David Szondy

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“The Era Of Crab Computing Is Upon Us”

April 18, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

"The scientists have exploited the natural behavior of soldier crabs to design and build logic gates." (Image by Peter Ellis.)

Using the predictable swarming patterns of soldier crabs, Yukio–Pegio Gunji of Kobe University has designed a very unorthodox analog computer. From David Szondy at Gizmag:

“Thanks to Yukio–Pegio Gunji and his team at Japan’s Kobe University, the era of crab computing is upon us … well, sort of. The scientists have exploited the natural behavior of soldier crabs to design and build logic gates – the most basic components of an analogue computer. They may not be as compact as more conventional computers, but crab computers are certainly much more fun to watch

Electricity and microcircuits aren’t the only way to build a computer. In fact, electronic computers are a relatively recent invention. The first true computers of the 19th and early 20th centuries were built out of gears and cams and over the years many other computers have forsaken electronics for marbles, air, water, DNA molecules and even slime mold to crunch numbers. Compared to the slime mold, though, making a computer out of live crabs seems downright conservative.”

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Soldier crabs in the Philippines:

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“The Idea Is To Find A Way To Create The Meat Without The Animal By Growing It Directly”

November 28, 2011 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Animal-free, factory-grown meat isn’t practical to produce yet, but it is coming. An excerpt from David Szondy’s new Gizmag article on the topic:

“Dr. Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, is one of a handful of scientists around the world working on the problem ofcultivating meat artificially in a laboratory. The idea is to find a way to create the meat without the animal by growing it directly. Speaking to the Reuters news agency, Dr. Post estimates that, if he succeeds, his first burger will cost a staggering $345,000, but when the technique is perfected and scaled up to industrial levels, economies of scale should kick in and make lab-grown beef (or pork or chicken or fish) as cheap, if not cheaper, than its four-legged counterpart. He also believes that the advantages of in vitro meat, as it is called, are such that it will go a long way toward alleviating world hunger and saving the environment.”

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