DIY

Microfluidics using a cheap 1980s-era desktop plotter

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:38:58 -0700

Description

Via Attila Csordas, a Nature report on a project in which Harvard chemist Derek Bruzewicz and colleagued converted an old desktop plotter into "an impressively simple microfluidics device that can be produced without a clean room or photolithographic equipment."

The system works like this. By replica moulding, the pens of the plotter are replaced with PDMS [organic polymer poly(dimethylsiloxane)] 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....

The authors have tested different types of the device with well-tried colorimetric assays for identifying excess protein and glucose in urine, and found they performed well, with no cross-contamination between channels.

According to the HP Computer Museum (not actually part of HP), the particular plotter used in this project, a 7550

was the most advanced small plotter ever built. It had an incredible acceleration of 6g, making it one of the fastest plotters ever (and the most fun to watch). The 7550 had 8 pens and could plot on many types of media including paper, transparency film, vellum and polyester film.

It was introduced in 1984, and cost $3900 at the time; you can get them on eBay for $50.

Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology

Source

http://pimm.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/low-budget-high-tech-microfluidics-device-out-of-a-50-plotter/
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v452/n7186/full/452421a.html

Scientists Would Turn Greenhouse Gas Into Gasoline - New York Times

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:55:56 -0800

Description

The New York Times reports on a proposal to convert carbon dioxide into gasoline.

If two scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are correct, people will still be driving gasoline-powered cars 50 years from now, churning out heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — and yet that carbon dioxide will not contribute to global warming.

The scientists, F. Jeffrey Martin and William L. Kubic Jr., are proposing a concept, which they have patriotically named Green Freedom, for removing carbon dioxide from the air and turning it back into gasoline.

The idea is simple. Air would be blown over a liquid solution of potassium carbonate, which would absorb the carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide would then be extracted and subjected to chemical reactions that would turn it into fuel: methanol, gasoline or jet fuel.

This process could transform carbon dioxide from an unwanted, climate-changing pollutant into a vast resource for renewable fuels. The closed cycle — equal amounts of carbon dioxide emitted and removed — would mean that cars, trucks and airplanes using the synthetic fuels would no longer be contributing to global warming....

There is, however, a major caveat that explains why no one has built a carbon-dioxide-to-gasoline factory: it requires a great deal of energy.

To deal with that problem, the Los Alamos scientists say they have developed a number of innovations, including a new electrochemical process for detaching the carbon dioxide after it has been absorbed into the potassium carbonate solution.... Even with those improvements, providing the energy to produce gasoline on a commercial scale — say, 750,000 gallons a day — would require a dedicated power plant, preferably a nuclear one, the scientists say.

One other interesting element of this story is that while the researchers are at Los Alamos, some of the work appears to have been DIY: "The process has been tested in Dr. Kubic’s garage, in a simple apparatus that looks like mutant Tupperware."

Source

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/science/19carb.html

Engineering students: Airbrush not just for artists

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:00:00 -0800

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/uof-esa021408.php

EurekAlert reports:

A group of engineering students at the University of Florida has come up with a method for using an airbrush... that tool behind tattoos and T-shirts... to make microelectrodes — tiny conductors used in an increasing range of consumer, research and medical products. The technique is simpler than the standard one, at least for small projects that require production of only a few electrodes.

“The idea was to try to find something cheap and quick, that we could do in our own lab without much expense,” said student Corey Walker....

Microelectrodes are highly sensitive, fingernail-sized devices used, for example, in off-the-shelf glucose monitors for diabetics. They are also vital to “lab on a chip” devices under development to identify substances in air, blood or other samples....

Microelectrodes are usually manufactured using screen printing (another example of printing technologies making their way from images to electronics, but screen printers cost around $10,000, while airbrush tools cost about $200. Since "it requires each electrode to be made individually or in small batches," this is likely to be used to create custom microelectrodes in DIY or academic research settings, not in large-scale manufacturing.

Informal standardization in African DIY

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:53:09 -0800

Description

AfriGadget reports on informal standardization practices among African machinists and fabricators:

One of the things that I find most interesting in my travels around Africa is the similar uses of technology to meet the varied demands of different types of mechanics and workers. The particular case I’ve been thinking over is the use of a simple frame and different engines to meet a specific need.

Many of the same components are used from one machine to the next. The fabricators know that each machine has a different use, but that the parts used to make them unique are not that many....

The machinery setup is a good example of low-cost fabrication using a modular setup. All of the local fabricators tend to use the same frame setup so that they can mix and match with each others work.

This is significant because we're starting to see stories of African inventors doing interesting things, and observations like this remind us that most inventive activity involves independent but not completely solitary inventors: successful inventors tend to be members of communities of practice, who share ideas and technical skills, and have to work together. They compete, but they also have to cooperate.

Source

http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/11/08/africas-modular-machines/

The Bamboo Bike project

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:24:55 -0800

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.afrigadget.com/2008/02/06/the-bamboo-bike-project/

AfriGadget reports:

The Bamboo Bike, an endeavour that aims at building bicycles in a sustainable fashion using bamboo as the primary construction material, is a joint project run by Craig Calfree of Calfree Design, a high tech bicycle design firm based in California and The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

The bicycle is the primary mode of transport in Africa and it is used for everything from personal transportation to moving medicine and the sick to hospital. Sadly, the design used in most of Africa has not changed for the last 40 years to take into account the different ways in which the bicycle is used. In fact, most bikes in use in most of Africa today are based on a colonial British design tailored to individuals travelling short distances on smooth roads.

While making bike frames based on bamboo is not a new idea, most bamboo frame designs simply use bamboo for construction material in a traditional bike frame design. Leveraging the unique properties of bamboo such as its strength and flexibility to meet the specific needs of populations local to various parts of Africa is one of the primary rationale behind the Bamboo Bike project.

The rise of personal satellites

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:52:38 -0800

Description

Tiny satellites are enabling space research by small groups of scientists, and are moving out of academic circles into industry-- and eventually may reach hobbyists.

CubeSat is a small, Kleenex-boxed sized satellite platform. Developed for use by university researchers, CubeSat allows groups to build satellites for under $50,000. While the devices have long been regarded as curiosities, improvements in sensors, photovoltaics, batteries, and operating systems have increased the utility of "nanosats". Scientists are working on CubeSats that can swarm and collaborate, together giving them capabilities that might eventually match those of more conventional satellites.

Nanosats are becoming cheaper and more accessible. The KatySat project is developing nanosats for high school students, and established aerospace companies and the miliary-- and a small number of enthusiasts-- are beginning to experiment with CubeSat. As one developer puts it, "We think of the CubeSat as the personal computer of space."

Combined with the growth of private spaceports and lower-cost launch vehicles, nanosats could reach a wider audience within a few years.

Amateur, DIY, and citizen science

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat
http://del.icio.us/iftf/space

Xooglers becoming today's independent scientists

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:12:53 -0800

Description

CNet profiles a few early Google employees (or Xooglers, as ex-Google employees are caled) who are now doing other interesting things, including starting their own labs:

[Georges] Harik is investing in small companies like Wi-Fi company Meraki, and he's helping to develop a Web-based video conferencing company called Imo.im with his brother. Harkening back to his college studies of mathematical models of genetic algorithms, he's also opening a yet-to-be-named research lab in Palo Alto to develop artificial-intelligence software for the fields of biotech and medicine. He plans to invest about $100,000 in the lab this year.

[Scott Hassan's] Willow Garage, based in Menlo Park, Calif., stands out in Silicon Valley because it has no immediate ambition to make money. Rather, the mission is to make Willow Garage a hub for robotics development in the areas of personal assistants, autonomous boats, and driverless cars--with the hopes of attracting talent and partnerships across the country. The company is collaborating with Stanford in the robotics field, having donated $850,000 to its computer science lab. With Hassan's fortune, Willow Garage has plenty of time to develop new markets for robots.

This is another data-point in the emergence of the wealthy amateur as a force in science-- or at least in sciences closely allied to industries that are doing well.

Amateur, DIY, and citizen science

Source

http://www.news.com/Life-after-Google%2C-with-millions---page-2/2100-1030_3-6226900-2.html?tag=st.next
http://pimm.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/xoogler-goes-biotech/

Growing infrastructures for "citizen science" will help shape 21st century science

Hyungsub Choi — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:32:34 -0800

Description

We have thought a bit about the trend leading from the 20th century "science cities" to the 21st century "city science." This is the turn from the "Big" science and technology toward more distributed research activities. What would be the necessary infrastructure for this transition?

Jeff Johannes, medicinal chemist at a large pharmaceutical company, wrote an interesting posting on the blog Sceptical Chymist (http://blogs.nature.com/thescepticalchymist/features/10_miles_from_academia/):

Independence is a really good thing. Some amazing discoveries have come from qualified people or groups that were allowed to truly explore their own ideas, free of external bias or constraints. One clear example of the power of this concept exists in the context of popular music. During the 20th century there was an explosion of diverse musical genres that continues today. Many factors contributed to this process, but one of the most important was the fact that musical instruments and recording equipment gradually became cheaper while at the same time becoming more widely available. This made music accessible to anyone who had a desire to pick up an instrument and create music. Moreover, they could use their own recording equipment to communicate their ideas to interested parties. Today, with the advent of computers and digital recording, musicians can make home recordings of a rather high quality and easily share their songs on the internet. It is truly an exciting time to be a musician.

In terms of accessibility and expense, chemistry, and most modern sciences in general, are way behind music. A budding rock star can buy a $200 guitar at a local retailer and record songs at home, but when I think of chemistry, I think of $600,000 NMRs and $100,000 LCMS stacks installed in the hallowed halls of the worlds great schools. I consider myself extremely lucky to have access to such amazing equipment. But many scientists don’t.

While modern science is more technologically complex than music, I see no fundamental limitation to increasing the accessibility and reducing the cost of doing research. I think this is one of the great challenges facing science. Inexpensive scientific instruments would empower new scientists, give more independence to existing researchers, and lead to an increase in creativity in scientific research.

The indicator to watch to see whether scientific research is indeed following the trajectory of popular music is the availability of the scientific analogue of the "$200 guitar at a local retailer." Are there efforts to lower the cost of spectrometers, DNA analyzers, and NMR machines? Why don't scientific instruments follow the path of PCs, in a way that exponentially improves size and performance?

This has implications for the Brazilian case as well, about which Alex Pang has posted a few signals. In order to have a more diffuse model of scientific activity, one would need more readily available instruments. Perhaps science version of "One Laptop Per Child"?

Signals

The Amateur New York Subway Riding Committee - Collaborative Adventure Science

Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography

Amateur cancer researcher (and patient) partners with academia and VC to prototype a cure

The conditions of a mass biotech DIY movement

Attila Csordas — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:51:31 -0800

Description

The idea of doing biological experiments with current biotechnological methods and conducting research projects at home is very new. There are already many names in use referring to the same concept: bioDIY, home biology, biotech DIY, garage biology.

All you people need is a short course in biotech basics, a few thousands of dollars, some tinkering capability, and enough spare time and space. The beautiful retro idea of tinkering with digital devices in a garage, conveyed by the Make magazine, can be extended to biotech too, and some projects were already published in Make backyard biology issue like the Home Molecular Genetics including DNA isolation. Recently Hugh Rienhoff amplified his daughter's DNA at home to help doctors figure out her genetic disorder.

From the Nature cover article: "So he bought a used PCR machine, a microcentrifuge, some small-volume pipettes and a brand new gel box. All told, the equipment cost him about $2,000. With these simple tools and some sequence-specific DNA primers of his own design, he could pick the relevant genes out of his daughter’s genome and amplify them enough for sequencing. Freezing the samples and packing the tiny tubes on ice, Rienhoff sent them off for sequencing at about $3.50 a pop. He prepared upwards of 200." Another proposed project is "How to isolate amniotic stem cells from the placenta, at home!" Today, stem cell therapy is just a promising possibility, but in the not so distant future, self-aware citizens may manage their own stem cells, grow them in the garage, and store them in the fridge. If so, it could be a form of autonomous medical self-insurance. The basics of in vitro cell culture, i.e. the method how to isolate and maintain cells through passages, is a simple kitchen recipe, like the algorithms of making a steak. If interested, people can do home biotech and have the right and power to work with the basic macromolecules (DNA, RNA, protein) of life and with cells too.

So what are the conditions of a mass biotech DIY movement?

Really useful projects at home not just for entertainment;
Kits available cheaply Based on the Rienhoff example, a very basic home lab can be set up out of 2-3000 dollars, the price of a good laptop;
Used network equipment-- biotech startups and academic labs with a small budget are already buying equipments and lab tools through informal networks;
Good education tools are on the web, just like 23andMe webpage in genetics and some webinars, but the detailed step-by-step and carefully checked algorithms are still missing;
Short intensive academic or industrial lab courses available for every citizen.

What are the disadvantages? John Golob asks:

Why hasn’t there been a Homebrew Molecular Biology Club? The technology behind molecular biology has arrived—equivalent to where computer components were in the mid-1970’s. Well designed commercial kits are available for just about any task.

I’ve considered posting directions on Slog, using these kits, for a variety of projects one could do at home or in a garage: make glow-in-the-dark sourdough bread, detect rodent DNA in food, check your DNA to see if you’re related to Ghengis Khan.

I’ve held off because molecular biology is inherently dangerous, much more so than building a computer or programming an Apple IIe. The same tools used to label, cut or modify experimental DNA would be glad to chew up yours—many are potent cancer-causing agents. Your glow-in-the-dark yeast could easily spread to your neighbor’s kitchen. Do you really want to know if there is rat shit in your dinner?

What are the implications of a mass biotech DIY movement?

Successful research projects at home, the rise of a massive home biotech movement, just like the hacker movement;
Outsourcing some research or routine tasks to private home labs;
Growing practical scientific knowledge in the public;
Demystifying scientific research

Personal genomics: His daughter's DNA Nature 449, 773-776 (2007) | doi:10.1038/449773a http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071017/full/449773a.html
Blogosphere: Pimm: What is bioDIY? http://pimm.wordpress.com/2007/01/24/what-is-biodiy/
Pimm: How to isolate amniotic stem cells from the placenta, at home! http://pimm.wordpress.com/2007/01/23/how-to-isolate-amniotic-stem-cells-from-the-placenta-at-home/
Pimm: The busy life of a stem cell (biotech) startup founder http://pimm.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/the-busy-life-of-a-stem-cell-biotech-startup-founder/
From Istanbul To Sand Hill Road: The Ultimate Empowerment of The Consumer http://baris.typepad.com/venture_capitalist/2007/01/the_ultimate_em.html
Jonathan Golob: Homebrew Molecular Biology Club http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/homebrew_molecular_biology_club

Signals

The lifestyle of lifespan extended individuals: the constant self experimenters

Attila Csordas — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:17:00 -0800

Description

Today there are a growing number of people who are deliberately experimenting with different drugs and medical technologies to extend their healthy lifespan and push it to the limits. Usually they are coming from the Baby Boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) and their main representative is Ray Kurzweil. As we do not have any systematically working, guaranteed life extension technology on the whole-body level so far, these people are turned themselves into a DIY medical treatment mode.

If intuition fails to capture this situation, then look at the life of Ray Kurzweil, the former successful computer scientist, who is amongst the leading extreme longevity proponents of our time. In an interview with Kurzweil by David Jay Brown, called Reprogramming your Biochemistry for Immortality, Kurzweil uncovers his lifestyle: “I take two hundred and fifty supplements a day, and I monitor my body regularly. I’m not just flying without instrumentation. Being an engineer, I like data and I monitor fifty or sixty different blood levels every few months, and I’m constantly fine-tuning my program. All of my blood levels are ideal. My Homocysteine level many years ago was eleven, but now it’s five. My C-reactive protein is 0.1. My cholesterol is 130. My LDL is about 60, and my HDL—which was 28—is now close to sixty. And so on and so forth. …I’ve also taken biological aging tests, which measure things like tactile sensitivity, reaction time, memory, and decision-making speed. There are forty different tests…”

Based on the Kurzweil case we can extrapolate of the future lifestyle of individuals participating in a robust medical treatment aiming healthy life extension.

Healthy life extension treatment will take a substantial portion of subject's lifetime up to 30-40% of sleepless time.
It involves a whole new kind of body awareness.
People aiming life extension and extreme longevity must become their own regenerative physician.

Website: http://www.rayandterry.com/
Book: Ray Kurzweil - Terry Grossman Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever
http://www.fantastic-voyage.net/
Interview: Reprogramming your Biochemistry for Immortality An Interview with Ray Kurzweil by David Jay Brown
http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=memelist.html?m=5%23648
Blog: Pimm: The lifestyle of the pimm future: the Kurzweil case
http://pimm.wordpress.com/2006/05/26/the-lifestyle-of-the-pimm-future-the-kurzweil-case/

Signals

The future of drugs: DIY [draft]

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:38:22 -0700

Description

Some of the most popular illegal drugs of the future are likely to be customized and locally-manufactured-- like crystal meth, only worse.

As Peter Schwartz puts it, "The war on drugs will soon be over... because drugs as we know them today will be gone." A growing proportion of illegal drugs will not be grown and smuggled; like crystal meth, they'll be made from legal ingredients, locally produced, and information-intensive, the pharmaceutical equivalent of rapid prototyping.

For some forms of drugs, in other words, the challenge will not involve interdiction or disruption of supply lines; the challenge will be stopping flows of information that trigger local manufacture of a new drug.

"First sex and rock 'n' roll. Next up: drugs," IFTF's Future Now (1 September 2005), http://future.iftf.org/2005/09/first_sex_and_r.html.

Peter Schwartz, "The War on Drugs," Foreign Policy (September/October 2005), http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3181.

Signals

Welcome to DIY (do it on yourself) biological research

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:43:20 -0700

Description

Last year Attila Csordas told bio-DIYers, "do not hesitate:"

[I]n the not so distant future, self-aware citizens may manage their own stem cells, grow them in the garage, and store them in the fridge. It could be a form of autonomous medical self-insurance.

Incredible as it may sound, the basics of molecular biology - what is DNA, how genetic information is coded, how it turns to RNA, which base triplets fits to which amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, that make up your body - can be learnt within 2 hours. Another intensive two weeks in an official lab with an instructor and you can work with them.

Csordas argues that if you can learn the basics of PCR and in vitro cell culture, you can do it.

Baris Karadogan (at From Istanbul to Sand Hill Road) draws out some implications:

Welcome to open source science, welcome to do it yourself biology.... With so much information on the Internet and such ready access to scientific data, what Attila wrote about could very well be commonplace in 5-10 years. This is a world where people could be "playing around" with their own biology. I see two big impacts right away.

First, tinkering is the best way to invent things, and this would really push the envelope in scientific and practical discovery. Second, if you think governments are having a hard time figuring out the laws to govern file sharing, let's see how they'll deal with "amateur genetic engineering". This will be a huge issue. Imagine people coming up with "user generated biotechnology".

Attila Csordas, http://attilachordash.newsvine.com/_news/2006/04/23/155889-biotech-diyers-do-not-hesitate
Baris Karadogan, http://baris.typepad.com/venture_capitalist/2007/01/the_ultimate_em.html

Signals

Mubarak Abdullahi’s home-made helicopter

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:33:57 -0700

NOTE: This content was aggregated from RSS feed. Original source is http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/10/22/mubarak-abdullahis-home-made-helicopter-takes-nigerias-kano-plains-by-storm/

AfriGadget reports on another example of African inventors:

Yahoo! News (among other sources) carries a story from October 21st about Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi of the Kano Plains of Nigeria who has built a working helicopter over the last 8 months using scrap aluminum and parts from a Honda Civic, an old Toyota and from the remains of a crashed Boeing 747.

This inventor has had no formal training in flying and his helicopter has never flown higher than 7 feet of the ground. In an interview, he talks about how the machine works:

“You start it, allow it to run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and the propeller on top begins to spin. The further you shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rmp you press the joystick and it takes off,”