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Build Your Own Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Posted by michael on from the puts-other-build-your-own-stories-to-shame dept.

I don't want to spen writes "For all you fans of nanotech out there, a friend just posted me a link to instructions for building a scanning tunnelling microscope, from the University of Muenster. Interestingly, their licensing terms sound open source-ish to me: '(... We grant everybody the right to construct the microscope using the here-published design for private or educational purposes. On these web pages all necessary diagrams, drawings, material descriptions and software-source-codes are published for free access. While granting the right to build the microscope we make it mandatory that new developments, improvements or other applications of our design are also made openly available for private or educational purposes...)'"

4 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. HA HA!! by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    My httrack beat your /. effect!!

    I win!!

  2. Open source / Free Software != Non-commercial by ispel · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    From FSF
    ``Free software'' does not mean ``non-commercial''. A free program must be available for commercial use, commercial development, and commercial distribution. Commercial development of free software is no longer unusual; such free commercial software is very important.

    OSI talks a lot about including open software in the commercial world.

    Closing free software to commercial entities is an idea roundly rejected by modern free software thinkers.

  3. anybody know if Spirit made it? by ch-chuck · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    should have landed a few minutes ago - cant find any news.

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  4. The microscope I want by steveha · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Forget STM, I just want a microscope to play with.

    I have a QX3+ toy microscope. You plug it in to USB. I have heard that Linux can talk to it like any other USB camera (this one just happens to be built into a microscope) so I'm going to give that a go.

    But what I really want is a microscope like the ones I used in biology classes, not a plastic toy. I want little knobs that move the stage around, rather than pushing the slide with my fingers. And I want a really high resolution camera.

    eBay is probably a good place to find an affordable microscope; it could be used and I wouldn't care. But I have no idea how to tell which one is a good deal (I'm a computer geek, not a microscope geek). Any advice on what brand or model of microscope? And any advice on what sort of camera mount I could get?

    Instead of a USB web cam, I'm thinking I should use a nice digital camera, such as a Nikon Coolpix 990. But I'm worried it would be top-heavy and would tip over easily. So pointers to a lightweight camera that can be attached to a microscope would also be welcome.

    steveha

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely