Letters from a Young Biologist
Amateur scientists are shaking up mainstream science.
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Biology
Seven Visions of Biohacking, Biosensing, and Biomimicry
Are we entering an age where those technologies, formerly found only in the imaginations of science fiction authors, now become possible for anyone to attempt? What can we do? How far should we go? These are questions we’re only beginning to explore.
World Maker Faire in New York will be offering a robust assortment of DIY Bio presentations an exhibits, with everything from circuits created from slime-molds to hacking a brain’s EEG signals.
Grab one of the First 1,000 Origami Folded Robots
Dash Robotics launches a fundraising campaign at Dragon Innovation for their bio-inspired origami folded robot.
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How-To: DIY Bioprinter
Interesting Instructable from Dr. Patrik D’haeseleer, Harvard-trained computational biologist and denizen of Sunnyvale biotech hackerspace BioCurious. Bioprinting, which is basically 3D printing with living cells, has been much in the news lately, with breathless tales of fully 3D-printed living organs and replacement body parts. There is of course a fair bit of hype going on here, but also, at the core, a body of very interesting applied research.
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Mindstorms Robotic Hand
Lego builder Barman makes an amazing stab at creating a fully functional Lego hand. My favorite detail is the motor that makes the fingers spread apart, which is a humanlike feature that most robot builders neglect. The hand holds 4 NXT motors to control the fingers and thumb. The 4 fingers are controlled by the […]
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Simon Park’s Bacterial Art
Simon Park’s textile designs are created with social and antisocial bacteria. These are examples from a series of works featuring purely biogenic designs, which explore the inherent creativity of, and which use nature, to directly generate textile designs. Physarum polycephalum is an intriguing and striking microorganism that exhibits simple “intelligence”. In this respect, it will […]
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Maker Faire New York: Studying Evolution with Robots
Vassar college Professor John H. Long is a marine biologist, by training, and, now, a roboticist by trade. Essentially, he builds robot populations closely modeled on extinct (and living) fish, and then subjects them to simulated evolutionary pressure—to hype it up a bit, he “pits them against each other”—to learn things about why historical animals evolved as they did…
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