When Los Alamos Scientists Make Toys

redpop350 writes: "Mark Tilden of Los Alamos National Labs {I had the privilege once of waiting on him in the local hardware store} has apparently come up with a new diversion. Here's the link to the story. Cool Toys! His earlier creations bore a lot of resemblance to these, and I am sure they will be fun." We've mentioned B.I.O. Bugs before, but this is some cool background to go along with them.

Comments

neat stuff

[Hadlock]

...requires 4 AA batteries though. these aren't the tiny (size of a deck of cards0 solarbotics you've seen before, they're closer in footprint size comparable to that of a sheet of paper.

would it be possible to get a solar panel from radio-shack (~6$) to trickle charge the bug while it's active, thus increasing battery life? 2 solar cells?

a nice vivisection of the BIO Bugs:

http://www.solarbotics.net/biobugs/default.htm

Re:Hate to sound like a fuddy duddy...

[joebp]

I'd like to know how he could have programmed responses like "fear of light" with a handful of discrete transistors.

It's neither `programmed' nor a `fear'. It's a simple circuit -- call it a neural net if you like -- and its results are anthropomorphosized by Humans into `fear', etc.

(IAABR - I am a BEAM robotist(?))

batteries not included

[Broadcatch]

Disposable batteries are terrible for the environment, but people seem to be buying more all the time. With the motors in this bug, it'll eat batteries like roach food.

I'd like to see a story on Slashdot about using rechargables instead - and how can we spread the meme to get others to use them? I like the NiMH batteries I get from Thomas Distributing - I've used two sets I bought for my digital camera for over two years and over 14,000 pictures - and they recharge in two hours!