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'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', ...
.
The academic book is a guide, which details the development of
free and open-source hardware
Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical 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 this open-source culture movement and a ...
primarily for
scientist
A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...
s and university
faculty
Faculty may refer to:
* Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage)
* Faculty (division), a division within a university (usage outside of the United States)
* Faculty (instrument)
A faculty is a legal in ...
. It provides step-by-step instructions on building
laboratory hardware and
scientific instruments. It also provides instructions on digital design sharing,
Arduino
Arduino () is an open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed und ...
microcontrollers,
RepRap
The RepRap project started in England in 2005 as a University of Bath initiative to develop a low-cost 3D printer that can print most of its own components, but it is now made up of hundreds of collaborators worldwide. RepRap is short for rep''lic ...
3D Printers
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...
for scientific use and how to use
open-source hardware
Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical 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 this open-source culture movement and a ...
licenses. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'' discusses how ideas in the ''Open-Source Lab'' could enable 3D printing to offer
developing-world
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
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 endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
''. 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-step co ...
"Build My Lab" Contest sponsored by
Tekla Labs
Tekla Labs (TeklaLabs.org) is a non-profit organization of researchers, educators and hobbyists committed to developing do it yourself (DIY) science infrastructure. Tekla Labs objective is to "enable scientists to construct their own high quality ...
.
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, prototyp ...
*
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