Most of people working in the field of biological or scientific research should greet the open hardware applications we are  witnessing in this age of Garage Science. From the Phduino to the DIY Oscilloscopes, through  STM (Scanning-Tunneling Electron Microscope), Arduino is getting used to prototype tools that used to be more expensive and possibly unavailable some years ago.

OpenPCR is an amazing project aimed to bring the genome analysis to a desktot experience. From the “What Is OpenPCR?” page:

What can you do with it?

Cool apps include:

• DNA Sequencing – PCR is used to generate enough DNA for the sequencing run. You can have a look at some of your own genome!
• DNA Barcoding – Determining the species based on DNA. Can be used to identify plants, screen for agricultural pests, investigate airplane bird strikes, and check that sushi is legit. What about testing your food to see if they contain GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms)?

The Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR, is a method of replicating DNA. It is capable of taking a small amount of DNA, or even a single molecule, and amplifying (copying) a specific region exponentially, such that once the reaction is finished, there may exist up to 2³⁰ copies of each starting molecule (do the math — that’s more than a billion!).

This is important because DNA of interest often exists in quantities too small to detect, or may be mixed in with other DNA. For example, an accurate test for HIV must be able to detect a single virus particle in 50,000 cells. PCR is able to do this by targeting a small region of DNA that is specific to the HIV virus. If the virus exists in a sample, amplification will occur which can be easily detected. If no virus is present, no amplification will occur.

The specific region of targeted DNA is determined by how the reaction is setup, based on the specific “PCR primers” added to the reaction mixture. Virtually any sequence of DNA can be targeted.

if you still have some questions and / or want to know more about PCR have a look at this wonderful & explanatory graphics.

[See it in action!] via [OpenPCR.org]

Il prossimo 14 aprile (giovedì) Massimo parlerà a Roma in occasione dell’Arduino Day, una giornata di conoscenza delle possibilità di Arduino a livello didattico e formativo. Le possibilità Arduino come mezzo educativo nelle scuole era stata presentata a fine dell’anno scorso in occasione di questo evento a Torino, seguito da un corso tenuto da me presso alcune scuole del circuito Dschola. Ora grazie all’associazione discienza abbiamo la possibilità di parlare a Roma, e finalmente conoscere un po’ di realtà locali.

Arduino Day è una giornata dedicata a far conoscere a docenti, ricercatori, artisti e ragazzi la piattaforma Arduino.

L’iniziativa, organizzata dall’associazione per la divulgazione scientifica DiScienza, nasce con l’obiettivo di catalizzare il sempre maggiore interesse nei confronti del progetto Arduino, e di convogliarlo in un’unica giornata in cui sarà possibile conoscere le diverse realtà che utilizzano la piattaforma e approcciarne alcune applicazioni.

segui il [thread sul forum di Arduino].

Not long ago I wrote a detailed post about Arduino Visual Programming Enviroments: [Jordi Delgado] commented about Citilab experience with Scracth For Arduino and Children. Back in Barcelona we had the chance to see this in action for OpenRaval workshop, and we were proofed of its usability.

Read on the interview to Marina Conde and Victor Casado to have more information about the all story.

Download Scracth4Arduino from Citilab Site and give it a try!

Not long ago I wrote a detailed post about Arduino Visual Programming Enviroments: [Jordi Delgado] commented about Citilab experience with Scracth For Arduino and Children. Back in Barcelona we had the chance to see this in action for OpenRaval workshop, and we were proofed of its usability.

Read on the interview to Marina Conde and Victor Casado to have more information about the all story.

Download Scracth4Arduino from Citilab Site and give it a try!

Not long ago I wrote a detailed post about Arduino Visual Programming Enviroments: [Jordi Delgado] commented about Citilab experience with Scracth For Arduino and Children. Back in Barcelona we had the chance to see this in action for OpenRaval workshop, and we were proofed of its usability.

Read on the interview to Marina Conde and Victor Casado to have more information about the all story.

Download Scracth4Arduino from Citilab Site and give it a try!

David Cuartielles is presenting the work made with open source tools at Faro de Oriente, Mexico City, during the last two years. The talk will include some reflections about how to introduce hardware in locations where it is not easy to import components, the creation of knowledge blocks in the right size for kids, using Arduino starter kits as a way to introduce programming at early ages, and the insane love for Sumo Robots that kids have.

pacman robot by kids at Faro de Oriente, (c) 2010 D. Cuartielles

The lecture will take place at CCEMX, Centro Cultural de España en México, on Friday October 29th at 7PM local time, 8PM EST, 2AM CET (one day later). Many of the ideas collected during this project will for sure influence our future projects dealing with secondary education.

David Cuartielles presentará el trabajo realizado con herramientas abiertas en el Faro de Oriente, México DF, durante los últimos dos años. La charla incluirá aspectos relacionados con temas como la introducción de hardware en localizaciones dónde no es fácil importar componentes, la creación de bloques de conocimiento con el tamaño apropiado para chicos/as, el uso de kits de iniciación a Arduino para enseñar programación en edades tempranas, y el increible amor de los chicos/as por robots luchadores de sumo.

pacman robot por chicos del Faro de Oriente, (c) 2010 D. Cuartielles

La presentación tendrá lugar en el CCEMX, Centro Cultural de España en México, el viernes 29 de Octubre a las 7PM hora local, 8PM EST, 2AM CET (un día más tarde). Muchas de las ideas recogidas durante el desarrollo de este proyecto influirán seguramente en futuros proyectos teniendo que ver con Arduino en educación secundaria.

Eduardo Gallego, the trainer to the Complubot robotics team from Spain is going to make an online lecture about the way he uses Arduino techology to teach kids about building robots. He announced it on this forum post. If you are good in Spanish, hook up with the video stream live tonight!

picture (c) 2010, courtesy of Complubot

The lecture will be at 7PM CET, October 21st, 2010, and you can either follow it at:

- http://elclic.cenditel.gob.ve/openmeetings/ , or

- http://www.livestream.com/elclic

The Spanish Robot team Complubot, integrating kids up to 17 years old, who are controlling their 2,5kg and 1,5kg robots with distributed intelligence based in Arduino Software and Hardware, were present at the Robot Soccer competition that took place in Bergamo (IT) last weekend. Massimo and I visited the competition and had a chat with Nerea and Ivan, the Spanish team members, as well as with Eduardo, the coach. At some point we will blog more about their story, for now, just take a look at their video where they beat team after team on the way to the finals, where they won agains the German team TNT. It became an Arduino Distributed vs. BlackFin Centralized Intelligence competition.

Ecco una interessantissima iniziativa per presentare un progetto di sperimentazione di Arduino e Processing nel biennio delle scuole piemontesi. L’invito é rivolto a tutti i docenti di scuole superiori che vogliano veicolare un’Informatica che non sia solo L’ECDL (che é utile e necessaria, ovviamente), ma introdurre nel programma scolastico nuovi mezzi di formazione:

Il seminario “Arduino a scuola: laboratori e riflessioni sull’informatica libera a scuola”, organizzato dall’Associazione Dschola, dal Progetto Arduino, dal CSP Innovazione nelle ICT e dall’Associazione Docabout in collaborazione con l’ITI Majorana di Grugliasco, è la prima iniziativa in Italia rivolta alle scuole con l’obiettivo di sensibilizzare il pubblico sul tema della computer ethics e suscitare interesse e curiosità sul tema del fai-da-te tecnologico, con uno sguardo che va oltre l’aspetto strumentale e si riflette sulle pratiche educative.

Durante il pomeriggio si parlerà di Computer Ethics e di Arduino, di rifiuto elettronico e di prototipazione elettronica. L’idea del seminario é di presentare un corso che porterà queste tematiche in classe, a ragazzi del biennio di Licei e Istituti Tecnici.

L’intero corso (che partirà – nelle scuole che aderiranno – tra Marzo e Giugno 2010) sarà disponibile online. Il seminario sarà l’occasione di mettere online una nuova sezione del sito Arduino.cc, rivolta specificatamente alla formazione e a strumenti per la docenza.

Per partecipare all’incontro bisogno iscriversi qui.

All’incontro parteciperanno, tra gli altri:
- Massimo Banzi, consulente e docente di Design Interattivo, nonché co-fondatore del Progetto Arduino
- Norberto Patrignani, docente di “Computer Ethics” alla Scuola di Dottorato del Politecnico di Torino e di “ICT & Societa’ dell’Informazione” all’Universita’ Cattolica di Milano
- Andrea Molino, resp. dell’Area Embedded Systems e Robotics Lab del CSP Innovazione nelle ICT

il programma compleato e la rassegna stampa sul sito di [DSChola] oppure scarica il volantino [qui]

Not long ago, our friend [Ed Baafi] told us about the amazing work he was doing on ModKit: a very interesting project in bringing visual programming on the Arduino side. Making programming as easy as building bricks is the common Quest of many different projects, aimed to work in the Educational field, teaching kids build their own programs (and toys).

Modkit is an in-browser graphical programming environment for little devices called embedded systems. Modkit can currently program Arduino and Arduino compatible hardware using simple graphical blocks similar to and heavily inspired by the Scratch programming environment developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab.

Modkit is currently available by invite only. In order to get started you will have to obtain an invite code from the Modkit Team or one of our partners (More on this soon)… In the meantime, you can obtain an invite code by backing Modkit on Kickstarter or checkback soon to see when more invites become available at this site or when we open Modkit to the general public.

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LEGO is probably one of the best protyping tool ever made. The step to make it becoming a nice host for our electronic projects is quite straightforward. Nevertheless I haven’t seen so many projects working as deeper as [hexecute] did. His blog is a wonderful worklog of the experience. He took the effort to translate his posts in english. In his lates post he drives his Super-LEGO-Car with a Nunchuk. Amazing.

more after the break

Un magnifico progetto postato da [Hexecute] sull’utilizzo di prodotti LEGO per ospitare un progetto basato su Arduino, inventando così il gioco più flessibile, divertente e educativo di sempre. I post sul suo Blog sono in Francese ed Inglese, e spaziano dal momento in cui lui ha reperito i materiali fino all’utilizzo di un Nunchuck come controller senza fili.

via [HackADay] source [hexecute]

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Chapter Three of Awesome “Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show”. Very nice video made from kid to kid.

Time to make kids play with this new tools (more to hear about this soon;).

meanwhile you may check  HowToons aswell, beside give a look to Sylvia’s Youtube channel

via [Wired-gadgetlab]

Sylvia e il suo papà Maker, TechNinja, hanno realizzato diversi how-to rivolti ai bambini. Questo parla di Arduino ed é semplicemente meraviglioso (come da titolo…). Sylvia’s Youtube channel.

via [gadgetLab]