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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | J U N E 2 0 1 5
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STRESS RELIEF
3D-PRINT YOUR LAPTOP
Using PLA filament, a small London-based team 3D printed their own
Raspberry-Pi-based laptop, with a battery life of six to eight hours and Wi-
Fi enabled out of the box. It is being sold as a kit—a Raspberry Pi-powered
laptop kit “you build yourself” called the Pi-Top—which includes a 13.3-in.
screen, keyboard, and touchpad.
Creators note the hardest part was “getting the support structure right
so it could survive the beating and pressure that a normal laptop experi-
ences.” The team printed the initial prototype using a Rostock Max V2 Kit
with an E3D metal hotend. The laptop shell was printed out of PLA filament
during a 160-hour time span, with 0.2-mm layers and 30% infill. The shell is
printed in three separate pieces, two at the same time and the larger piece
on its own. .
BOB DYLAN ON SCIENCE
An internal contest between a band of researchers at Karolinska Insti-
tutet (KI), Stockholm, will choose one winner for quoting Bob Dylan in the
most scientific articles before going into retirement. Seventeen years ago,
Jon Lundberg and Eddie Weitzberg, today both professors at KI, had an ar-
ticle published in Nature Medicine titled Nitric Oxide and Inflammation: The
Answer is Blowing in the Wind.
“We both really like Bob Dylan, so when we set about writing an arti-
cle concerning the measurement of nitric oxide gas in both the respiratory
tracts and the intestine, the title fit perfectly,” says Weitzberg. A few years
later they saw an article written by Jonas Frisén and Konstantinos Meletis,
both working in other departments at KI. “The title was Blood on the Tracks:
A Simple Twist of Fate—a Bob Dylan song, and the article contained addi-
tional Dylan references,” Weitzberg notes. Lundberg and Weitzberg then
emailed Frisén to launch the internal competition. “It’s important that the quote is linked to the scientific content, and that it rein-
forces the message and raises the quality of the article as such, not the reverse,” says Frisén. The winner will be treated to lunch at
a popular Swedish restaurant. .
FOOTBALL-SIZED ROBOT AIDS SHIP SECURITY
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, researchers unveiled an
oval-shaped submersible robot, a little smaller than a football, with a flattened
panel on one side so that it can slide along an underwater surface to performultra-
sound scans. Originally designed to look for cracks in nuclear reactor water tanks,
the robot could also inspect ships for the false hulls and propeller shafts that
smugglers frequently use to hide contraband. Due to their small size and unique
propulsion mechanism—which leaves no visible wake—the robots could be con-
cealed in clumps of algae or other camouflage. Fleets of them could swarm over
ships at port without alerting smugglers and giving them the chance to jettison
their cargo. .
Jonas Frisén, Konstantinos Meletis, Jon Lundberg, Ken-
neth Chien, and Eddie Weitzberg. Courtesy of Gustav
Mårtensson.
Screen shot from an animated video shows how
the robot could be used to perform ultrasound
scans. Courtesy of the researchers.
The Pi-Top, a laptop you 3D print yourself, has all the
functions of a normal laptop.