I raised an eyebrow. Wahid Palash, a Bangladeshi phd student, explained to me how he could better predict when river Ganges might flood. Strikingly, he used only information from the inflow point into Bangladesh. Frowning I ask him why he doesn’t just use the information on river Ganges from [...]
We made a collaborative Rube Goldberg Machine! We demonstrated it live on the streets of San Francisco! Everyone knows these machine where a rolling marble tips over book, that sets a toy car in motion, that hits the on-button of a fan that blows away ... etcetera: a Rube Goldberg machine. [...]
I thought I was making a big confession: “I do not read other peoples articles” I whispered. Strange looks around the coffee machine. “Off course you don’t, nobody does!”. “maybe the odd abstract, but I never read articles front to back.” the problem Nice. I toil and sweat for three [...]
I glued a LEDstrip to my longboard and used some magnets, sensors and Arduino's to have the LED light effects react to the speed of the board. I posted a step by step guide on how te build your own, including all code needed for the Arduino's on Instructables: [...]
I can not count the number of times I fried electronics by "oopsing": connecting the wrong wire to the wrong connector. Twelve volt power does not go well on a three volt data input. I've learned electronics in the school of hard knocks: electrocuted fingers and all. I've learned. I now always, [...]
15 October 2004. I am watching my new heroes: Mythbusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman1 escape from Alcatraz, paddling to freedom in a boat made from raincoats. Fast forward 10 years and I am having lunch with Adam Savage, discussing how our research fits into his experience. Fast forward [...]
Once in a while, I encounter a student that blows me off my sock. With her enthusiasm, her inventiveness, her cleverness. Mileha was one such student. Mileha spoke at TEDxDelft 2015 about her small inventions that made life bearable again for her relative with Parkinson. As host of that [...]
I can hear you think: "really, so you're an experts on zika as well?". Well, no. I am not. No idea how the virus that is now pandemic causes it's symptoms. Or how it actually transfers its RNA from mosquitos to humans. What I do know, from the news, is that zika is transfered to humans from [...]
This year I don't want to sit down so much. I want to stand. I heard that is a healthy thing to do. So, for my column in De Volkskrant (also on Blendle, both in Dutch) I made myself a little box that shouts "Get off your ass!" when I sit down for longer than 20 seconds. Ideal for at work. Although [...]
My new years resolution: getting out of bed on time! ("Yeah, right" someone to my left now murmurs...). I noticed that in 2015 three of my favourite makers made souped up versions of alarm clocks that are guaranteed to get you out of bed. In order of aggressiveness: Colin Furze: one of my maker [...]