<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Bryan Bishop</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kanzure@gmail.com">kanzure@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 10:35 AM<br>
Subject: Article: Home Labs on the Rise for the Fun of Science (2010-12-16)<br>To: <a href="mailto:diybio@googlegroups.com">diybio@googlegroups.com</a>, <a href="mailto:openmanufacturing@googlegroups.com">openmanufacturing@googlegroups.com</a>, Bryan Bishop <<a href="mailto:kanzure@gmail.com">kanzure@gmail.com</a>><br>
<br><br>Home Labs on the Rise for the Fun of Science<br><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/technology/personaltech/16basics.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/technology/personaltech/16basics.html</a><br>
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One day Kathy Ceceri noticed a tick on her arm and started to worry that it was the kind that carried Lyme disease. So she went to her home lab, put the tiny arachnid under her microscope, which is connected to her computer through a U.S.B. cable, and studied the image.<br>
<br>“It was,” she said. “Then of course I Googled what to do when you’ve been bitten by a deer tick.”<br><br>Ms. Ceceri’s microscope, a Digital Blue QX5, is one of several pieces of scientific equipment that make up her home lab, which she has set up on her dining room table in Schuylerville, N.Y. Home labs like hers are becoming more feasible as the scientific devices that stock them become more computerized, cheaper and easier to use.<br>
<br>Ms. Ceceri has several microscopes and a telescope. Other home laboratories have tools like infrared thermometers, which can be used in the kitchen, and kits to analyze DNA at home.<br><br>Many of these tools work closely with home computers and come with software that enhances their power. Others mix low-cost computers into the hardware to deliver more precise control.<br>
<br>Some people who set up home laboratories are serious hobbyists in search of better tools; others are home-schooling parents equipping their children; and others are just curious.<br><br>Ms. Ceceri, a writer, seems to fall into all three camps because she teaches her sons Anthony, 15, and John, 18, at home, and then she writes about some of their discoveries for a number of blogs like <a href="http://geekdad.com" target="_blank">geekdad.com</a>, <a href="http://geekmom.com" target="_blank">geekmom.com</a> and <a href="http://homebiology.blogspot.com" target="_blank">homebiology.blogspot.com</a>.<br>
<br>“This year we’re doing integrated science,” she said of her home science curriculum. “Anything we were looking at, we put under the microscope.”<br><br>She explained that she and her children raised triops, tiny crustaceans, and examined the eggs under the microscope. “We took a really nice video of the paramecium and nematodes swimming around just holding a digital camera up to a microscope,” she said.<br>
<br>Brian Haddock, a software developer from south of Fort Worth, who also writes about science topics on his blog, Reeko’s Mad Scientist Lab, particularly enjoys using a microscope with a computer.<br><br>“Those U.S.B. microscopes are pretty cool,” he said. “They don’t magnify as much as one of those optical scopes would, but you can look at it on your computer screen. It’s got a big picture on your screen that’s easier to see instead of those little tiny images you squint at.”<br>
<br>“Personally, I like the Carson zPix,” he said.<br><br>The growth in home labs is helped by manufacturers who are building tools at affordable prices.<br><br>ThinkGeek.com, an online store that sells items for home laboratories, among other things, offers three models of microscopes at various prices, said Scott Smith, a co-founder of the site.<br>
<br>Prices begin at $99, with models that offer 20x to 200x digital enlargements of whatever is being examined. The store’s high-end model costs $349, and it delivers what Mr. Smith characterized as sharper, better quality images for both hobbyists and businesses like jewelry shops.<br>
<br>Adding a computer interface to a telescope makes it possible to collect more detail than might appear to the eye looking through the optics. The computer can collect multiple images over time and combine the results, enhancing the appearance of the faintest items.<br>
<br>“It isn’t just about capturing video or still images. It actually allows you to stack a whole bunch of still images to get those really beautiful, spectacular pictures of the night sky,” explained Timothy Burns, the director of marketing at Edmund Scientific, the scientific supplier, which stocks a wide range of telescopes for the casual and professional scientist.<br>
<br>“It gets the really deep color,” he said. “You could probably get a pretty cool still picture of the moon, but if you’re looking at a deep space object like a nebula, it brings out the colors and the definition of the whole star field.”<br>
<br>The telescopes come with computerized controls, which Mr. Burns said makes them easier for children to control. The computer helps find particular objects in the sea of billions of stars.<br><br>Edmund Scientific also supplies a digital camera, the Moticam 1000, which fits over the eyepiece of many standard telescopes and microscopes to capture images. <br>
<br>Home scientists who want to study animals may be interested in a digital camera that can be activated by motion sensors. Cabela’s, the outdoor recreation merchant, stocks dozens of models at prices that begin just under $100 and rise to above $500. The cameras can take pictures during the day or even at night, adding time stamps. There is no requirement that the photographer return to hunt the animals.<br>
<br>Infrared thermometers, which range from $20 to more than $100, are another tool home scientists can enjoy. These thermometers measure the temperature of objects without touching them, by reading the energy of the infrared light given off by the object. Cooks might use one of these to measure the temperature of a pan; I have used mine to look for poorly insulated sections of walls and to estimate the performance of my heating system by taking the temperature of the water returning from the heating loops.<br>
<br>John Baichtal, a contributing writer for Make magazine, said he liked the Extech EX210 Multimeter, an infrared thermometer with the ability to measure voltage, resistance and other properties of electricity for just under $70.<br>
<br>“It would be helpful for homeowners,” he said. “Let’s say there’s something that you can’t reach. A little laser pointer helps you aim accurately.”<br><br>The tool is also ideal for helping children understand the flow of heat. Many exterior walls, for instance, have hot and cold spots that correspond to the amount of insulation, and the infrared thermometer helps spot energy leaks in the winter.<br>
<br>Not everyone is content to fill their labs with centuries-old technology. Samara Rubenstein, the manager of the Sackler Educational Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History, said home scientists could extract their DNA by rinsing their mouth with salt water, breaking apart the sloughed-off cheek cells with dish detergent, and then rinsing out the DNA with rubbing alcohol. “It’s really cool,” she said.<br>
<br>Other experiments for home labs can be found at Ology, a corner of the museum’s Web site.<br><br>After the DNA is extracted, more options are becoming available for identifying the organism using a technique known as PCR, or polymerase chain reaction. A new project, OpenPCR, is designing new home tools for DNA analysis. Tito Jankowski, who founded the project with Josh Perfetto, said the kit would give anyone the chance to analyze DNA.<br>
<br>Mr. Jankowski said one possible experiment for home scientists would be to test for their reactions to certain food. Only some people, for instance, taste the bitterness in brussels sprouts, a trait that has been linked to a part of our genome that the kit can identify.<br>
<br>Eri Gentry, an entrepreneur in San Francisco, said she had already tested herself for this gene, using a $200 kit from Carolina Biological Supply, which sells to school science labs.<br><br>“Some of these things you do not because it’s the quickest way to do it, but because you learn a lot,” she said. <br>
"""<br> <br>- Bryan<br><a href="http://heybryan.org/" target="_blank">http://heybryan.org/</a><br>1 512 203 0507<br>
</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>- Bryan<br><a href="http://heybryan.org/">http://heybryan.org/</a><br>1 512 203 0507<br>