Origami Microscope for Just 50 Cents

My most recent post for Makezine. I really want to get my hands on these!

Stanford bioengineering professor Manu Prakash, PhD is on a mission. He wants to make it easy for field researchers to identify and diagnose dangerous microbial diseases like malaria, African sleeping sickness, schistosomiasis, Chagas and more.

To do that, he and his team have created the Foldscope — an inexpensive, disposable paper microscope that uses tiny spherical lenses. In addition to a low price point of 50 cents, the Foldscope is remarkably durable, waterproof and adaptable, weighs just under 9 grams, can be built in minutes, requires no external power and, since it travels as a flat, printed sheet, takes up very little space. It has the potential to be a game-changing tool in the world of medicine and microscopy.

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Adult Eye Cells Survive the Printing Process

I think this is just the coolest biotech process I've seen recently!



Using a piezoelectric printhead, researchers at the University of Cambridge were able to print cells from an adult animal’s central nervous system, forming layers of two types of cells taken from the retinas of rats. Though the scientists were concerned that the delicate cells would not survive, they found that viability was not affected and that there were no significant differences between cultures of printed and traditionally prepared cells. Read more...

Flying Robotic Jellyfish Take to the Sky

This is a neat robot I posted about at MAKE...

Leif Ristroph and Stephen Childress from New York University have just released work with a new robotic ornithopter with a biomechanical design based not on traditional insects or birds, but rather on the aquatic jellyfish. As a result the researchers say they’ve solved stability problems that have plagued other machines. Read more...

Best Paper Plane Ever Uses Only Manilla Folders and Glue

Loved writing this one up for MAKE!



It took five years, a lot of manilla folders and glue, and tremendous patience, but designer Luca Iaconi-Stewart finally completed his 1:60-scale replica of a 777 jetliner. The model, complete with miniature seats, engine, doors and even retractable landing gear, is almost as complicated as the real thing. Read more...

Open Source EMG Biosensor Coming to a Muscle Near You

Another post by me on Makezine...



Until now, EMG equipment has been expensive and complicated. FlexVolt is hoping to make the technology accessible to anyone for under $100. Read more...

I'm planning to use this or a similar device to do EMG experiments with this summer's Maker Camp!

Google Makes Lego Even Cooler

A recent Makezine post by yours truly...

A partnership between Google and Lego has ushered in a new age of virtual block-play: Build with Chrome. Read more...

Maker Faire Education Day

On Thursday, September 19, I headed up to Queens and the New York Science Museum for Maker Faire's Educator Day. 11 schools, with students ranging from elementary to high school. They cycled through 6 areas of exhibits put together by Makers who are attending the 2013 Makers Faire.

Kaleidoscope was there with mini marshmallow catapults, a constant favorite. I expected the younger kids to get a kick out of the project, but even the "to cool for school" teens had fun as well. It was funny to see kids that you know would yawn at the idea of physics lab in class get so curious and passionate about launching a marshmallow into a box. They didn't just build the catapult -- they prototyped and tested and optimized. As a result we had some great discussions about angular momentum, thrust, forces and kinetic energy. We also ate a lot of marshmallows and told stupid jokes.

Several of the teachers jumped in too, and we chatted about how to include catapults into their curriculum. Luckily I was ready with a lesson plan.

That's the power of the Maker Movement. It's about fun and curiosity, not books and lab reports. It's a special kind of magic, and I loved being able to be part of it yesterday. (Even if it did mean getting a really awful picture of myself on Makezine!)

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Making Education Work

A short piece I wrote for Makezine was publish a few days ago. It's all about the Maker Movement and Education.

"Well, imagine shop class and recess had a love child – that’s the maker movement, and many folks are betting that it can fix what’s broken in our schools."

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