The ''Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs'' by
Joshua M. Pearce was published in 2014 by
Elsevier
Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...
.
The academic book is a guide, which details the development of
free and open-source hardware primarily for
scientist
A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
s and university
faculty. It provides step-by-step instructions on building
laboratory hardware and
scientific instruments
A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research.
History
Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, an ...
. It also provides instructions on digital design sharing,
Arduino
Arduino () is an Italian open-source hardware and open-source software, software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardwar ...
microcontrollers,
RepRap
RepRap (a contraction of ''replicating rapid prototyper'') is a project to develop low-cost 3D printers that can print most of their own components. As open designs, all of the designs produced by the project are released under a free software l ...
3D Printers for scientific use and how to use
open-source hardware
Open-source hardware (OSH, OSHW) consists of physical artifact (software development), artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by th ...
licenses. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' discusses how ideas in the ''Open-Source Lab'' could enable 3D printing to offer
developing-world scientists savings on replica lab kits. The Open-Source Lab book has been covered extensively by the media. It was one of the top books chosen by Shareable for "New Books About Sharing, Cities and Happiness".
The book itself is not open source and is sold under copyright by Elsevier.
Claims
The author claims the method enables researchers in every discipline to develop research tools at low costs following his previous research in open-source hardware published in ''
Science
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
''. These claims have been generally supported by others using the techniques, such as those in the
DIYbio community. While discussing the book in an interview with ''3-D Printing Industry'', Pearce has claimed to save thousands of dollars in his own lab, and his various studies on the economics of printing lab equipment, such as a ''
PLOS ONE'' article on open-source optics have generally found over 90% savings. A study on the use of 3D printing in this context cited this book as also being good for the environment.
Chapters
# Introduction to Open-Source Hardware for Science
# The Benefits of Sharing—Nice Guys and Girls do Finish First
# Open Licensing—Advanced Sharing
# Open-Source Microcontrollers for Science: How to Use, Design Automated Equipment With and Troubleshoot
# RepRap for Science—How to Use, Design, and Troubleshoot the Self-Replicating 3-D Printer
# Digital Designs and Scientific Hardware
# The Future of Open-Source Hardware and Science
Uptake
Copies of ''Open-Source Lab'' were a prize in an
Instructables
Instructables is a website specializing in user-created and uploaded do-it-yourself projects, currently owned by Autodesk. It was created by Eric Wilhelm and Saul Griffith and launched in August 2005. Instructables is dedicated to step-by-ste ...
"Build My Lab" Contest sponsored by Tekla Labs.
See also
*
List of open-source hardware projects
This is a list of open-source hardware projects, including computer systems and components, cameras, radio, telephony, science education, machines and tools, robotics, renewable energy, home automation, medical and biotech, automotive, prototypi ...
*
Open-notebook science, an open science technique
References
External links
* {{Official website
*
''Open-source Lab'' at Appropedia
2014 non-fiction books
Computer science books
Elsevier books
Free culture movement
Open-source hardware
Electronics books