Interesting article at The Japan Times :)

TSUKUBA, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) Researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science have found that an iron compound becomes superconductive — where electrical resistance disappears in a substance — if it is dipped in wine, sake or beer.

“It is still not known what it is in sake that causes (the phenomenon), but it will provide a clue to the development of new superconductive materials,” said Yoshihiko Takano, leader of the Nano Frontier Materials Group at the institute.

The researchers said they first produced an iron telluride compound, which has a similar structure to a superconductive substance.

It didn’t immediately show signs of superconductivity but then did so after being left on a desk for about a week. Assuming that the change was due to moisture in the air, the researchers experimented with water, ethanol and other substances but couldn’t attain results showing high conductivity.

In March, Takano came up with the idea of trying alcoholic drinks after seeing a wide range of liquors at an institute party.

They found that the compound showed superconductivity after it was immersed for 24 hours in each of six types of liquors, including red wine, white wine, beer and sake, all heated up to 70 degrees. Red wine proved to be most effective.

* “wine glass” image by Scmtb49 - wikimedia commons

Treehugger recently reported on BioCouture, a fashion research project based at Central Saint Martin’s College in London and led by Suzanna Lee, which seeks to grow textiles from a vat of liquid:

The process uses a sugary green tea recipe, to which, a bacterial culture is added. It takes about 2-4 weeks to grow a sheet that is thick enough to use. Sheets are then dried down; either shaped over a wooden dress form–like the ghost dress and ruff jacket –or sewn together conventionally. Depending on the recipe the material can either feel like paper or–more desirably–like a vegetable leather.

In testing with dyes we found no need for mordant [a substance used for dyeing fabrics] and an incredibly small amount of dye goes a long way so it’s eco-credentials go through the entire process. We also recycle a percentage of the fermentation liquid.

vegetable leather grown from a vat of green tea

We look forward to more information about the project and the process. Read more about it at treehugger.

Thanks Rob for pointing this out :)

Fora TV will stream the Summit at http://fora.tv/live/open_science/open_science_summit_2010

What could be more important that optimizing the functioning of our science + technology paradigm for a 21st century Open Knowledge Economy?

More than 40 speakers from across the country and around the world will discuss the most urgent policy questions surrounding: gene patents, open access data/journals, the future of peer review and scientific reputation, novel funding platforms for scientific research grants and technology development, patient activism/cure entrepreneurship, citizen science, the rise of DIY biology and its attendant regulatory and security concerns, and much more.

How to bend sheets of polymorph-

How to add colour to polymorph-

I keep thinking that even though we tend to use conductive fabric and other soft circuits materials mostly for wearables and such, there has to be much more to it than that. Ayman’s drumsticks are a great of example of other interesting applications for these materials. He made them for his iPad iSteelPan application, but they’ll work on any capacitive surface.

The iSticks are made out of pure copper polyester taffeta fabric (I bet conductive lycra would work really nicely too), metal rod, string, and cotton pads. Check out Ayman’s instructable and make your own!

(via Alicia Gibb)

Last March I had the opportunity to teach an openMaterials workshop at the very special École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence (France). It was part of a larger event in which the school invited researchers and artists from several fields to lead a one week class for 2nd year art students. The goal was to show them different technologies and materials, which they’d later use on an art project. Besides my smart materials class, there was also an astrobiology workshop by Andy Gracie and a video class by Douglas Stanley.

I was so impressed with the work done by these young students that I can’t resist sharing some photos and descriptions of their projects. These were kindly sent by the very talented artist and teacher France Cadet, who guided the students during the making of their final projects.

Barbed Wire by Morgane Guiard
Morgane wanted to represent barbed wire on her art piece. At first she tried to work with fiber optics: the images on the screen were supposed to drive the might to the fiber optics and make the data travel trough. This structure turned out to be really nice and poetic but also very fragile. She eventually broke it and decided to go with red EL wire. This time she put the display behind the barbed wire and made the EL blink according to the speed of the increasing number of victims shown on the screen (the number of victims barbed wire made during 3 different wars).

Interactive Tapestry by Sarah Martinis and Caroline Geneste
Sarah and Caroline made an interactive tapestry (a bit like “toile de Jouy” with some bone sprinted on it). The patterns were fitted with copper electrodes connected to several capacitive sensors. They were playing 8 different yelling sounds and used a sport electronic hacked device with a few electrodes around the wrist.

EL Dress by Amélie Djellel
Amelie used EL wire and a few handmade conductive fabric sensors to create a touch sensitive seethru dress. Each sensor triggered different strands of EL wire shaped inside the dress and representing forms between the meridians, the veins and the organs. The brightness of the EL changed according to the pressure applied on the sensors.

Color Changing Suit & Dance Performance by Lou Feraud
Lou created a suit sprinkled with UV active (color changing) beads and ink. She then wore it during a dance performance, in which she held some UV LEDs at the tips of each finger on one hand, and bright LEDs on the other hand.

Color Changing Stickers by Mélanie Cartier
Mélanie also used UV active ink to create stickers with the radioactive logo to evoke the memory of the radioactive accident and its invisible repercussions.

Animal by Huna Ruel
Huna used conductive fabric sensors to create a little animal that moves when touched (contracting its head and tail). She then covered it with latex. Unfortunately, once dry the latex shrank a bit and caused the sensors to be on at all times.

During the workshop, Amélie and I made some cards with different types of handmade sensors (using paper, conductive fabric, and velostat) to be kept at the school as a reference. The beautiful drawings and neat handwriting are hers :)

Thank you to all the fun and talented students and their awesome teachers France Cadet, Jean Pierre Mandon and Laurent Costes for a really great week!

I’ve learned that there are 3 main challenges in working with soft circuits. The first one is to create circuitry with materials that are almost always completely exposed: a lot of thought goes into the layout of the circuit to not only avoid accidental shorts during normal wear, but also to avoid crisscrosses between conductive materials within the circuit layout. The second one is to think in 3D: more often than not your circuit can’t be applied to a single flat surface and you have bits and pieces spread out over several areas or layers of the piece. The third one is to find ways to connect hardware with soft conductive materials: sometimes you just need to use hard electronic components or a board.

The first two challenges have to be addressed on a case by case basis, but I’ve been experimenting with some methods to address the third that might be useful to others - I’m also hoping for suggestions on different methods and/or ways to improve these :)

:: The curled legs method
This is the classic method everyone working with soft circuits knows and loves. You simply curl the legs of any long leg electronic component, forming a little ring you can then sew to. I’ve used this method with LEDs, transistors (careful, the legs on transistors break very easily), resistors, photoresistors, and even electrical wire.

Since my conductive thread frays a lot and tends to come loose after a while, I usually finish it up with a drop of wire glue (more about this below).

When I really must use electrical wire, which is the case when working with EL wire, I prefer the stranded kind, which is more flexible that the single-strand. In this case, the first thing to do is twist all the small-gauge wires together and then apply a bit of solder to bond them. After forming the ring, apply some more solder to it in order to get a more solid shape to sew to.

:: The wire glue + snaps method
I’ve often found myself in a situation of having to work with conductive pads, which leaves out the preferred curled legs method. So I made a few experiments and found out that wire glue is perfect for these situations. Unlike conductive ink and conductive epoxy, wire glue is very cheap. It’s also easy to obtain and work with. While wire glue is not particularly good as a glue, it is a very reliable conductor.

Gluing the fabric or thread directly to the pads never really worked for me: it comes off too easily and I haven’t found a good way to reinforce the bond. But metal snaps are just perfect for the job!

Metal snaps on surface mount battery holder

I apply a bit of wire glue to the conductive pad and then, using tweezers, carefully place the male half of the snap on top of it. Just the wire glue wouldn’t be strong enough to keep the snap there once you start snapping and unsnapping your circuit. But, after the wire glue has cured (leave it for a few hours), you can add a couple drops of super glue. This doesn’t affect the conductivity or the connection and ensures a pretty strong bond. Once that’s done, you can just add a strip of conductive fabric to the soft part of your circuit and, using conductive thread, sew the other half of the snap on it.

Metal snaps on board

:: The surface mount + wire rings method
This is very similar to the method described above, except that instead of using snaps you’d strip a piece of electrical wire, make a little ring with it, and solder the ring to the contact pads. This is tricky to do on very small components, such as surface mount LEDs, but not complicated at all with bigger pads.

Wire rings on surface mount battery holder

OSLOOM is is a project led by Margarita Benitez aimed at creating an open source electromechanical thread-controlled loom that will be computer controlled. It will include basic software allowing anyone to simply weave a photo thru a web browser (twill/satin), import weave ready files from other software (such as Bhakti/Alice photoshop method), and then post the software on a repository for others to further develop or customize. In addition, all the loom blueprints will be placed online for anyone to build.

A loom is a device used to weave fabric. The loom itself will be a Jacquard style loom. Jacquard looms allow for the individual control of each thread which in turn allows for photographic imagery to be woven. Jacquard looms like this exist commercially but they are very expensive (upwards of $30,000) which puts them out of reach for individuals and small educational facilities.

The OSLOOM could be produced way more economically than that and truly revolutionize what the studio weaver could accomplish. The idea of a DIY open source loom is one that not only artists could benefit from but many individuals and learning centers could gain a resource by building one of these looms as well.

OSLOOM would have an impact on (but not limited to) the following communities/sectors:
artists
DIY/makers
studio weavers
educational
institutions (large and small)
textile designers
developing countries

This project is inspired by MIT’s FabLab concept and other open source hardware projects such as the RepRap and Fab@Home 3D rapid prototypers and the many DIY CNC projects available already.

Margarita is currently working on making available some cardboard tapestry loom plans for lasercutting. Keep an eye on osloom.org for more information!

PS: I’m already imagining textile circuits weaved with conductive thread/yarn :)

If one uses latex emulsion, it is possible to get with 2 layers rubber-like material. Usually instructions say that one should dip a form into latex, but i created a cast from clay. Plus i added some color pigments for achieving better color.