Electronics

We tend to quickly forget about technology that's no longer shiny and state-of-the-art, which is part of the reason that piles of discarded electronics are becoming larger and larger. Polish sculptor Marek Tomasik, however, thought of a way of bringing them back to life ... sort of. He created an enormous and disturbing rectangular, walk-in sculpture made of several thousand discarded computer parts. The piece, entitled "Sometimes You Have To Be Open," is in the form of a room measuring 5m x 4m x 4.5m (16' x 14' x 15'), based around a wooden structure. Read More

Electronics-loving orthodontic clinician Dr. Mark Brickley has developed a collection of electronic circuit-building experiments, tested them on unsuspecting colleagues, and then squeezed them into a retro mint tin. After a few refinements, the Minty Geek Electronics Lab 101 kit was recently launched at the Maker Faire in Newcastle, UK. I spent a very productive few hours getting to grips with my inner geek and experiencing a genuine sense of achievement as I managed to create a morse code generator and an alarm that alerts me when someone opens the lid of my cashbox. Read More

Ever since a chance encounter with the new soundscape produced by a short-circuited toy amplifier in the 1960s, Reed Ghazala has been randomly exploring audio generation in compromised electronic devices such as talking games and toys. He has written a book on the subject, teaches others to bend circuits, and has created experimental instruments for many well-known artists including Tom Waits and Peter Gabriel. His latest work started life as an educational dinosaur game – which was broken apart, rewired and rebuilt, and then introduced to a plasma globe to become the Radiopool Thereglyph. Read More

One of the best things about the Internet, besides the sharing of ideas and bringing together like-minded people and all that stuff, is the opportunity it affords us to buy weird things. While said weird things can come in all shapes and sizes, often the most prized and intriguing are the one-of-a-kind handmade items. If that’s what you’re seeking, then one of the best places to look is on Etsy – for the uninitiated, it’s kind of like an eBay devoted solely to things that people have made themselves. We took a snoop through the website, searching specifically for quirky science and/or technology-related thing-a-ma-jigs. Here’s a look at some of what we found. Read More

Stretchability is not something you'd think of as synonymous with electronics. For this very reason the realm of wearable electronic devices has been limited to devices on clothes with rigid or at best semi-flexible circuit boards or solar panels and watches that can do just about everything except make a decent espresso. The game is about to change with the introduction of a silicon nanowire with elastic properties that could enable the incorporation of stretchable electronic devices into clothing, implantable health-monitoring devices, and a host of other applications. Read More

Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes might just be the technology that allows electronics achieve the next big leap in processing speed. Research into diode design conducted at the Oregon State University (OSU) has revealed this week cheaper and easier to manufacture MIM diodes that will also eliminate speed restrictions of electronic circuits that have baffled materials researchers since the 1960's. Read More

Researchers at two different institutions have recently announced the development of technologies for converting waste heat from electronics into something useful. At the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), they’ve created a silicon nanomesh film that could collect heat from electric appliances such as computers or refrigerators and convert it to electricity. Meanwhile, their colleagues at Ohio State University (OSU) have been working with a semiconducting material that has the capacity to turn waste heat from computers into additional processing power. Read More

A team of engineers have formulated a new method of adhesion based on a natural phenomena found in geckos. Inspired by the gecko’s ability to stick to any kind of surface and easily un-stick itself, the engineers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois have developed a new reversible adhesion stamp. The team created a square polymer stamp that can easily transport an array of electronic devices and print them onto a diverse range of complex surfaces including clothing, plastics and leather. Read More

New technology using silicon carbide electronics could enable radio transmitters that can withstand temperatures of up to 900 degrees Celsius (1,652 F). No, it’s not being developed so listeners can enjoy their favorite breakfast DJ in a worst-case global warming scenario. Rather the team behind the research envisions devices that could be dropped into the depths of the earth to provide early warning of a volcanic eruption or to provide real time data from the inside of a jet engine or nuclear power plant. Read More