Gizmodo: lab

Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis

Sean Fallon — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:20:00 EDT

It's only a concept at the moment, but designer Matthiew Tarrit claims that his Polar Vehicle arctic base was created in cooperation with polar scientists.

If it ever does come to fruition, scientists working in some of the most inhospitable areas of the planet will certainly be living in style. [Coroflot via Core77]

Lab-in-a-Chip Can Perform 1,024 Chemical Reactions Simultaneously

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:40:00 EDT

An University of California Los Angeles' team of chemists, biologists and engineers has developed a funky lab-in-a-chip capable of performing 1,024 chemical reactions in parallel. Using microfluidics, the system may dramatically accelerate drug development for cancer and other diseases:

The precious enzyme molecules required for a single in situ click reaction in a traditional lab now can be split into hundreds of duplicates for performing hundreds of reactions in parallel, thus revolutionizing the laboratory process, reducing reagent consumption and accelerating the process for identifying potential drug candidates

The UCLA scientists think that their new invention can revolutionize chemistry laboratories, and drug development, since their chip is capable of performing more than a thousand simultaneous chemical reactions in seconds, processes that take insane amounts of time to do using traditional lab bench material.

The "integrated microfluidic device for large-scale in situ click chemistry screening" works by funneling the chemical matter through micro-channels etched in the chip. It works at the molecular level, so even while the reactions are the same that boffins get with traditional lab tools, the liquid quantities are so small that the eye can't actually see them. The results of these combinations are then analyzed manually using a mass spectrometer, a part of the process that the team expects to automate in the future.

In other words: Fasterer and fasterer research, less development time, more drugs to try. Seems like a win-win combination to me. [UCLA and Lab on a Chip journal via Medgadget]

Motherboard Walls Add That Special Something To Your Next Remodeling Project

John Mahoney — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:30:00 EDT

These are the walls of a Human-Computer Interaction Institute lab at Carnegie Mellon, and as you can see, they provide plenty of opportunities to create such interactions on the fly when you snag your sweater on some spiky solder leads or that ZIF socket handle. Chris Harrison, a PhD student, bought old motherboards on eBay by the pound to completely adorn the lab in mo-bos. And while this is great for the computer science lab and maybe OK for the garage (maybe), don't even think about doing this in your bedroom if you ever want to have sex again. It does look pretty sweet, though.

[Chris Harrison via Neatorama]

Intelligent Coconuts Working to Stop Airport Noise

msparkes — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:29:40 EDT

Intelligent coconuts are the latest invention to come out of the MIT Media Lab, designed to combat excessive airport noise. They have built-in noise sensors, and will be hung on trees surrounding San Jose International Airport. When they detect a jet coming in louder than it should they use their built-in cellphone to call the airport complaint hotline and leave one of four pre-recorded messages. Check out the clips after the jump.

Sample complaint 1
Sample complaint 2
Sample complaint 3
Sample complaint 4

I can imagine that having to delete hundreds of these every morning from your answerphone could be almost as annoying as living on the flight path of a major international airport. [TripWire]

Graffiti Research Labs Mark Up Buildings With L.A.S.E.R.TAG

www.gizmodo.com — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:48:38 EST

The tech-savvy artists over at Graffiti Research Lab hacked together a large-scale tagging projector using a standard notebook computer, 5000 ANSI DLP projector, a 60mw green laser (apparently super illegal in a lot of places and very dangerous), an astronomer's camera, and some other random crap.

The L.A.S.E.R.TAG tracks the motion of the green laser through the camera and then projects the 'ink' onto any large flat surface—like in this case, the side of a large building.

The lab has instructions on how to get started with creating your own tagging projector, and they've thankfully released the source code to help you on your way. But remember, even if you get one successfully built, you still need some art skills to properly do graffiti. – Alexander Yoon

L.A.S.E.R.TAG [via Pop Sci]