Just announced on the RepRap blog: The Foresight Institute has announced its Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize to design and build a better RepRap. There is an interim prize of $20,000, and a grand prize of $80,000. I am particularly excited about these specific aims of the contest: :: Print at least three different materials, including [...]
Read Full Post...January 21, 2010
I just had a delivery of some Electroactive Polymer (EAP) to experiment with. EAP changes shape when voltage is applied, making it a great material for actuators or sensors. I found a great reference which lists fabrication recipes for making your own EAP. Some of the contributions include - Carbon Nanotube - EAP Ion-exchange Polymer Metal [...]
Read Full Post...January 7, 2010
This happened back in 2008, but Daniel Burd, a 16-year-old school student, developed a way to make plastic bags degrade faster, achieving 43 per cent degradation within six weeks. Using ordinary household chemicals, yeast and tap water he added plastic powder and dirt, creating a solution that encourages microbes which break down plastic to grow. [...]
Read Full Post...January 5, 2010
Tinkercell is a computer-aided design (CAD) tool for synthetic biology. According to New Scientist, the package has a library of the components of life, from which users can pick different cells, membrane proteins, fluorescent proteins, enzymes and genes to create their organism. Tinkercell can then simulate the life form to see if it functions as expected. Features include :: [...]
Read Full Post...December 28, 2009
The new version of openArtist is an artist friendly Linux distro based on the latest Ubuntu KarmicKoala. openArtist features a streamlined interface (gnomebased), with integrated mouse gestures, custom menus, reorganized and extended system configuration tools, terminal-on-desktop integration (guake, ctrl+esc), dropbox for collaboration between artists, extended tooltips for the program launchers, documentation for (nearly) every program… For a [...]
Read Full Post...December 27, 2009
I’d like to get word out about a new Interactivos? series being held in conjunction with our friends at Medialab-Prado: Call for the presentation of projects to take part in Interactivos? When Process Becomes Paradigm, as part of the programme for artists and creators of LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (Gijon, Spain). A maximum [...]
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January 29, 2010
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