Here’s an interesting new discovery and proposal from the labs of MIT: self-sculpting sand.
MIT. Photo: M. Scott Brauer
Essentially, the idea is a (perhaps limited) alternative mode of 3D-printing: simply place a small, model object into the “sandbox,” and the “sand” replicates a life-size version of the model. And all this occurs in a distributed, sporder-like fashion. Continue reading
Toban’s recent post on improving science from the bottom up reminded me of a recent article I read about a new website called Petridish. Essentially it’s like Kickstarter (crowdsourced fundraising) for scientific research: individual research projects compete with others for donors funds in small amounts. You can chip in any amount that seems reasonable to you (from $15 to $5,000) on projects ranging from tracking ancient dog populations in Africa to finding the first exomoon. Continue reading