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LEGO Contraption Allows Scientists To Safely Handle Insects
sciencehabit writes Researchers have built contraption from LEGOs that can move and rotate insects every which way while keeping them stable and positioned under a microscope. The design improves on previous insect manipulators because it's cheap, customizable, and easy to build. As natural history museums work on digitizing their voluminous collections—taking high-resolution photographs of each precious beetle, bee, and dragonfly in their possession—they have to handle insects repeatedly. Now the job will be easier on the entomologists, and more insect specimens will be able to hang on to their wings—all thanks to LEGOs.
I'll be "that guy" and point out that LEGO is its own plural.
Lego is likely quicker to use and more easily accessible than creating the same from "real" mechanical parts. So not necessary, but quicker and easier - and within the zero budget they likely had for doing this.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Technically, no they didn't need to use Lego to do this. But it was probably easier to build using Lego. And much easier for them to provide the plans for how to build it that anyone else can easily follow. (Which they do.)
It would be neat if the Lego picked up the idea and put together a special set that other people could purchase to make it even easier.
I dont know about you guys, but I think Emily is a babe. Totally my thing.
Yes yes yes, I KNOW that in this day and age, saying how I find her attractive makes me a misogynistic asshole sexist prick who deserves to die in a fire, but fuck you, I stand by my personal opinion.
Why are we adding an s?
Check out http://www.knex.com/. If you're basically just building frames, it might be the better toy^bol.
The headline is written such that it left me to think at first that it was for handling dangerous live insects (say, killer bees, fire ants, etc). The headline should really specify it is for handling insect specimens - or that the device ensures the safety of the insect rather than the handler.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Now how cool would that be?
LEGO is a trademark, you do not pluralise trademarks. The correct plural form of LEGO is LEGO or LEGO bricks.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Why?, its cheap and does what it is supposed to do, and building the proper components would proably take them up the same costs of the previious solution as you know making a factory that does that shits costs money.
Or they can just go to lego's homepage and order the pieces they want. And for more orders they could porbably just mail it to lego and say we want 100 bags of this lego sets
Quite right. In fact they pretty much imply that in TFS/TFA:
So the point is not so much that they used Lego to do something that could not be otherwise achieved, but rather that the Lego solution was cheaper, simpler and more flexible.
But yeah. It could absolutely be done, and presumably has been, without the use of Lego.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
No, they could have made it out of meccanoes.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Nah, for separate pieces you use BrickLink. Often far cheaper than the Lego website.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Why do you think acronym and abbreviation are synonyms?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
No, they are nothing like k'nex.
They are axles and joiners from lego technic
When I was a kid, I and all the other kids called them LEGOS. And today, I call them LEGOS. And if you don't like it, you can suck my NUTSACK. (In case you don't know, that's what I call my BALL BAG. I mean scrotum.)
I'll call Lego whatever I want, and I may just go photoshop some images with The Gimp too
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
One does not, nor did they, need Legos to do this.
I was all ready to make that same objection. I was going to say "it would have made more sense to 3d print it" or something like that. But then I RTFA (I know, I know) and discovered that you would actually be hard-pressed to improve on what they accomplished, because it is so very minimal. Lego gears are better than most of what you will wind up printing.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It would be neat if the Lego picked up the idea and put together a special set that other people could purchase to make it even easier.
They seem to be relatively responsive to demand these days, you should send them a suggestion. They might well add it to their educational line.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
My wife and I build things out of legos together all the time. Also, we let the kids participate. If anything is interfering with sex, it's the kids, not the legos.
And yes, I did say "legos" and not "LEGO bricks." I'm going to be contrarian on this point, because we don't need a bunch of pedantic slashdotters helping LEGO preserve their trademark. They can do that very well on their own, thanks. The rest of us have genericized it. Duplo blocks are legos. Megablocks are legos. Interlocking bricks that people make houses out of are legos. Sorry if for some reason you're a shill for the corporations and therefore don't like this.
Big corporations are not altruistic. They are sociopathic money-making machines. This includes Lego. And Apple. They don't need our love or support. If you like their products, buy them, but buyer always beware. These companies are not your friends.
Rapid prototyping, faster than 3D printing.
Pain unlike any other.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Maybe its because Im not an american.
Probably. I was just musing about the difference between American and British (and other) treatment of corporations' names. When we refer to them in the USA, we call a corporation a singular thing. When you refer to them in most other countries, you refer to a single corporation as multiple things, presumably in recognition that a corporation is actually made up of multiple people. But wait, that's not true at all! A corporation is a legal fiction. It's one thing, a piece of paper. When I say "IBM is blah blah blah" obviously what is happening is that some people at IBM are doing blah blah blah. But it is just plain wrong to say "IBM are blah blah blah" because IBM is a singular thing. It's a way of pretending to recognize that actual people are involved while still giving the credit to the corporation. The right way to say it would be to say "such and such people at IBM are" et cetera, which in fact is how we say it in American english.
The thing is, what actually makes sense is to either say "pass me that lego" or "pass me that brick", not "pass me that lego brick". You might reasonably use the latter form because there are no other bricks that you might be asking for, or the former because what you're asking for is clearly a brick d'lego. But "pass me that lego brick" is just redundant unless it's right next to a tire or a winch or something.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If it works, and it seems to work well enough, why spend the extra money and time?
Use the saved resources for other projects...
Researchers have built **a** contraption from **Legos** that
You use an article before a noun.
Legos is not an acronym. You do not capitalize all the letters in it.
Argh. Please. Proofread before you post.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
then* fine
Also, Lego is not an acronym like NASA. The OP and you should not capitalize all the letters in it.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Over the years, I've looked long and hard at Lego kits and parts. I've never found any that fit in a zero budget (thus my limited collection).
It however is a trademark, which the company has chosen should be all caps.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
More importantly, PAB doesn't have that wide of a selection. You almost have to go to BL for something that hasn't been put into a set in the last few years.
So, why then do you buy Lego? Or to you just liberate it (steal) from the evil megacorp?
http://www.acetonestudio.com
cuusoo ftw!
I buy them because I like them. I just don't feel I should have to go out of their way to protect their trademark.