A day at the Maker Faire!

Verity Mitchell

The Maker Faire is an impressive gathering of inventors from all around the world. It was hard to know which stall to visit first! I started out my day at Genspace, a community biotechnology lab which aims to educate all age groups, from the young to the old. Here they were seeing what a bacterial imprint of your mouth would look like – which involved getting intimate with a petri dish! Everyone had the opportunity to return on the Sunday to see which bacteria had been living in their mouths. I had the chance to chat to some of the ‘makers’ at Genspace and learn more about what was going on in their main laboratories, including exciting ideas about the potential of hypoallergenic vegetables and biocrete (bacteria + cement = no more potholes because it grows back). Another biology stall was demonstrating how you can cheaply check the DNA of meat products to see which animal it is from, avoiding scandals like the horse meat lasagnes reported a few months ago. They showed how a small meat sample could be processed and its DNA compared against the DNA of other animals. You can then discover if your unknown sample matches what you think you are eating. The process involves a centrifuge, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), fluorescent markers and gel electrophoresis which were all explained really well by the makers. This allowed the process to be much more accessible and help educate the general public so you didn’t need a science degree to get involved.

I then moved onto the electronics section, which is very new to me. Bare Conductive have combined art with electronics by creating conductive paint. They had a great selection of cards which demonstrated the cool effect paint circuits could have. It’s also a great way for everybody to learn about circuits through drawing them, even young children as the paint is very safe. I certainly learned a lot! When you have grasped the basic techniques you could move onto a Raspberry Pi, a tiny computer unit originally designed to introduce programming to children, which I learnt all about by attending one of the talks running throughout the weekend. The company behind the Raspberry Pi encourages people to develop technology themselves and make it fit around their lives. People shared some great projects they had already undertaken such as monitoring systems for plant moisture, devices which allow you to control your oven via twitter and hoovers which can be programmed to clean while you’re out, all starting with a computer not much bigger than a credit card.

Finally I went to see exhibits about the future of toys, and just about any other objects you can think of! Makies are dolls designed completely by you to look like someone you know, or even a mini-me. You can choose everything including the shape of their face, eye colour, hair colour and clothes so you have a completely unique doll. Sculpteo then caught my attention with their 3D printers. These printers also allow you to create self-designed items so that everything you own feels that little bit more special and individual. They work by ‘printing’ really thin layers of the selected material on top of one another, a wide range of materials can be used in the process, building them up to create a 3D object. Just like a regular printer they can be programmed to print just about anything, so are only limited by our imaginations. One of the many things they currently provide are built-to-order iPhone cases which have millions of possible designs.

These were just a few of the highlights from my day which left me feeling very inspired to get out there and create something myself. Not surprisingly there was a company present who could help me to do this. Make Things Do Stuff are looking for young people who can create new digital technology rather than just consume what is already being marketed. Once you have managed to create something, an iPhone app called HowDo allows you to share your ideas with the community so that you can potentially make life easier for others. There truly was something for everyone at the Maker Faire, so next time it’s around get down there and be inspired.