comments to learn more and see the talk:
The biggest impact of the Austin Maker Faire on me was that yesterday I bought an open source, CC licensed Arduino microcontroller and a breadboard for building prototype electronic circuits. I am a total rookie in home electronics but I thought it’s never too late to learn completely new things with the help of our extended memory, the web.
In the long run I’d like to utilize my microcontroller (or the acquired knowledge) for biological purposes in the lab and not just blinking LEDs.
Have you heard of any quality biotech-biology based community (blog, forum, network) specialized in electronics or coding for researchers, online?
At last a real family event for Anna and me: we are heading to Travis County Fairgrounds, Austin, Texas on October 19th to visit the MakerFaire. This will be the 3rd American MakerFaire, and the first outside the Bay Area. I am prepared to meet enthusiastic makers and mind-blowing DIY projects there, as well as to say hello to Phil Torrone, Dale Dougherty or Mike Hendrickson, the latter 2 I met at the Euro Maker Faire in Brussels (and Mike as an old Foo was at the SciFoo Camp too, offering me to laser etch my then-new and then-beloved iPhone).
Wired has a nice piece on Video Sites Help Scientists Show Instead of Tell by Alexis Madrigal focusing on the high-end, non-youtubish, let’s-build-the-pro-network-of-video-geeks-in-the-labs-out-there approach of JoVE. Video players mentioned on the pop side: LabAction and PloS backed SciVee. The real question of this niche market is: In order to penetrate the mainstream science audience what is the proper mix of anti-Web 2.0 professional science rules and Web 2.0 techniques science video site builders should apply. Profit is not on the agenda yet.
“Highlighting little tricks in a video that might not be apparent in a paper can save an enormous amount of time,” said Dr. Arnold Kriegstein, whose University of California-San Francisco lab has posted a video about “cortical neurogenesis,” or the growth of neurons in the cerebral cortex. “There’s an old adage in medicine about learning: See one, do one, teach one. It carries over to the research lab, too.”
Sharing those little tricks with scientists everywhere is the idea behind the Journal of Visualized Experiments, an all-video scientific journal that launched its microfluidics-focused eighth issue in early October.
Dry, jargon-laden scientific papers can leave out what scientist and blogger Attila Csordas calls “the tacit dimension” on his blog.”
Mr. Madrigal has chosen a good post of mine to refer as that early post, Science: video protocols can help to share the tacit dimension was the starting point in 2 respects: a., in the comment section Moshe Pritsker introduced JoVE one month later to the blogosphere, so I could spend the same day to cover it instead of hanging around in Cambridge with my girlfriend b., at the same time the idea of LabAction was born.
I finish the post later, just let me get the breakfast and go to the lab first…. ok, I am here again. Read the rest of this entry »
Building and using low budget but high tech devices
at home is a main motivation behind hacking. A Harvard Chemistry Research Group now created a microchannel producing device using a Hewlett Packard 7550A Graphics Plotter (see some eBay prices) to perform a diagnostic protein assay with it amongst others. /See my SciFoo microfluidics coverage./
In the last couple of weeks I became heavily interested in 
After a hard experimental week (I have now around 55 T-75 or T-175 flasks with 6 different growing cell lines in the incubator) finally I have been able to turn a little weekend attention to move a step further with my home electronics “maker” plan. Instead of buying a 
