Roger Bourland
writes about music and life

It is always interesting to me to see how sound effects the world around us. Here is an experiment called a Ruben’s Tube.

Check this out: here is a robot made by Takanishi Laboratories made to play the flute. S/He even has lungs. And lips, if you can call them that. And, well, there are all these other robot parts that if you are in the in-crowd in robotsville, you know what they mean (”5-DOF” means lips in […]

Looking for a VERY cool gift to give to an inquisitive child with latent herding tendencies? Look no further! Some of us old timers remember those plastic see-into ant farms. Well, times have changed and this little invention takes us to the next level. Think geek will sell you a space age ant farm for […]

Bruce Shapiro was a doctor for the first part of his life, and apparently now has turned artist. And an excellent one as well. Here is one little amusing aspect of his output from his website called “The Art of Motion Control” — drawing on eggs.

This fascinating invention courtesy Pink Tentacle.
The device, called AMOEBA (Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin), consists of 50 water wave generators encircling a cylindrical tank 1.6 meters in diameter and 30 cm deep (about the size of a backyard kiddie pool). The wave generators move up and down in controlled motions to simultaneously produce a number […]

Here is one of the photos that won the 2006 Biomedical Image Awards. It is a thrilling manifestation of life’s desire to reach out, expand, and know the universe.

Nerve cells
A cluster of special nerve cells called cerebellar granule cells, growing in culture. These cells naturally gather together, and when placed in a culture dish covered […]

For those of you with blogs or websites, or those who love to study logic structure, check out Websites as Graphs. This is what Red Black Window looks like. To put it in perspective, click here to see others. Here are some amazing ones.

For some strange reason, Grotrian has made available a cyber-piano-composition doohicky called a PIANOLINA that you can click on and drive everyone in your house crazy. It takes a piece of preexisting music and processes it one way or another, depending upon what it is that you do to it. I find it analagous to […]

If you are a patterns-in-nature enthusiast, or a fractal fan, or a weekend computerized-Jackson Pollock, visit Ian Timourian’s website. He calls it “Mandalabrot.net.” He pursues his own passion for the above via computer and the results are stimulating. He also features his influences floating along a time-line below.

Here is a four minute reminder as to why we don’t want nuclear or nucyoolar bombs.