Symmetrical Gear Spins One-Way, Harvesting Surrounding Chaos

Here’s a novel ratchet mechanism developed by researchers that demonstrates how a single object — in this case a gear shaped like a six-pointed star — can rectify the disordered e…

Secret Messages On Plastic, Just Add Tesla Coil

Here’s a short research paper from 2013 that explains how to create “hydroglyphics”, or writing with selecting surface wetting. In it, an apparently normal-looking petri dish is t…

Droplet Watch Keeps Time Via Electrowetting

Hackers just can’t help but turn their sights on timepieces, and [Armin Bindzus] has designed an electrowetting-based watch. Electrowetting is a way of changing the contact angle of droplets …