Space is busier than ever before.

In the latest edition of the global space race, private actors have joined the game. But space as the next frontier for businesses comes at a price. As debris in orbit continues to increase and more fossil-fuel-powered rockets are sending celebrities into space, what will happen to our ecosystems on Earth? Should the galaxy really only be in the hands of a few, and if not, what happens if everyone can join in?

In this deep-diving episode of Open Hardware Talks, we go beyond Earth's atmosphere to explore how open source technologies are shaping the space of tomorrow. We're joined by Eleftherios Kosmas from Libre Space Foundation, an Athens-based organisation developing and sharing open source space technology, alongside Pen-Yuan Hsing, who researches and advises on Open Science and Citizen Science, and Dr. Elena Cirkovic, a researcher at the Department of Law at Aarhus University, Denmark, who's exploring the legal side of space usage, maintenance and sustainability. 

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

As the right to repair gained political momentum, it obliged companies to share design files and repair guides with every new device. But what about the right to upcycle older technologies?

With the power of machine learning, computerised microscopes are increasing efficiency and accuracy in scientific research. However, commercially available microscopes often come with a large price tag, rendering them inaccessible to labs or institutes on a budget. Instead, an interdisciplinary team at UC Santa Cruz in California decided to explore what it would take to turn legacy microscopes into modern devices fit for the needs of the 21st-century research lab.

In this episode of HardwareX, Samira Vera and Drew Ehrlich from UC Santa Cruz in California join us to talk about the challenges of microscopy, the promise of machine learning, and how open-source-driven upcycling can benefit research.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

MedTech has an accessibility problem. 

Life-saving medicine, groundbreaking diagnostics technologies and much-needed lab equipment at the hands of profit-driven companies and oligopolies. What are the consequences of betting human health on proprietary markets, and what alternatives can open-source offer?

In this Open Hardware Talks, Lukas Winter (Open Source Imaging Initiative), Joe Knapper (OpenFlexure) and Anthony Di Franco (OpenInsulin) discuss challenges in healthcare accessibility, the benefits of open source approaches, and the potential future impact on medical technology, with examples from their succesful open-source projects - an OS low-field MRI system, an OS microscope and an OS protocol for insulin.

Open Source Imaging Initiative: Access to MRI systems remains highly unequal between regions, countries and the global north-south divide. Millions of people are denied diagnostic healthcare, and crucial research faces constant roadblocks, as scientists struggle to compare results between closed 'black box' systems.

OpenFlexure: Optical microscopes are an essential tool for scientific analysis and the detection of diseases in clinics, yet access to high-performance microscopy is limited in much of the world due to high up-front and maintenance costs and brittle supply chains. 

OpenInsulin: Most of the world's insulin supply currently relies on the profit-driven business model of three companies. As a result, struggling economies remain undersupplied, and, when a drug is pulled from the market, patients are left shuffling to find alternatives, as seen with the removal of Levemir by Novo Nordisk from the US in 2023. 

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

How can we elevate life quality for patients in some of the world's most underserved regions?

Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) is a proven and efficient method for treating chronic wounds. This is particularly useful in low- and middle-income countries, where diseases like leprosy, limited healthcare, low infrastructure and poverty combine to make chronic wounds and commonality. 

Devices for treatment are costly, overly complicated and not built to serve the regions that need them the most. 

Amid frequent power cuts, Dr Suraj Mahajan and Lead Biomedical Engineer Arjan Knulst of the Green Pastures Hospital and Rehabilitation Center (part of International Nepal Fellowship), join HardwareX via connection from Nepal to share the motivation, process and intended impact of WOCA - a fully open-source NPWT device designed in close collaboration with the Delft University of Technology, and with Nepal's citizens in mind.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Open Hardware Talks is back. This series invites interdisciplinary experts and advocates to a roundtable discussion on the most relevant topics in open-source hardware.

Discoverability: How To NOT Reinvent the Wheel.

Open and collaborative development promises to accelerate innovation by allowing individuals and teams to share new ideas, build on top of existing ones and improve designs according to multiple use cases. So, how do you find out what is already out there? And what can make your design easier to discover for the right collaborators?

In this roundtable talk, Victoria Jaqua (Open Source Medical Supplies, Global Distributed Tracking), Robin Vobruba (Open Know-How, Open Source Ecology Germany), and Nathan Parker (Open Know-How, Internet of Production Alliance) sit down to discuss the challenges, potential and possible consequences of making an open-source hardware design more discoverable.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Much like plants can turn carbon into energy, researchers have been striving to scale the potential of photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Promising as the technology may be, little progress has been made to scale its potential. If the net human-caused CO2 reduction target of 45 % from 2010 levels is to be reached by 2030, the science must be shared.

That is the notion that propelled Prof. Dr. Jennifer Strunk and Dr. Nikolaos Moustakas PhD, former research colleagues at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT), to open-source their High-Purity Gas-solid Photoreactor design. In this episode, we journey to Rostock in the north of Germany to see the reactor in action and to unfold the possibilities and limitations of reducing carbon using the power of nature.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Did you know that honey bees dance?

When honey bees return to the colony from foraging, they share info about their journey with their fellow honey bees by dancing. Besides getting the boogie on, however, little is known about how far honey bees go foraging and what ecological factors impact their journey, e.g. pesticide exposure.

In this episode of HardwareX, Entomologist Margarita López-Uribe, Ph.D., specialised in bee species, together with Doctoral Student of Electrical Engineering, Diego Penaloza Aponte, of Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, explain how open-source technologies and collaboration across scientific fields helped pave the way for an automated low-cost monitoring system - and what it takes to tag 6000 bees without getting stung.

To explore the specifics, check out the hardware on HardwareX.

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt via Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

The advancement of low-cost sensors has sparked a boom in air quality monitoring devices. From backpack add-ons to citizen bicycles, air quality devices are enabling citizens to get involved in monitoring local air quality.

When looking at global air quality maps, however, the data for South America and Africa remain scarce. As primarily consumer-based products, these devices remain subject to demand and supply, limiting access to local air quality and air pollution for those who need them the most. Though the number of open-source designs is growing, incomplete and non-standardised documentation renders many viable designs unusable.

In this episode, Colombia-based Engineering Physicist, MSc., Daniel Mauricio Pineda, takes us through the design of a fully documented, open-source air quality monitoring device that allows for remote data gathering and customisation.

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt via Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

What if research labs didn't have to reinvent the wheel all the time?

Rodents like mice and rats play a pivotal role in neuroscientific research. Through a process known as 'head fixation', scientists surgically implant cannulas and electrodes to measure neurophysiological activity. As mice share roughly 95% of our DNA, head fixation experiments greatly contribute to advancing our understanding of the human brain and diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

While head-fixation is common in many labs, proprietary systems are often expensive and inconsistent. This leads many labs to create ad hoc DIY systems at the risk of causing harm to the research animals and impeding the results.

In this episode, we sit down with Zack (Isaac) Weaver, PhD, to explore the ethical and design-specific considerations behind his open-source head gear fixation system. With animal well-being in mind, we explore the multi-stakeholder benefits of open-source hardware in research.

Open-source hardware is a collaborative effort. A special thanks to co-authors Michael R. Tadross and S. Aryana Yousefzadeh and all the labs and members who contributed to the design by trying and testing various iterations.

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt via Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Did you know that our understanding of basic functions such as memory, learning and sleep is largely thanks to a giant sea slug?

For more than 50 years, Aplysia Californica, a type of slug also known as the California Sea Hare, has been important for understanding how the nervous system works and for investigating the cellular and molecular basis of behaviour. As an essential resource for neurological disease research across the globe, there are large incentives to preserve the species, including sampling and storing its genetic material.

This is easier said than done, as the Sea Hare's genetic material is both delicate and complicated to handle. Cryopreservation methods are simultaneously advancing too slowly, leaving researchers worrying that the field of neurophysiology is running out of time.

Together with Marine Biologist Jack Koch, we take a look at a standardised open-hardware solution that allows for easy sampling and packaging of genetic material for cryopreservation research. Diving into the world of Aplysia Californica, we explore open-source hardware as a revenue stream, and how going open can benefit more than one species.

The design published in HardwareX was made possible through work partly funded by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) and completed in partnership with the NIH National Aplysia Resource.

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt via Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Urgent needs require urgent solutions, but is open-source always the answer?

The UN aims to eradicate malaria in all countries by 2030. However, in some parts of the world, incidents are increasing as the parasites transmitting the disease grow increasingly tolerant to treatment drugs.

A novel treatment method using microwaves to kill the parasite shows promising results. One that could save both lives and economies in Africa, where a majority of malaria incidents and deaths are registered each year. With the release of an open-source portable device for studying the malaria parasite’s growth inhibition via microwave exposure, researchers hope to accelerate the development of a deployable treatment device sooner rather than later.

In this episode of HardwareX, Biochemist and researcher Dr Carmenza Spadafora joins us from her home in Panama as she explains how quantum physics and technological innovation have paved the way for a potentially groundbreaking new method for malaria treatment. A patented method, Dr Spadafora shares her thoughts on why open-source might not always be the best choice.

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt and ComaStudio via Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

How inclusive are advanced prosthetics technologies?

The global demand for prosthetics and orthotics is only expected to rise. Yet, access to affordable and innovative solutions varies greatly at local, national and international levels. And while 3D printing has greatly contributed to making prosthetics available in low-income and developing regions, the benefits that robotics and technological innovation bring users remain highly exclusive.   

This may be about to change. In an attempt to make high-tech prosthetics solutions more accessible, Professor in Biomechatronics at the University of Agder in Norway, Filippo Sanfilippo, along with his colleagues (Martin Økter, Jørgen Dale, Hua Minh Tuan, Muhammad Hamza Zafar, Morten Ottestad) have published an open-source, low-cost sensorised elastic actuator design that promises to shift innovation from the market to the commons.

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt and ComaStudio via Pixabay. 

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

What does it take to make research catch up with climate change?

The Arctic regions hold crucial information about the environmental impact of rising temperatures. Calving glaciers and treacherous territories make it a life-threatening mission to collect it though.

As autonomous technologies improve, drones, boats and rovers are increasingly being deployed in place of humans to sample, monitor and manage marine and aquatic systems. However, as costs can range in the millions, the value these technologies can provide researchers is relevant to their cost. That is why Daniel F. Carlson and Claus Melvad put it to a group of engineering students at Aarhus University in Denmark to design a low-cost, lightweight and replicable drone for accompanying them on missions to Greenland. In this episode, we take a look at the Naval Operating Research Drone Assessing Climate Change (NORDACC) and discuss how open-source principles coupled with citizen science could accelerate climate change research - and results.

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt and ComaStudio via Pixabay. 

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Why did high-tech farming go bust?

Vertical Farming was one of the big new technologies of the early 2010s. By growing crops vertically with less water and no pesticides, big vertical farms promised to revolutionise food production. So why are the same vertical farms going bust across Europe and the US just ten years after they boomed?

In this episode, we journey to Cambridge University in England to meet Vijja "Pat" Wichitwechkarn. An AI researcher working on agricultural robotics, he has developed a fully automated and scalable indoor farming system - MACARONS - published on HardwareX. In this episode, we address why vertical farming keeps missing the goal, and how open-source technologies could propel it to become the food tech solution we all hoped for.

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt and ComaStudio via Pixabay. 

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Welcome to a new HardwareX podcast series: Open Hardware Talks.

In addition to our regular episodes exploring open-source hardware projects, we're launching a new deep-dive series. Open Hardware Talks explores key concepts of open-source hardware in casual conversations with experts and practitioners from across the ecosystem.

For the first episode in this new series, we ask: How do you validate the openness of a given hardware? To explore this, we're joined by Sid Drmay and Lee Wilkins from the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) which maintains the open-source hardware certification recognised by practitioners globally, including us here at HardwareX. As a bonus, Martin Häuer from Open Source Ecology Germany (OSEG) joins to present the DIN SPEC-3105; the world's first open-source standard.

Don't forget! OSHWA is also behind the annual Open Hardware Summit, the world’s first comprehensive conference on open hardware. A hybrid event, most talks and discussions are also available online.

2024 Open Hardware Summit
May 3rd-4th
Montreal, Canada

For more info on how to join, check out the links below.

• Attend the Summit: https://2024.oshwa.org/attend-the-summit/
• Open Hardware Summit YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/user/opensourcehardware
• OSHWA Discord: https://discord.com/invite/bMK7NqFWG9

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt via Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

How can we make life-saving medical equipment more accessible in areas under blockade, with low infrastructure, or with limited resources?

In a time where almost every region in the world is seeing a rise in conflict, tourniquets have become increasingly necessary for avoiding excessive civilian casualties. Yet, proprietary tourniquets remain largely geared toward male military personnel, not women and children. Even if this changes, proprietary tourniquets remain expensive and largely inaccessible in regions where they are needed most.

In this episode, Dr Tarek Loubani of Glia and Victoria Jaqua of Open Source Medical Supplies (OSMS) take us from Gaza to Ukraine as we explore the development, testing and scaling of the open-source tourniquet and the open-source tourniquet tester published on HardwareX.

This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt and ComaStudio via Pixabay. 

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this episode, we talk to the creators of Studio HILO that offers open source technologies for local yarn production, along with remote workshops and vocational training to facilitate user-driven experimentation. Our three guests are Sara Diaz Rodriguez (co-founder of Studio HILO, textile design and technologies consultant), Natalija Krasnoperova (co-founder of Studio HILO, innovation and coaching consultant), and Lukas Schattenhofer (member of Open Source Ecology in Germany managing the certification program for open source hardware).

The host and content creator is Dr. Sanli Faez who is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Utrecht University. The post-editing and production was handled by Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University. The theme music is provided by Oleksandr Savochka from Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this fourth episode of HardwareX Season 2 podcasts, our guest is Chet Udell who is an Assistant Professor of Biological and Ecological Engineering at Oregon State University (USA). Dr. Udell is the Director of the Openly Published Environmental Sensing (OPEnS) lab at his university. His lab is an NSF and USDA funded Makerspace led by a staff of over 30 undergraduate researchers across Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Biological and Ecological Engineering, and Humanitarian Engineering. Dr. Udell is also the co-founder and CEO of Stratos Instruments, LLC and an Associate Editor of the journal HardwareX. For this episode, the host and content creator is Dr. Sanli Faez who is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Utrecht University. The post-editing and production was handled by Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University. The theme music is provided by Oleksandr Savochka from Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this third episode of HardwareX Season 2 podcasts, our guest is Katrina Laganovska from the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, Riga LV-1063, Latvia . She is the first author of an HardwareX article titled “Portable low-cost open-source wireless spectrophotometer for fast and reliable measurements” along with co-authors Aleksejs Zolotarjovs, Mercedes Vázquez, Kirsty Mc Donnell, Janis Liepins, Hadar Ben-Yoav, Varis Karitans, and Krisjanis Smits from Latvia, Ireland, and Israel.
For this episode, the host and content creator is Dr. Sanli Faez who is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Utrecht University. The post-editing and production was handled by Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University. The theme music is provided by Oleksandr Savochka from Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this second episode of HardwareX Season 2 podcasts, our guest is Diego Lagos-Susaeta who is affiliated with the Centre for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (CeBiB), Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Materials, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. Our guest is the first author of an HardwareX article titled “openPFGE: An open source and low cost pulsed-field gel electrophoresis equipment” along with co-authors  Oriana Salazar and Juan A. Asenjo from the same university. For this episode, the host and content creator is Dr. Sanli Faez who is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Utrecht University. The post-editing and production was handled by Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University. The theme music is provided by Oleksandr Savochka from Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this first episode of HardwareX Season 2 podcasts, our new host is Dr. Sanli Faez who is the Assistant Professor (tenured) of Physics at Utrecht University. Our guests are Dr. Joshua Pearce and Dr. Todd Duncombe who are the Editors-in-Chief of HardwareX and have edited the Special Issue: COVID-19 Medical Hardware. We also invite Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering (Iowa State University) and was the host/producer of the HardwareX Season 1 podcast episodes. Dr. Joshua Pearce is the author of the Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs, Create, Share, and Save Money Using Open-Source Projects, and To Catch the Sun, an open source book of inspiring stories of communities coming together to harness their own solar energy, and how you can do it too!  For this episode, the content creation and interviewing was done by Dr. Sanli Faez, while the post-editing and production was handled by Dr. Santosh Pandey. The music is provided by Oleksandr Savochka (Alex_MakeMusic) from Pixabay.

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Dr. Matheus Carvalho who is a Senior Research Associate at the Southern Cross University in New South Wales, Australia. He is affiliated with the Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry Research, Environmental Analysis Laboratory, and Southern Cross Analytical Research Services. His research interests have been to improve the understanding of photosynthesis and respiration by algae. In particular, he has developed, together with his colleagues Kai Schulz and Bradley Eyre, an approach to obtain new and old respiration estimates for the entire ocean. He also has a keen interest in laboratory automation. In collaboration with his colleague, Rachel Murray, he created an affordable open-source microsyringe autosampler for liquid and gas sampling. Dr. Carvalho serves on the editorial board of HardwareX. This podcast episode was recorded, edited, and produced by Santosh Pandey from Iowa State University. The music is provided by Twisterium from Pixabay (Title: Cheerful).

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Dr. Joong Ho Shin and Won Han. Dr. Shin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pukyong National University, South Korea. Dr. Shin is an expert in microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip, biosensors, diagnostic devices, biotechnology and molecular biology. His work has been published in very reputable journals in these fields. In April 2021, his team published a paper in HardwareX titled “Low-cost, open-source 3D printed antibody dispenser for development and small-scale production of lateral flow assay strips”. The authors are Won Han and Joong Ho Shin. This podcast episode was recorded, edited, and produced by Santosh Pandey from Iowa State University. The music is provided by JuliusH from Pixabay (Title: Sunrise - Ambient Grand Piano and Pad Music).

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Pete Marchetto who is a Research Engineer and Instrumentation Scientist with Conservify, and Principal at Sensing, LLC. His research interests lie in environmental sensing, and creating tools for those in the life sciences who need them. Some of his projects have included applying automated imaging and high-throughput measurement techniques for plant phenotyping, assessing plant stress, and remote health monitoring of poultry, livestock, and farm animals. Dr. Marchetto has published a number of interesting papers in HardwareX which are available freely through Open Access. This podcast episode was recorded, edited, and produced by Santosh Pandey from Iowa State University. The music is provided by jorikbasov from Pixabay (Title: Relaxing Corporate Ambient).

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Andrew Hill and Peter Prince from Open Acoustic Devices, which is a UK-based company that designs, supports and deploys open-source acoustic hardware and software for our user community, as well as our own environmental and wildlife monitoring projects. In October 2019, their team published a paper in HardwareX titled “AudioMoth: A low-cost acoustic device for monitoring biodiversity and the environment”. The paper is part of the Special Issue on Open-Hardware for Environmental Sensing and Instruments edited by Chet Udell and Shannon Hicks. Their product, AudioMoth is a low-cost, full-spectrum acoustic logger that can listen at audible frequencies, well into ultrasonic frequencies. This podcast episode was recorded, edited, and produced by Santosh Pandey from Iowa State University. The music is provided by JuliusH from Pixabay (Title: Spirit Of Autumn - Ambient Chill Out Music for Fall).

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.