Precise Parafilm Designs

While more expensive than a razor blade, you can cut Parafilm or tape to make precise chambers and masks without a laser cutter by using a commercial knife printer like the Silhouette CAMEO. From our own experience its remarkably robust though it can be a little finicky when loading the cutting mat before that actual […]

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A Library for Cheap Optics

Need some equipment to hold and align your fancy optical components? Consider 3D printing some components from a Thingiverses’ Open Source Optics library made by Joshua Pearce. This is particularly worth it for something like a filter wheel! Check out this table from an article by Chenlong Zhang, Nicholas Anzalone, Rodrigo Faria, and Joshua Pearce […]

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UV Lamps

Need a UV lamp for curing purposes? Consider buying a commercial product for curing nail polish. Amazon has a whole category just for UV Nail Dryers ! Some cardboard and tinfoil does a good job of isolating UV rays, and a nice hinge can be made with Velcro.

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Hello Lab

The world of scientific funding is just unfair. The old guard get richer and us up-and-comers are at each others throats for scraps of funding. We need revolution in our funding procedures, in our publish-or-perish industrial outlook on science, viva la revolution! But no… that’s not very practical. The NSF gonna NSF and Nature gonna […]

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