Hardware, Prototyping, and Fabrication
You may have heard of the Lightphone, which has for a while now reigned supreme as the most minimalist implementation of a smartphone (indeed, it's barely even "smart"). It's reign may soon be at an end, though, with the introduction of the paper phone, a design concept so minimalist, I strongly question its utility, as well as the field of design writ large (although it certainly brings new meaning to the term "burner phone").
Makercase is one of my favorite (and most used) hardware resources online, but sometimes you don't need to go to the trouble of machining or laser cutting panels for your project needs. For those cases (no pun intended), there's Templatemaker.
The Open Book Project is a community effort to create a fully open-source e-reader that anyone with a soldering iron can build for themselves.
I've seen this article make the rounds in a few places this past week, so I figured I'd give it a shout-out here too: The tape cassette adapter truly helped bridge the digital divide.
Software and Programming
The US Constitution has been given the GitHub treatment. (Now if only the US government itself could do this...)
NVIDIA's latest GAN-powered demo? Face swap for animals.
↔🥁 Spleeter is open-source code that enables you to separate the vocal and backing tracks from *any* song. Definitely worth checking out if you're in the remixing space. Plus, here's an example of the code in action: original, vocals, backing.
Here it is, folks, the complete collection of things that don't exist (and are only the product of AI generative adversarial networks). Will it stop me from sharing more GAN-content in the future? Probably not, but now you don't have to click on any of the future links (although I hope you do).
Science, Engineering, and Biomedicine
🦠 There's already a pretty comprehensive network of bacteria spanning the globe, so why not tap them in to the Internet of Things as well?
🧊 Why is ice so slippery? One of the many truths of life we never really got around to figuring out.
It turns out quantum behavior is naturally occurring not only at the tiniest of length scales, but also at more biologically-relevant ones as well.
Mapping, History, and Data Science
From longtime M&D reader Lisa: The Power Thesaurus knows the word (or phrase) that's on the tip of your tongue. (It's definitely a different kettle of fish, or change, from your typical thesaurus.)
There are a lot of ways to map the world. (Some of them more ridiculous than others.)
Connie's compilation of every Sephora review that references crying is the dataset you didn't know you needed.
The Bed Bug Registry is one of those datasets you hope you never have to access, but I'm sure you'll agree that it's a good thing it exists.
Events and Opportunities
That whole "events seem to be tapering off" thing I mentioned last edition? Maybe I was wrong about that...
TODAY, 11/15 Join mermbers of the Homodeus startup team and GRO-Biotech at a special happy hour event covering some of the new job opportunities at this fast-paced and exciting biotech startup as well as the broader 4Catalyzer ecosystem, which counts several device and AI startups among its members as well - all of them working at the interface of innovative biomedicine and groundbreaking technology.
Monday, 11/18 Join the Sinai Consulting Interest Group for the last event in their series geared toward helping young academics familiarize themselves with the economics of healthcare and scientific discovery. There will also be a special information and networking mixer with Prescient Healthcare Group following the course. Separate registration for the mixer can be found HERE.
Wednesday, 11/20 Coming off their diamond anniversary meetup (aka meetup #60) the Hardware Startup meetup will be gathering for #61 at Collab fabrication lab and innovation studio.
Thursday, 11/21 Join the BioIdea team, healthcare investors, entrepreneurs, and life sciences professionals for their November Biotech Reception. This is a unique opportunity for investors, pharma & biotech leaders to connect in person to discuss the emerging biotech ecosystem in NYC.
Thursday, 11/21 Join some of the city's newest startups at Ignitia in Brooklyn for an evening of pitching, pizza, and potential investments. Startups, observers, and other entrepreneurship enthusiasts are all welcome to attend.
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.
Monday, 11/25 The November edition of Derek Brand's ECHO bio-entrepreneurship meetup is here and you can be sure a great cross-section of the community will turn out for drinks and dialogue.
Some other upcoming events to keep on your radar...
Tuesday, 12/3 Join NYDesigns for their December Women in Tech Happy Hour, happening at Bierocracy in LIC. As always, Men and individuals who identify as female are welcome to attend, too.
Monday, 12/9 New Lab and JLABS are back with the 6th edition of their existential medicine series, this time covering the promise of personalized medicine and how innovations in computing and biology may actually get us to a world where medicine is tailored to each individual. Register with code NewLab2019.
Wednesday, 12/11 Join the SciArt group for their December Synapse mixer, a a casual evening of cross-disciplinary networking over drinks at favorite laid-back city bar, Peculier Pub. Come to discuss your latest projects and make new connections with artists, scientists, technologists, and cross-disciplinary practitioners.
DUE Friday, 1/17 Apply to NYDesigns Hardware Accelerator, a program designed to provide early-stage hardware entrepreneurs with access to prototyping facilities; light industrial manufacturing space to build, assemble and distribute products, and an expert team of investors, mentors and manufacturers.
Map of the Month
This 3D visualization of the Tokyo metro is one of the most beautiful transit maps I've ever seen. (Maybe in 2053, when we finally have modern - which will by then be antiquated again - signals in the entire NYC subways system someone will be able to do the same here.)
Odds & Ends
Most of the books published in the US before 1964 never had their copyrights renewed. This bot tells you which titles they are, and links you to them.