Tools Hack Daily: July 2017

Monday, July 31, 2017

When Girls Studied Planets and the Skies Had No Limits #MakerEducation

506px maria mitchell wr

Great piece highlighting the work of 19th Century American astronomer Maria Mitchell, from Smithsonian.com.

In 19th-century America, you might expect that most women were shut out of the sciences—including astronomy. But it wasn’t quite that simple. By many accounts, some educated girls in the early 1800s were actually encouraged to watch the stars and planets, an observation process known as “sweeping the sky.” In those days, you might say, astronomy didn’t yet have a gender.

These were the attitudes that nurtured Maria Mitchell (pronounced Ma-rye-a), one of the first professional women astronomers, whose father taught her as a child to “sweep the skies” and chart the stars. In the 19th century, Mitchell won a medal and fought for women’s rights—even as the door to science closed in her female students’ faces. Her story is a potent reminder that social progress for women has never been steady and linear.

When Girls Studied Planets and the Skies Had No Limits #MakerEducation

506px maria mitchell wr

Great piece highlighting the work of 19th Century American astronomer Maria Mitchell, from Smithsonian.com.

In 19th-century America, you might expect that most women were shut out of the sciences—including astronomy. But it wasn’t quite that simple. By many accounts, some educated girls in the early 1800s were actually encouraged to watch the stars and planets, an observation process known as “sweeping the sky.” In those days, you might say, astronomy didn’t yet have a gender.

These were the attitudes that nurtured Maria Mitchell (pronounced Ma-rye-a), one of the first professional women astronomers, whose father taught her as a child to “sweep the skies” and chart the stars. In the 19th century, Mitchell won a medal and fought for women’s rights—even as the door to science closed in her female students’ faces. Her story is a potent reminder that social progress for women has never been steady and linear.

How to Get Practical Water Data in a Unique Way #CitizenScience #science #environment #robotics

This bot not only has beautiful locomotion, but it is also a great water monitoring device. According to TechCrunch it was created by a team at l’École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. Apparently this is the same school that created croco creatures for the BBC nature series Spy in the Wild. Envirobot, as it is called, has the advantage of moving like an eel with little wake, so it does not further disperse the pollutants it is trying to study. Another advantage of the bot is that it is modular, so researchers can configure the sensor segments as needed.

Electric sensors can track the salinity of the water, and chemical ones obviously can test for acidity or certain elements. The biological sensors are different, though: they’re filled with living organisms or tissues—fish cells, microfauna, etc.—which react in predictable ways to, say, the presence of insecticides or other toxins.

I was especially interested in the biological sensors and some more sleuthing revealed the school’s press release containing details of the experiments.

“For example, we developed bacteria that generate light when exposed to very low concentrations of mercury. We can detect those changes using luminometers and then transmit the data in the form of electrical signals,” says Jan Roelof van der Meer, Project Coordinator and Head of the Department of Fundamental Microbiology at the University of Lausanne.

The beauty of this robot is that it can map information while collecting it in real time. So it will eventually be helpful in analyzing environmental disasters. Remote monitoring is definitely the way to go with toxins and I suspect we will be seeing more of this use of robotics in our future.

Adobe Research team proposes more playful way to mix colours digitally #ArtTuesday

Via Dezeen

Researchers at software brand Adobe have developed a prototype tool that allows users to mix colours on screen as if they were working in real paint.

Playful Palette offers artists and illustrators an alternative to the standard colour picker that most graphics software, such as Adobe Photoshop, relies on. Users would be able to blend colours more easily and compare different shades.

The tool is based on research into the ways artists work in traditional media – and the shortcomings they experience with digital counterparts.

See more!

Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!