Todd's blog

A thoroughly revised and updated version of Duncan's book on radionics and the arts has been submitted to the printer today.

The previously titled "A SHORT HISTORY OF RADIONICS: INSIGHTS FOR ARTISTS WORKING WITH SUBTLE ENERGY" is re-dubbed "The Secret Art: A Brief History of Radionic Technology for the Creative Individual"

The manuscript finally being produced in physical form has been a herculean effort undertaken at the behest of Patrick Huyghe of Anomalist Books. The text and illustrations have taken shape over the past year through the direct labors of Duncan, Patrick, Mike Bossick, Jessica Paulk and myself.

The book should be ready in time for the upcoming opening of a museum show that Duncan has several artworks in. More information on the show will be available within the week.

Cycling '74 and Ableton announce Max for Live...

Max for Live puts the power and potential of Max/MSP inside Live. Create all the instruments, effects and extensions you've ever wanted. Go beyond the common and predictable, and transcend the limits that conventional tools impose. Build completely unique synths and effects, create algorithmic composition tools, or fuse Live and controller hardware into radical, new music machines. Join a society of makers and share ingenuity. Max for Live was co-developed by Ableton and Cycling '74.

link: Ableton - Max for Live

Technology Review: Spinning Silk into Sensors:

A simple process turns cocoons into optical devices with biological applications.
By Katherine Bourzac

Fiorenzo Omenetto on the steps of the Tufts bioengineering building, where he makes silk optical devices.
Credit: Porter Gifford

Silkworm cocoons shipped by the boxful from Japan to an optics lab at Tufts University will meet a different fate from those headed to textile factories around the world. Rather than being woven into curtains or clothing, the strong protein fibers that caterpillars once spun around themselves will be used to build optical materials that can serve as the basis for sensors and other devices. Bioengineer Fiorenzo Omenetto, who creates the devices, ultimately hopes to build implantable, biodegradable sensors that could help monitor patients' progress after surgery or track chronic diseases such as diabetes.

See how cocoons are turned into optical devices.

Watch Fiorenzo Omenetto explain his work in silk optics.

(Via Technology Review)

The Return of Amateur Science: "Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder explains how the natural tinkerers who built the web are starting to hack the world.
Last week, while browsing the Popular Science archives (which recently became available on Google), I noticed that the earlier issues of this 138-year-old magazine contained quite a few articles devoted to amateur science. The 1940s and 1950s were a heyday for basement-based research, with experiments such as making hydrogen gas, building a photomicrographic camera out of a stovepipe, constructing…

(Via GOOD - Blogs)

Scientists try to let the blind 'see' fish: "As brightly colored fish dart in and out of the rocks scattered in a small aquarium, a bewildering melody follows each of their movements.
Video here.
(Via USATODAY.com Science and Space - Top Stories)