Noisy Jelly

Noisy Jelly.  No, that’s not a typo, I do actually mean Noisy Jelly.

French interaction designers Raphaël Pluvinage and Marianne Cauvard were obviously bored with simply eating their jelly and wanted to stimulate more than just their taste buds.  Cue Noisy Jelly – an interactive and tactile musical instrument which you can make yourself… out of jelly.

NOISY JELLY from Raphaël Pluvinage on Vimeo.

The game board itself is in fact a capacitive sensing device with the differences in the jelly shape and salt concentration, that you create yourself with water and agar powder, affecting the sound.

You can also influence the final audible output with the strength of contact and manipulation you place on it with your hand and fingers.

Found via CR Blog.

E. Chromi

Three years ago a group of seven Cambridge University undergraduates embarked on a summer of genetic engineering, specifically at a bacterial level.

The multi-disciplinary group of designers and scientists designed DNA sequences that encouraged the bacteria to secrete coloured pigments at wavelengths within the spectrum of visible light, meaning that us humans can see them.

This synthetic biology of a single DNA sequence is known as a BioBrick, a mix of designed genes from existing organisms that enable certain types of bacteria to be even more useful.

For example, programming the bacteria to produce a warning colour if toxins are present in what would otherwise be unsafe drinking water.  Indicator potential such as this led to E. chromi winning the Grand Prize at the 2009 International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM).

E. chromi – living colour from bacteria.  Really fascinating stuff.

Follow @echromi on Twitter for their latest project updates.

Nano Art

Recently Wired magazine pitched an article enquiring “can science be art?”.  Given the following, it’s simply a resounding yes.

Ever since his PhD in 1994 Albert Folch, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington, has been creating beautiful images – the result of a combination of atomic-force and scanning-electron microscopies.  In 1997 he uploaded some of his favourites to the internet and found that other people loved them too, “they were an instant hit”.  You can see why.

Folch has since refined the technique him and his team used in the late nineties, and nowadays uses a high end Canon SLR and a Nikon SMZ1500 dissection microscope to take pictures of both living cells and manipulated micro fluids to a wondrous and beautiful result.  Art on a nano scale, fantastic.

Be sure to check out the Folch Lab YouTube Channel too, some mesmerising effects to be seen.

I could’ve posted many more photos on here, so do check out Albert Folch’s gallery and the Flickr group Lab On A Chip.  Beautiful.

World’s Oldest Computer Rebuilt In Lego

As a fan of Lego, with a keen interest in science, this recent creation from designer Andrew Carol is simply stunning.

In case you don’t recognise it, it is a rebuild of what is claimed to be the world’s oldest known computer.  The mechanism is known as the Antikythera Mechanism, part of an astronomical computer built in 150BC to calculate the movements of celestial bodies.  Using complex (even by the standards of today) algorithms of bronze gears and wheels it was incredibly accurate, and when the artefact was rediscovered on a shipwreck near the island of Antikythera in 1901 it gave modern day scientists the opportunity to x-ray and CAT scan the device to recreate the astounding calculations.

Seemingly unsatisfied with their approach, self-confessed “professional geek” Adam Rutherford got to thinking.  Inspired by a model of a Babbage Difference Engine, also in Lego and also by Andrew Carol, he got in touch and a few extremely patient weeks later the result is this wondrous video.

Rutherford summerises “we recreated a 1st century BC computer out of the best toy humankind has ever invented”.

Fantastic, couldn’t agree more.  So, get 8 April 2024 in your diaries and your protective glasses at the ready.

Via New Scientist.