Hardware, Prototyping, and Fabrication
I'm eagerly awaiting IKEA's mass-production of this flat-pack toaster.
There are few websites that belong in this section more than This to That, a resource to help guide you in your journey to stick various materials to one another.
Relatedly, there's also Can You Microwave? a running message board of people asking that very question about a variety of different substances and foodstuffs. Some of the scenarios that frame these questions are a bit tmi, imo.
Maybe I was the only one hoping to come across this some day, but here's a great guide on how to fabricate your own, in-home air hockey table. (You know I'm making one of these.)
Software and Programming
It used to be that when an artist erased a painting it stayed erased. Thanks to neural networks, though, we can "paint" and restore these lost works, as shown with a famous Picasso painting from his Blue Period.
I happen to know that at least a few readers of M&D are pretty bad at hangman, so I imagine they're going to get very frustrated when they try to play Cheatman, which is hangman against a computer that cheats.
➰ I'm sure you've heard that blobs are in when it comes to web design, so here's a nice little tool to make all kinds of them for your hip, modern, graphic design needs.
Science, Engineering, and Biomedicine
This might be the best article title I've ever read: How much are you polluting your office air just by existing?
From one of the other newsletters I help run, The Lattice, here's Parts 1 & 2 of my series there on 3D printing and scanning in the clinic, based largely on my experiences in the Sinai BioDesign prototyping center.
Mapping, History, and Data Science
Forebears.io is a website working to aggregate all the disparate data around our last names to build a more comprehensive picture of who we are as individuals, families, and societies. (Relatedly, I wonder what that one person with the last name Borrello is doing over in Egypt )
When I was a kid, seeing a non-yellow "school bus" felt like finding some kind of mythical creature. Why is the "yellow school bus" such a fixture in our society, though? Smithsonian magazine gives the history.
Most satellite imagery of the planet is from a top-down view, but a lot of our geography (both natural and man-made) is better appreciated from a more oblique angle.
From longtime M&D reader Christina: What the big data of pizza in New York City can tell us about our society. (It turns out, if you're near a pizza joint, you're probably also near the subway.)
Events and Opportunities
Well, my busy weeks are behind me (mostly), but I'm not sure the community calendar is getting any lighter...
Saturday, 10/19 New Lab's annual open house birthday celebration is back, with a theme this year of Light+Motion. As always, you can expect pretty much everyone affiliated with technology, design, science, and/or entrepreneurship to turn up for what's one of the bigger bashes of the year.
Saturday & Sunday 10/19-20 The biggest bi-annual graduate career symposium in the country is back at NYU Med showcasing all the career trajectories you can pursue post-PhD. This is one of the best opportunities for graduate students and postdocs to learn about the breadth of career paths for doctorates and an amazing place to network with the next generation of scientists. More info on the two-day conference can be found here, and the registration link is here.
Sunday, 10/20 It's no secret that the Secret Science Club always puts on a great barroom lecture and this Sunday's talk promises to be no exception to the rule. They'll be featuring atmospheric scientist and climatologist Sonali McDermid down at the Bell House in Gowanus.
Monday 10/21 It's not always science and startup events here. One of my favorite organizations, the Society for the Advancement of Social Studies (aka SASS) is back with more barroom history, this time with a focus on the spooky, scary, and ghoulish.
Wednesday, 10/23 VR investors and practitioners in the healthcare space will gather at RLab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard for a showcase of the latest and greatest VR technologies and applications in the healthcare space.
Wednesday, 10/23 Scientists, artists and everything in between meet up once again at Peculier Pub for the October edition of SciArt's Synapse social mixer.
Wednesday, 10/23 Women Owning It, a "celebration of women in media and tech killin’ it in their fields and owning their space in the industry" is focusing their Fall 2019 panel event on the art of negotiating. Hear from women who are pros at closing deals and negotiating contracts, from female founders, to filmmakers, to a negotiation coach. Whether you’re in media or in tech, you're welcome to come and learn negotiation tips from both industries.
Thursday, 10/24 The NYC biotech/life science/entrepreneurial communities get together at JLABS once again for the October edition of their Innovators & Entrepreneurs mixer.
Saturday, 10/26 The Future of Care conference is back at Rockefeller University featuring some of the latest breakthroughs in clinical care and the innovators helping shepherd them from bench to bedside.
Tuesday, 10/29 Join Columbia Nano Labs for their annual Industry Day conference. Learn how you can use and leverage the Nano Labs facilities, hear from a panel of entrepreneurs who have done just that, and listen to faculty and technical experts discuss the way these sophisticated tools contribute to cutting-edge research. (Yes, this was rescheduled from the originally planed date of 9/5.)
Tuesday, 10/29 Taste of Science NYC invites you to a seasonally appropriate evening of phantasmagoric talks about perceiving things that may or may not be there! Learn about the neuroscience behind popular illusions and stage magic, and why paranormal investigators maintain a healthy sense of doubt in their work.
Tuesday, 10/29 Mark your calendars for Derek Brand's next ECHO bio-entrepreneurship mixer, a mainstay of the NYC biotech and startup ecosystems and something I recommend all M&D readers try to get to at least once.
Wednesday, 10/30 The Transit Techies are back to talk planes (maybe), trains (likely), and automobiles (possibly) at their next meetup held, as always at the Sidewalk Labs/Intersection offices in Hudson Yards.
Thursday, 10/31 Pitching your startup in front of investors doesn't have to be spooky. The Mid Atlantic Bio Angels 1st Pitch events offer NYC's biotech entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their innovations in front of a panel of real investors and receive critical feedback on their pitches and business plans. The 1st Pitch events are also a great place to learn about the latest innovations in the NYC biotech ecosystem and connect with some of its major players.
Friday-Sunday, 11/1-3 Join NIST and CCNY for a weekend-long hackathon focused on developing technologies to improve community safety and help the first responders who help keep us safe. All skill levels are welcome and $35,000 in cash prizes will be awarded at the end of the weekend.
Some other upcoming events to keep on your radar...
Thursday, 11/7 The LifeSci NYC meetup hosts their next event at BMCC with a focus on careers in the public health sector featuring a panel of NYC leaders in the field discussing what it means to work in public health, what it takes to get into the field and succeed, and what the public health ecosystem looks like in NYC.
Friday, 11/8 The Intrepid museum's Innovators series returns for another evening of showcasing startups powered by NASA technologies, plus networking and mingling between scientists, entrepreneurs, and technologists.
Friday-Sunday, 11/8-10 For 36 hours on November 8-10, HackPrinceton will bring together 600 developers and designers from across the country to create incredible software and hardware projects. They'll have swag, workshops, mentors, prizes, games, free food, and more.
Friday, 11/22 One of the year's most interesting conferences, SciViz NYC is back and once again bringing NYC-area visual science communicators, researchers, clinicians, journalists, artists, and enthusiasts together for an event focused on visualizing science for analysis, education, inspiration, and provocation. It's a day dedicated to exploring the parts of science we might forget about, but deserve just as much consideration.
Map of the Month
⚡ Here's a live map of carbon emissions being generated by electricity generation around the world.