based delicacies. The recipe is available at
makezine.com/go/dnaquiri.
Quake Canary
What if our phones could broadcast “
earthquake!” faster than we could tweet it? We are
all cyborgs, after all, carrying devices that
extend us physically and mentally. Those
devices are more than just phones, though,
they’re also sensors — ubiquitous, cheap,
widely-distributed sensors that many
scientists are eager to tap into.
The Quake Canary hack put this concept
to a test: can our smartphones detect earthquakes accurately? It seems so. By prototyping a proof-of-concept, the team demoed
the ability for networked phones to detect
earthquakes and instantly send data to the
U.S. Geological Survey — potentially giving
areas in danger early warning signals quicker.
The hack has now blossomed into a project
that’s teaming up with machine learning and
time-domain informatics experts from the
University of California, Berkeley. Prototypes
with improved algorithms have been created
; DNAquiri: a cocktail of extracted DNA. (Opposite)
ISS Globe: a globe displaying the real-time location of the
International Space Station, and a makeshift wind tunnel
used to create the Isodrag Typeface.
by the team in the last few months, and they
are preparing for expanded deployment of the
project along California's Hayward Fault.
ISS Globe
Can you check up on space travel while
you’re relaxing at home or busy at work?
Astronauts are continuously orbiting the
Earth — sometimes you can see a fair glint
of their spacecraft, the International Space
Station (ISS), overhead on a clear night when
they happen to fly past your location. What
if you could always see where they are without going outside or opening your laptop?
Inspired by previous Science Hack Day
ideas like the Near Earth Asteroid Lamp,
a lamp that would light up each time an
asteroid passed by the Earth, the ISS Globe
continuously shows you where the ISS is
overhead. The team of science hackers
used a translucent globe, two hobby servos,
Matt Biddulph
72 Make: makezine.com/31
