Scientific R&D At Home? 398
An anonymous reader writes "I'm currently on the cusp of getting myself a new hobby and making some investments. There are a few areas that interest me greatly, from playing with EEG/ECG and trying to put together a DIY sleep lab, to astronomy, etc. I'm somewhat hesitant to get into these fields because (despite the potentially short-lived enjoyment factor) I'm not convinced they are areas that would lend themselves to making new discoveries in the home and with home equipment, which is what I'd really like to do. I've also read quite a number of articles on 'bio hacking,' and the subject seems interesting, but it also seems futile without an expensive lab (not to mention years of experience). What R&D hobbies do Slashdotters have that provide them with opportunities to make interesting discoveries and potentially chart new territory in the home? Do such hobbies exist?"
Help start the revolution! (Score:5, Insightful)
Besides, that way, you'd have a good chance of being among the first to officially welcome our new robotic overlords!
Re:Help start the revolution! (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Robots is interesting with a bit of AI thrown in too.
But also have a look at http://diybio.org/ [diybio.org] for some biology related projects
Re:Help start the revolution! (Score:4, Informative)
Phidgets [phidgets.com] If you would like a bit of an easier ride.
Version 2.0 of their Phidgets SBC is going to be really slick, but don't expect it anytime soon.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't say for certain that this is applicable to robotics, but I've found in my personal projects as a software engineer that escaping the naive approach is what has brought my work into the realm of possible importance (academically and technologically). For me that meant reading a shitload of math books (and engineering books that are just slightly-more-rambling math books.) I suspect that it's the same for most fields, even ones heavy in hardware experimentation and field research -- going into it with
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I started hacking away with an Arduino a few weeks ago and have loved it. Sensors, motors, potentiometer's, MUX/DEMUX, programming, soldering, it's all there.
You don't even have to be particularly interested in robotics. For example, my first project is a analog drum machine that fires off MIDI messages to my DAW. Lots of pots, wires, understanding low-level MIDI interfacing, it's a blast. So anyway, yeah. I can't recommend electronics hacking / robotics enough.
imag0
Absolutely (Score:5, Insightful)
The prime frontier is in software. New concepts and applications based upon scientific discoveries are all over the world of software.
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Astronomy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Only a few hundred planets outside the solar system have been discovered. Some of those were found from backyards by amateurs.
Check out The Sky is Your Laboratory by Robert Buckheim. It's a ~$30 book that will show you how you can participate in meaningful astro research with no equipment beyond a stopwatch for the simplest stuff. Later chapters get increasingly complex and show you how to do things that be pretty big contributions to the field.
Re:Astronomy! (Score:5, Informative)
In all fairness, if you want to make a contribution that is worth co-authorship of a paper, you might need at least a good amateur telescope (maybe on the order of 10 inch aperture) and a CCD camera.
With such equipment, and clear skies, you can do photometric monitoring of stars (e.g. for outbursts, or planet transits). Asronomers always have the problem that big observatories focus on big telescopes, and it's difficult to do things that require small telescopes, but long-term monitoring.
One example would be monitoring of the transits of extrasolar planets, to detect timing anomalies (which could be caused by undetected additional planets). Or monitoring stars with planets detected by radial velocity variations, to discover eventual transits. Or monitoring of ongoing gravitational lens events... there are quite a few oportunities for amateurs.
Re:Astronomy! (Score:4, Informative)
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GP is correct. The long term monitoring for exoplanets was done at professional observatories, but using what are now considered "small" telescopes, equivalent to large-ish amateur telescopes . But there is only so much money and so much professional manpower for these. Amateurs with a good location, telescope and camera and some care can indeed contribute to real, published research, monitoring comets, asteroids, variable stars of all types, exoplanets and stars which might have exoplanets, or looking for supernovae. It's a very good field for amateurs.
here are some (non-exhaustive) examples and discussion:
http://www.aavso.org/aavso/about/pro_am.pdf [aavso.org]
(disclaimer: I am a professional astronomer)
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Seconded...This is a great book and convinced me to get back into astonomy after a 25 year break...
Last thing I did before this was photograph Halley's Comet back in '85/'86, with my 6" reflector and Minolta 35mm SLR...
Now, I've got a 150mm Mak-Cass and a Canon 20Da...Gonna do me some Variable Star Asronomy...
Homemade science (Score:3, Interesting)
And you could include schools in that, there is probably a lot of stuff out to discover which requires keep observation, measurement and then perhaps the help of a statistician to help sort the data. Counting number of animals and species in different kinds of gardens (all kept clean, lot of exotic plants, with a fish(less) pond etc.), dental caries vs. preferred school meal/drink, oh, and repeating the rats on drug experiment Rat Park [wikipedia.org] - providing free heroin to rats has a remarkably unintuitive outcome. And schools collaborating nationwide and thus getting a large enough sample size could probably dig up something really remarkable. To say nothing of the large term effects wrt. science literacy.
Einstein had no lab (Score:3, Insightful)
Einstein didn't have a lab. His lab was his brain, and his "thought experiments" were obviously productive.
Re:Einstein had no lab (Score:4, Informative)
However their result was not totally unexpected, as the Maxwell equations themselves already predicted such a thing, paradoxically, by containing a velocity term c. In the Newton/Galileo worldview, x and dx/dt, position and speed are undetectable, relative (even though Newton did talk about moving through "absolute space" when spinning a bucket of water, but Galileo did not, when telling about the flies not gathering aft in a ship, or his measurements of dropping feathers in a vacuum, or from the leaning tower of Pisa, countering Aristotle's claim that motion, dx/dt is consumed, and correctly ascribing that to friction, to external forces.) Only d2x/dt2, acceleration is revealed by the Universe, as a (inertial) force. Newtons mechanics, his laws, is all about forces, about d2x/dt2. All Einstein did was incorporate the Maxwell equations with this previous idea of Galileo about the relativity of inertial reference frames, that still did check out through the Michelson et.al. experiment, force a system where even with c present there is still inertial relativity and only acceleration manifests itself, and show that the classical Newton/Galileo system was a special limiting case of the old one. It's all really simple if you're willing to give up your prior convictions based on new experimental facts, even if those convictions were related to the most basic of basic things in your image of the world around you, to x and t.
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Well, it would seem to me... (Score:5, Insightful)
...that you're more interested in the recognition than the achievement. Most folks I know who make real breakthroughs in a discipline are genuinely interested in the discipline.
I occasionally teach and mentor in a doctorate program, and my essential observation is that those who are interested in the topic have a higher probability of finishing than those who are "chasing the paper". Even those of the latter category who finish the program eventually find such a perspective catches up with them in the workplace or in academia.
I don't mean to sound trollish here, but you need to search your motivations and go for the thing that really interests you. That'll render reward far past achieving 'just something, anything' And that motivation will overcome obstacles such as home-based, etc. You'll find a way, if it interests you...
Re:Well, it would seem to me... (Score:4, Insightful)
You're being uncharitable. All the OP asked was for an "to make interesting discoveries and potentially chart new territory"; he never mentioned wanting fame and fortune.
As you mentioned, some people love just love research for its own sake, and they may enjoy spending the rest of their life putzing around in their home even if they just "discover" something everyone in the field has known for years. But others want to make a positive contribution to society—they want to further humanity's knowledge, not just their own.
I think that's what the OP meant by "the potentially short-lived enjoyment factor". Hobbies can be interesting, but to many they become empty if you can't share them with the rest of the world.
Re:Well, it would seem to me... (Score:4, Interesting)
The GP may have put it badly, but he does have a point: you don't go out looking for something to do to "make a significant discovery." You try a few things, find something you like, and do it. If you do it really well, maybe you'll find something novel.
The amateur planet and supernova finders didn't go out and buy a telescope because they wanted to find planets and get their names in journals, they were already accomplished amateur astronomers and started looking for planets or supernovae for the challenge.
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That's what I get for posting before morning coffee... :)
Yes, the post was probably a bit hard-nosed, but I'm glad you recognized my point: it's what interests you that takes you to interesting places. There are two kinds of achievers: 1) Those that work hard at something, and 2) those that work hard as something that interests them. The latter benefit from the leverage of intrinsic motivation.
For my situation, I modify #2 slightly: Those that work hard at what comes easy to them. I am definitely a poste
You totally picked the wrong optical hobby, dude (Score:5, Interesting)
... lab, to astronomy, etc....
You totally picked the wrong optical hobby dude. Unless you live in some sort of paradise, its either going to be too cold, too hot, too rainy, too buggy, too cloudy, too windy for lightweight mounts, or bad temp inversions, about 99% of the time. Now, a microscope, on the other hand, maybe with a cam attachment hooked up to a PC, with some image analysis software, that could be big fun under any weather condition. And they both cost about the same, less than a car payment for junk, about a single monthly mortgage payment for the good stuff, and about one decent used car for used pro-grade hardware.
Also, we all look at the same sky. That means intense competition. But we all have different dirt and ponds. Yet another vote for microscope.
I'm not convinced they are areas that would lend themselves to making new discoveries in the home and with home equipment, which is what I'd really like to do.
Yeah well you're about to learn the hard part is not deciding what to buy, or even whipping out a credit card, the hard part is figuring out how you'll determine its something new. Pretty easy if you want to discover something new to you, look, an algae species I've never photographed before. Pretty hard if you want to darn near prove a negative, prove no human being has ever photographed that particular species of algae before.
Something New is not necessarily discovering a new individual thing. Something New might be using yer computer and some homemade software that emulates a red blood cell counter to chart the population of algae per sample vs ... something, to make interesting predictions, or discover a new effect. Or turning your computer-microscope into the worlds weirdest spectrophotometer, to measure ... something.
What R&D hobbies do Slashdotters have that provide them with opportunities to make interesting discoveries and potentially chart new territory in the home? Do such hobbies exist?
On the other hand, one good thing about the astronomy hobby is the AAVSO, American Association of Variable Star Observers. You'd never guess that their URL happens to be:
http://www.aavso.org/ [aavso.org]
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>> Pretty hard if you want to darn near prove a negative, prove no human being has ever photographed that particular species of algae before. :-)
> Or, pick an area that is so obscure that it's all but certain that no one else is working on it. As a bonus, any paper you write will be seminal!
Good tip. I don't think any human being has found algae in his seminal fluid before. Good luck with that.
I've often pondered... (Score:5, Interesting)
As far as serious "science" might I suggest this -- while groundbreaking research is mostly hi-tech requiring expensive equipment, one thing that doesn't get done much anymore is well within reach: verifying or debunking claims about various products. This can range from, say, taking time lapse photos of -- oh, I don't know, the progress of competing wart removers -- to basic qualitative chemical analysis of product ingredients (is that fish oil actually mercury-free).
Another idea might be designing coffee table doodads that show off scientific phenomena or engineering tricks.
Re:I've often pondered... (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know, the progress of competing wart removers
I really like your idea, but I want to make a comment on the difficulty of this one. I had three warts that I wanted to remove, but I wasn't sure how well the salicylic acid would work, so I only tried it on one of them. Weird thing is, as soon as it worked on one, the other two warts disappeared on their own, without anything. So to be sure, you would want to apply the treatments on different people. Maybe you could do an internet request to find people who have warts, want to get rid of them, and are willing to go along with the experiment.
Incidentally, compound-w freeze off actually made my warts bigger. Stay away from that stuff. (YMMV)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, right -- talk about picking a bad example! Hah!
What are the chances? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What are the chances? (Score:4, Informative)
The probability of a scientists making a significant discovery in his lab isn't much better than zero. The Flemming "Gee this moldy stuff might kill germs" is not even a once-in-a-career moment for the vast majority of scientists. Scientists work in a community, and the majority of them advance that community by applying tiny deltas to the scientific consensus.
I think if you want to be an amateur scientist, you might find it most rewarding to choose a branch of science with an enthusiastic amateur community, such as comet hunting or meteorology.
Re:What are the chances? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What are the chances? (Score:5, Informative)
For every Edison, Tesla and others, there are thousands and thousands of unknown people.
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They didn't work at home. Well, I guess Mendel did in the sense that the monastary was his home, but he did most of his work when he was the abbot. Edison's "home" was a huge lab/factory, with his house on the grounds, but he had a huge machine shop and all sorts of other resources available to him.
community colleges (Score:2, Insightful)
Sounds like you need a collaborator (Score:3, Interesting)
If you read into the history of Medtronic (and the pacemaker itself) you'll find that their beginnings weren't too far from what I just described - an inventor with an interest working with a physician researcher with a need.
Days of Garage Inventor long gone(if ever existed) (Score:4, Interesting)
It's great that you'd like to tinker around and play with stuff at home. You may learn some things, and it will definitely present with some interesting engineering problems. But true scientific R&D, where you discover something new, forget about it for the most part.
The only domains where a lone tinkerer can still make an impact and "discover" something new is in pure math, or algorithmic research. And even there, it's a rare thing.
The days of the lone researcher are long since past, if they ever really existed in modern history. Sure during the Renaissance and through the 1800s and early 1900s a lone researcher could discover/invent something new. However, even during the latter part of the aforementioned time period, the individuals in questions (Maxwell, Faraday, Watt, Bell, etc) often had years/decades of experience and/or education in the fields they made discoveries in. And the myth of the lone inventor during this latter part wasn't really true, for example Edison had a large lab full of employees for his research.
In the contemporary time period, it's HIGHLY unlikely (I'm just reluctant to say impossible). All the low level hanging fruit in most fields has been mined. There's a reason that PhDs take a long time, there's a lot to learn and catch up on. Also, most discoveries, especially in basic science ( Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy) require lots of expensive capital equipment and labs to do. And often, it's not just one scientist, but an entire team of collaborators working on a problem from many different angles.
Now, there may be some interesting inventions/engineering solutions a lone inventor can PERHAPS come up with, but they wouldn't be new scientific discoveries. Also, as another refinement of my point, there are some things an individual can still do, like say perhaps discover a new species, but not in their backyard (unless you live in Brazil). Even then, you need a commitment of resources and time to explore the still hidden parts of the world, in the rainforest, or deep under the sea.
So, while the concept of the lone scientist is romantic, exciting and inspiring, in the modern era it's unrealistic in my opinion.
Re:Days of Garage Inventor long gone(if ever exist (Score:4, Interesting)
In Bio, you can probably discover a dozen novel microorganisms is just about any pool of slimy water large enough to drown in. You'll have to do a lot of slogging to learn enough about it to publish(if there were a faster way, grad students would be graduating faster), and you probably won't be lucky enough to find one that does anything wildly cool; but simply finding one should be doable enough. Even larger stuff like insects is pretty under-cataloged in many locations. Again, your odds of finding a particularly notable bug aren't huge; but enough slogging will almost certainly yield pictures and specimens of something that nobody has ever come up with a latinate name for. Whether this motivates you is another question; but the sample set is just so enormous that, as long as you have a decent microscope/camera, and perhaps a budget for ordering genetic sequences of stuff, a novel organism should just be a matter of effort.
Assuming you have some requisite talent, and enough budget for a decent tinkering shop, you can probably do some novel applied science/engineering(albeit probably not based on novel principles), as long as you stay away from areas of commercial interest. The field of "best approximation, for ~$100, of Thing X that normally starts at ~$20,00" has been a tinker's classic for ages. Your work won't exactly represent an advance(the usual price tag isn't just because the commercial guys are price gouging); but it may well be novel and creative. In certain cases, often being pursued by deeply underfunded NGOs, such work could even be of humanitarian significance(think solar ovens, for instance, the field of solar power is overwhelmingly dominated by semiconductor guys doing stuff with novel quantum-well fabrication in order to eke out that extra
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A space elevator is a straightforward materials problem. Make the right material, the problem is solved. Current candidates for materials include carbon nanotubes. Which, among other places, can be found in candle soot. I wouldn't rule out the garage as a source for ground breaking discoveries here.
AI... again, all you need is a PC that can address lots of RAM, and a goodly amount of RAM. Guaranteed. I may be overestimating the amount of RAM. Go ahead, ask me why. I love that question. :)
Fusion... you
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All the low level hanging fruit in most fields has been mined.
I find it rude that you think so little of the ability of amateur scientists, but I'll chalk it up to you having a bad day.
The fruits of scientific discovery has never been low, not even when Archimedes took a bath, but what has changed is the size of the scientific community and the entrenchment of traditions. If I discover something that boggles my mind and I'm unable to quantify it to write a formal paper about it, no matter how keen my intuition or observational skills are I'll be marginalized. You find
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
That's exactly what they told the guy who went on to invent....the wheel, the candle, the lightbulb, the home computer, etc. The "lone" scientist has never really been alone. He stands on the shoulders of giants and simply looks at what exists through a different set of eyes. Breakthroughs are an entirely different animal than refinements. It is generally expensive, lots of hard work, and the worker is ridiculed and chided by those around him as a "waste of time". They are told that only "real scientists" a
Ask A Radio Ham (Score:3, Interesting)
I do research into high IP3 HF receiver front ends, other radio hams are working with software defined radios, recovering digital signals from noise, DSP chips and even the way the brain perceives sound.
Ganty HA5RXZ
Plasma Physics (Score:4, Interesting)
No, seriously, you can do it at home--get a ham radio license and start doing some experiments aimed at better understanding the behavior of the ionosphere (which is a plasma) and it's effects on radio wave propagation. No only could you make a significant contribution to science, you could have some fun in the process.
Here's the first in a series of articles [eham.net] on the topic. You might find it interesting.
Re:Plasma Physics (Score:5, Funny)
Or get a bunch of old microwave ovens and see what you can plasmify at what distance. Electricity is cheap and your utility company will thank you!
Atomic power is a good source for X-rays and all sorts of fun can be had with radiation. Even ultraviolet is enough to increase the mutation rate of bacteria. Mutants! Need I say more? *wink-wink nudge-nudge*
You can also build your own lasers, and tesla coils are always impressive. Don't bother with rockets because the cheapest/best rocket engines are solid explosives that fit nicely in the hands of pros.
When I'm established I'll have a bunch of high-density flywheels built to deliver impulses of power befitting my megalomania. Then, superconductors!
sudo apt-get install girlfriend ? (Score:2, Funny)
Seriously, they have some great biological modules to investigate ;)
Re:sudo apt-get install girlfriend ? (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, they have some great biological modules to investigate ;)
Sounds like fun but I found:
Conflicts: wife (>= 1.0)
Suggests: Whole-bunch-of-money
Also the installation process took too much time.
Arrest! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Arrest! (Score:4, Interesting)
Luckily, they can still wave "don't tread on me" flags with impunity, so it's ok...
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
"Not arms a militia would keep" and "not arms" are still two distinct sets with differing membership.
Glass flasks, BTW, can be useful for making your own ammunition. There's nothing in the Commerce Clause which prevents a reloader from mixing his own smokeless in his own state with his own materials and equipment, and banning ammo is just like banning the gun.
Is it a "reasonable regulation" to say a guy can buy commercial ammo but not make his own?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
The Texas Department of Public Safety - Narcotics Service requires a form to be filled out before one starts a chemistry lab at home (or anywhere else).
ftp://ftp.txdps.state.tx.us/forms/nar-120a.pdf [state.tx.us]
Re:Arrest! (Score:5, Interesting)
I have tons of lab glassware, scary sounding chemicals like potassium ferricyanide and benzotriazole, lots of white powder and digital scales to measure them, high powered power supplies, RF and electronics equipment, lasers, casks of gunpowder and stockpiles of lead and bullets, and more stuff that would make for damn fine TV on the evening news--"Potential terrorist killed in struggle with police--an arsenal of weapons, dangerous chemicals that could be used for chemical weapons, bomb making materials, and communications equipment for communicating with terrorists across the globe were siezed....
My hobbies are photography, shooting/reloading, robotics, and radio.
It's a dangerous world for people that do anything interesting or innovative. In complete seriousness, be careful.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I use my own common sense practices. The thing is most of the stuff I work on at home is downright harmless (low voltage DC, simple photochemicals) compared to what I use at work (hydroflouric acid, high-voltage ac and RF)
Harmless compared to Hydrofluoric Acid? Gosh, I sure hope so!
HF is an extremely scary substance. Make cyanide look like Kool Aid by comparison!
Lasers. (Score:2)
Plus sharks; there are quite a few rather small species, you can start with those.
interesting discoveries, new territory (Score:2)
What R&D hobbies do Slashdotters have that provide them with opportunities to make interesting discoveries and potentially chart new territory in the home?
Chatroulette and Remote Web Cam Control are really big right now.
Hobby type research for fun and fun (Score:2, Interesting)
Go nuclear, dude! . . . (Score:2)
Get your hands on some smoke detectors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn [wikipedia.org]
I'm not a fan of solar energy . . . the sun doesn't always shine . . . and wind? Think tornadoes. Water power? Take a look at Poland right now; that's what water will get you.
Actually, I'm a big fan of the underdog geothermal energy. Just drill down deep enough, and it gets mighty hot there. But I guess geothermal isn't fashionable enough . . . unless you live in Iceland.
Make your sleep lab (Score:5, Informative)
In the late 1980s I worked for a biomedical company (BMSI) in Silicon Valley that made EEG equipment. They stored the EEG waveforms on a video tape. The image on the video tape had the EEG waveforms from 16 head sensors on the left of the screen and an image of the patient on the right. Patients would try to get 100% disability checks for life by claiming to be epileptic. They would spend a night in a monitored sleep lab, and then do a little horizontal dance while pretending to be asleep. Our equipment matched the brainwave recording to the image of the patient twitching to verify or disprove nocturnal epilepsy.
It doesn't really matter that you can or can't do real high-level research at home on DIY equipment. It only matters that you can build calibrated and reliable medical equipment that delivers accurate results at a small fraction of the cost of the equipment used in American hospitals. As we all know, the US medical health care system is collapsing. The recent legal reforms are basically meaningless and consist mostly of administrative and billing changes. If you can do a $1500 sleep apnea test or overnight EEG recording on DIY equipment for $50, then you are a welcome and honored member of the new health care system that is self-generating now underneath the bloated, corrupt, and crumbling official health care system.
Just be discreet at the present time.
By the way, instead of digitizing and storing the EEG waveforms directly, do a FFT on 1024 samples. The EEG waveform is basically sinusoidal so it can be recreated mathematically. Determine the formula that will regenerate the recorded waveform sample, and only store the offsets and co-efficients of the sine wave formula that will recreate that segment of the waveform accurately. You will get a 1000-to-1 data compression and be able to get all the circuitry into a hand-held small package.
Connect with People (Score:2)
First: Look up Forest Mims III [forrestmims.org] and research his life story and the things he tells people. He is totally encouraging. Don't let his creationist thinking scare you. (I'm not a creationist either, but if you want to learn things in the world, you have to be able to work with difference.)
Second: Unless you're a natural, you're going to need some personal (re-)training, most likely, about how to think about acting, creativity, invention, business, and so on; Be on the lookout for it. Investigate different
CS is an awesome field for this.... (Score:5, Interesting)
For example, for me, for the past few years I've been focusing on artificial intelligence, as in, figuring out the algorithm for how the brain works.
Another thing I've wanted to work on is figuring out if P=NP or not.
Another thing is figuring out the best way to teach programming to beginners (I even have my name on a paper in that field, for whatever it's worth)
Another thing that is relatively easy to do, and likely to get you published (which is kind of fun), is a wordprinting program on Shakespeare's works or some other works of disputed authorship.
On the more programming side, there are a number of things to do, for example, build a program to display all the temperatures taken in the world, along with pictures of the thermometers (apparently some guy went around and took pictures of them all). Show visually how the global temperature is taken.
Some of these are obviously really hard, but sometimes it's better to go for something hard that you really want to do. As the quote says, "shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll have landed among the stars." Even if you don't figure it out, you'll have learned something and pushed your limits.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
More generally, mathematics is an excellent field for amateurs, with tons and tons of accessible problems that can be solved with persistence. Check out some of Martin Gardner's books.
Brian Hayes has some similar explorations (http://bit-player.org/).
The chance to name something after yourself (Score:3, Insightful)
Biology is more promising, with many opportunities to discover new types of insect in your neighbourhood - or even in your garden. The hours are long, but any discovery has to be earned.
Macro photography (Score:2)
If you're mainly interested in learning new stuff for fun I would strongly advise you to try macrophotography. It does not have to be that expensive, and it is very fascinating to look or document insects and small things in a way that very few people actually get to experience.
You can get some really nice setups for very little money if you look at some diy projects.
Depending on where you live/travel you might even contribute to scientific discoveries :)
Aerodynamics (Score:2)
This is everyone I associate with (Score:3, Interesting)
Everyone who is a close friend of mine has these sorts of hobbies. My closest friend has built a complete sleep lab in his home, complete with a sensory isolation tank. This is just part of an extended effort on his part to more fully understand and explore his dreaming and other alternate states of mind.
In my opinion the most interesting things going on now are in biology and that's sort of home lab I am building.
Some specific suggestions (Score:3, Interesting)
First of all, everything previous posted about doing what you love is true. Figure out what you love first.
And the way to do that is to put yourself in a situation where you can't do anything for long periods. Take a 2-week vacation somewhere w/o internet access and little interaction with others - camping, for instance. It takes a couple of days for your mind to finish processing your daily routine and calm down, but once that's over your mind will naturally start to think about things you enjoy.
(Note: This is hard. You have to force yourself to not go off to get mental stimulation somewhere.)
Some specific suggesitons:
1) I strongly believe that there is a lot of low-hanging fruit in the subject of AI.
2) If you live near mountains, find an isolated ecological niche and catalog the species there. For instance, find a tall vertical rock cliff with niches which have captured trees and plants fallen from the top. Being essentially isolated from the larger ecology, speciation occurs at these places. Catalog the new species.
3) Go into the woods and find some sort of overhanging rock shelter - of the sort that a hunter-gatherer society might take refuge in during a thunderstorm. Do an archaeological excavation at that spot: Divide it up into rectangles using string, dig down an inch at a time and put the dirt through a sieve and see what you can find. Get any fireplace remains carbon dated.
And let me know if you find something (Score:2)
Replying to my own post, if you try any of the above and happen to find anything interesting, I'd love to hear about it.
Contact me through my homepage link, on the title of the post.
Patents (Score:2)
There is a reason why R&D projects generally are taken by large businesses: they have time and money to defend them. The days of buying the newest "toy" and making lots of scie
Look to nature (Score:2)
There are all sorts of fantastic contributions you can make simply through daily observation. Wherever you live, nature is happening all around you, and if you are so disciplined as to make daily observations about anything over a significant length of time, you WILL contribute. There are so many factors for which there simply isn't enough solid information. Even the freaking TEMPERATURE can vary ridiculously across short distances. If you have a stellar thermometer and the resources to record that regularl
Rent a Scope (Score:2)
A few years ago there was something on Nova about a New Mexico company that would rent out telescopes you can robotically control.
http://www.arnierosner.com/rent-a-scope/index.html [arnierosner.com]
I'm guessing you'll get better observing conditions than where you are.
Maths ! (Score:2)
New cellular automata rules (Score:3, Interesting)
While Conway's Life has been studied to death for 40 years and some wider categories of simple rules have been studied exhaustively by others, Golly [sf.net] enables you to explore much wider rule sets in the quest of some that are significantly more productive that Life.
For the past 18 months I've been using it to study just one of the Generations rules which were initially surveyed, especially by Mirek Wojtowicz [mirekw.com], around 2000. I'm focused almost entirely on Generations 345/3/6, running it on 3 machines including one added just for that purpose. But I've recently noted [youtube.com] that 345/2/4 may be even more productive in terms of novel phenomena, although I'm not planning to switch my own research which is nowhere near finished, let alone properly reported.
Beyond that, Golly also supports RuleTable and RuleTree algorithms which allow you to try an unlimited number of new rules, a few more of which are sure to be a lot more interesting than LIfe itself.
Been there, done that, writing the first paper (Score:2, Interesting)
Get Ahead! (Score:3, Funny)
Alternative energy (Score:3, Interesting)
The alternative energy movement was started at the grass roots, and continues to be led by backyard intentors. See youtube for micro hydro, solar concentrators, stirling engines, tesla turbines, and more. Fascinating area of science.
Look for an area that has gone out of fashion (Score:2)
My meta-suggestion would be to look for an area that has gone out of fashion. My actual suggestion (and it's not my area at all) would be relatively long wavelength radio science. Understanding the ionosphere and it's impact on short-wave radio and so on was a big deal 50 years ago, but is now fairly irrelevant. With modern digital equipment and some electronics skills you should be able to record and analyze a huge amount of data -- measure signal strengths and delays, deconvolve the signal to work out the
good luck! (Score:2)
You know, it seems that you could pick any area of study almost at random, and if you keep a good attitude about it all, keep it up, take good notes and above all retain a "beginner's mind" you'll stumble upon something at least semi-interesting sooner or later.
So forget about the nay-sayers, buy yourself a microscope or bunsen burner or tesla coil telescope or tig welder or co2 laser or whatever and have at it. Have fun! And good luck!
Don't discover: Innovate. (Score:3, Interesting)
Engineering on the other hand--coming up with a new way to use new tools--well, that's a very broad field, and the technologies are always so new that a novice can get in SOMEwhere. Some people say software engineering; if it was me, I'd look into the Makerbot project. If you can find ways to improve the production of Makerbots, or reduce the cost of their expensive components, you can help make them more ubiquitous in homes nationwide...and THAT will probably change the world a lot more than a fair number of scientific endeavors. Alternately, things like that protein folding game (Foldit?) that was mentioned on Slashdot a day or two ago could be a place to start.
Associate yourself with a team that can find a job for amateurs. Even if it's a very loose association, you'll need a support network in your field of choice...and, well, you need people to tell you when you're barking up the wrong tree. For example, if even half the backyard geniuses who try to expand on Tesla's creations had someone telling them which parts of their work had already been duplicated long, long ago, chasing them out of that line of questioning and onto another, we'd probably have mars colonies by now...
Try new things (Score:2)
Unfortunately for the real hard scientific research as in labs and universities, it would be far to costly and would take a minimum of a PhD. And if you did
Astronomy, using someone else's scopes. (Score:2)
There are companies that sell time on telescopes - Slooh and LightBuckets come to mind. Typically their scopes are well-sited and at least as big/capable as anything you're likely to have as an amateur. The CEO of LightBuckets (who isn't by any means a professional astronomer - he used to work for Norton/Symantec) was a classmate of mine in an astronomy class last year, and just for kicks, he used one of his company's telescopes to do a survey (14 hours of imaging over the course of a week) using a 24-inc
just do it (Score:2)
Just pick something you want to work on and do it. Doesn't matter what it is.
Build your own equipment (you might discover something along the way); or, troll through trash and scrap from "tech" companies, go to auction houses, online auctions, flea markets, and so on. I built my own furnace by starting with a $20 refurbished toaster oven and modifying it. I got a vacuum pump by acquiring a turbo pump station from trash (with permission of the company) and then salvaging and repairing the roughing pump.
Two words: (Score:2)
Data mining and number crunching, Variable stars (Score:3, Insightful)
After about a year Hubble data is available online. So is data from a bunch of world class instruments. Learning to reduce and data mine that data will allow you to potentially contribute. You have to be good enough to pick up on something that the experts have missed or haven't had time to analyse. Even the basic reduction isn't an easy thing to learn, especially on your own and unsupported by an institution.
If you want to collect original data you can always get into variable star observing. Chances are you will not make a discovery (though again you can go data mining) but if you collect data points they may be used to make a discovery. I don't know how long this will be relevant until nightly whole sky surveys take over but for now it's a good way to get involved. Start here http://www.aavso.org/ [aavso.org]
I agree with others who've stated that if your motivation is to get famous you're probably barking up the wrong tree. You may get lucky but your chances of winning lotto are better. That doesn't mean you can't contribute.
build your own satellite (Score:3, Interesting)
If you want to go the mad scientist route, build a satellite in your basement. It's about the same cost as buying a motorcycle ($8K including launch) and, as far as mid-life crises go, a lot cooler. I'm doing it ( http://projectcalliope.com/ [projectcalliope.com] ), and blogging about how it goes at http://scientificblogging.com/satellite_diaries [scientificblogging.com]
You get to learn neat stuff about electronics, Arduino-level programming, and HAM radio.
It's worth it just for when people ask what I do for fun...
Five Largest Hurdles to Science R&D at Home (Score:3, Insightful)
All that said, don't be discouraged and best of luck with your chosen field of research. If you do decide to turn to EEG feel free to contact me directly for more information or perhaps even to collaborate.
Cheers!
Lighting (Score:3, Interesting)
Just playing around with lights and plants got me one sweet job designing LED panels for growing stuff. Hopefully I get it ultra-efficient and get to put it in space one day!
ham radio (Score:3, Informative)
Don't kill yourself with ECG (Score:3, Informative)
Be careful with DIY ECG/EKG. You don't want to mess up and accidentally run too much current through your heart. Be sure that you use an optical decoupler to isolate the power source from the detector. (The way this works, IIRC, is you turn the electrical signal into light using an LED, then use a photodetector to convert that back into electricity, so there is no direct path of conduction between your heart and the ECG.)
Re:Do what you enjoy... (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know the answer. The areas of science that I could imagine practicing at home are well trodden. That's not going to stop me from making electromechanical things for fun, but I don't expect to change the the world with it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Almost all new comets are (or at least were) discovered via amateurs scanning the skies. Sure, today there are the automated telescopes scanning the skies, but they can't cover everything.
Amateur astronomers are very important to astronomy. Professionals deal with their studies and cosmology and planetary science. They don't have that much time to actually *look* at the universe. You can do lots of good astronomy even with basic equipment. For example, lunar grazing events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grazi
Re:Do what you enjoy... (Score:4, Interesting)
You've hit on kind of the sweet spot there. I agree with you that the scientific world seems to have had many of its boundaries pushed beyond the capacity of the average home experimenter, but the artistic world has no such boundaries. Fun and artistic electromechanical toys and hacks are still novel. Look at shows like Burning Man, sites like hackaday, magazines like Make:. They're filled with people interested in the act of creation. And last night my brother-in-law introduced me to Farm Show magazine (farmshow.com) which is a compendium of hacks and homebuilt machines that farmers have created out of necessity and imagination. It has a lot of really cool homemade things in it.
And if you're looking to monetize it, handmade and homemade mechanical equipment has a very visceral appeal to a lot of people. The potential to sell a unique device is high. And you can get involved for any amount of money, from repurposing junk bits from broken VCRs to building a nicely equipped machine shop.
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Seconded. But: There is no such thing as the “god-given talents” that this comment on the book mentions. In fact there are no “talents” at all. What we see as our talents, is just stuff where we, out of random luck, had a good balance of too hard and too easy tasks, and some positive personal associations with. But you can just as well balance that out yourself for something else.
The more of a close call the success is, the better.
I prefer to think what could be done better. E.g. thi
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Theoretical Physics/Maths (Score:2)
Special Equipment (Score:5, Informative)
There's another concern about special equipment as well -- for instance, in the US, some types of glassware needed to explore chemistry, and perhaps to some extent biology, have been classified as "drug paraphernalia" by our insane government. You can get in some rather severe legal binds because you honestly want to "do" science if you just go about it like an innocent person would.
One oft-quoted example is that it is illegal in Texas to own anything with a ground glass joint; the rumor is that you can get a permit to get around this, so that's something to try... of course, if they don't issue the permit, you've lost your anonymity and that's the end of anything that requires that type of glassware.
You can be sure there are rules and regulations about chemicals themselves, too. Heck, around here (Montana), if you buy a bottle of NyQuil at one pharmacy, then go to another and buy one, you're going to be arrested almost immediately. They presume, you see, that you are going to manufacture Meth. Apparently our legislators have never experienced cold symptoms. Or maybe they're just fucking retarded (based on other evidence, I generally go with the latter.) In any case, don't assume that you can buy some innocuous thing and no one will pay any attention. There's a whole world of surveillance and paranoia waiting to see what you might do. To you, it's pursuit of science, and noble. To the prosecutor, it's just a feather in their cap. Don't let those two worlds collide, ever.
Re:Special Equipment (Score:5, Interesting)
Obligatory non-attorney forum safe harbor clause from Ohio: You may need some kind of EPA or local permit for certain stuff, I have a metal finishing lab in my "laboratory" barn as that's my business, and it's where I test some ideas. I needed a permit from Ohio EPA, it was a total B**ch to get, but I really only needed it to make Sigma Aldrich happy. OEPA was mostly annoyed by my requests since I'm not a significant source of anything. It's really just a small fume hood, laboratory bench, power supply and beakers, but it works.
However, every summer I go through about 3 gallons of Clorox bleach per week for my pool, along with other household chemicals that could look specious to some people. Hey, a guy wants his pool to be comfortable.
Other than some weird looks from Walmart employees, I haven't had the Feds knocking on my door, and if they did I'd invite them to a cool dip in my crystal clear water heated by my DIY solar exchanger. After that they can take a look at my hydroponics lab with many gallons of nasty chemicals - such as Ammonia, HCL and various nitrates. On my bench in the greenhouse there's enough glassware to make any meth-manufacturer blush, all ordered from China via e-bay many times without so much as a what-for from anyone.
While they try to figure out what laws I may have broken, they can indulge on the myriad of nuts, citrus, and other good stuff I've got growing in northern Ohio. And before they leave I'd be happy to treat them to a rocket launch or two, as everyone loves those.
Long story short, it's still a mostly free country for the intrepid individual. Perhaps a survey course in physics, chemistry or biology at a local college is in your future?
IMO, and experience, any hobby that turns serious will burn your bank account like a NASA moon shot. If your married, I hope your wife is understanding, or at least has a separate bank account... otherwise you and your family may starve because of that last experiment you've got cooking in the barn.
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Heck, around here (Montana), if you buy a bottle of NyQuil at one pharmacy, then go to another and buy one, you're going to be arrested almost immediately.
That's nothing. Just north of you in Alberta if you ask for nasal decongestant without paracetemol (which I think you call acetominophen in the US) you get the third degree from the pharmacist because the paracetemol, as well as its medical effects, makes it harder to use for Meth manufacture. I've even had one pharmacist tell me to just get the stuff with the paracetemol added...at least until I asked him whether it was ethical for him to advise me to take unnecessary medication simply because he did not
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William, Shatner, is that, you ?
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Re:Speaking from my Personal Interests... (Score:4, Interesting)
A wonderful way to be a real hero in aquaculture right now would be to figure out how to discourage overrunning of popular native game and commercial fish by less desirable invasive species in the wild.
Snakehead are a real problem in the Southeastern US and silver carp are having a terrible effect in the Midwest. Snakehead are aggressive towards other fish, towards frogs, turtles, and all sorts of other creatures, and both parents protect the brood, too. They also have crude air-breathing capabilities so they can live in oxygen-poor water and move easily through shallows. Silver carp are better filter-feeders than native species, mass in huge numbers, and are actually a bit dangerous to small boats. They grow to about 40 pounds and all tend to jump out of the water as boats approach. Boats get damaged, and people in small boats have been knocked overboard.