New-new studio so close to being up and running ✨ be nice to see an end to the relentless moving and carrying and shelf building and to be back in the world

Some extreme hotel debugging going down for #alpaca2025 - come along to our public khipu play session with @Khipumancer tomorrow in the Sheffield Winter Garden 1-3pm

First bits in our new spot, welcome to the 'Propagation Studio', it is the nicest place we've ever been

We're happy to announce dates for Organised Atoms 2025 - free workshops for kids and their families and friends where we search for crystals, examine them under a microscope and make electronic noises with them! Location: United Downs Raceway, St Day, Cornwall (situated to the south east of St […]

Organised Atoms Workshops 2025, dates announced: see link for details and booking info! https://thentrythis.org/notes/2025/08/25/organised-atoms-workshops-2025/

Wondering what on earth was up with this, and then I remembered how much it rained on the last workshop #organisedatoms

OMG it's #organisedatoms time of year again

Penstruthal is an ancient mine, first recorded output is in 1825 but it was probably worked long before this. The ore (both copper and tin) here is found as veins within the Carnmenellis granite, not the country rock as elsewhere in the Gwennap mines just a few miles to the east. The dumps that […]

We only just moved studio, but unexpectedly then got offered one we've had our eye on for a whole decade... so from September we'll be heading out to Potager as our new work-home! It's a beautiful spot, with hammocks, a huge greenhouse to sit in, a fab […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

We're having a little studio warming on 16 Aug, 11am-2pm, at Gray's Wharf in Penryn - all welcome! It'll also be the launch for Drawings About Things (our new illustration and print offerings) so there will be lots of lovely textural print bits and bobs to take a look at.

We're excited to be hosting Alpaca conference from 12-20th September 2025, with a huge range of talks, workshops and performances exploring algorithmic patterns in the creative arts. Algorithms aren't just about computers, they're also used to make […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

We are doing #OrganisedAtoms again this summer, watch this space for dates! Family fun smashing rocks, crystal collecting, identification, microscopes, electronics and NOISE at United Downs Raceway, St Day, #Cornwall We are currently building some of […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

We're having a little studio warming on 16 Aug, 11am-2pm, at Gray's Wharf in Penryn - all welcome! It'll also be the launch for Drawings About Things (our new illustration and print offerings) so there will be lots of lovely textural print bits and bobs to take a look at.

The Royal Society used our game Nergal at their Disability & Technology report launch on 23 June 💚 This is to the best of our knowledge the first time a citizen science game has been made so folks with little or no sight can play and contribute data […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Spent the first half of the week up in London for the Royal Society Summer Exhibition opening night, where we were showing our game Nergal with the folks we made it with at the University of Edinburgh to their 800 or so visitors. Snuck some nergal hats […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Showing Nergal at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition opening night, managed to sneak some hats on the old dudes

Quite a nice surprise article about Nergal in The Scientist https://www.the-scientist.com/nergal-networks-where-friendship-meets-infection-72974

Just got the keys to our new studio, moving over the next 2 weeks 🌱

Frantic prop making is DONE for the Royal Society Summer exhibition in London next week, come say hi if you're nearby on the 1st from 6-10pm.

We've been making life size Nergals for the Royal Society Summer Exhibition (Oatly for scale 😆) https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2025/07/lates-nergal/

More info on our Nergal event at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition on the 1st July - come along and meet the nergals! https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2025/07/lates-nergal/ #citizenscience

Fun morning playing our virus outreach game #VirusCraft with local school children as part of @uniexecec.bsky.social @exeter.ac.uk Festival of Science (organised by @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social) - game made by fantastic @thentrythis.social.thentrythis.org.ap.brid.gy

We'll be showing Nergal at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition opening night in London on 1 July, 6-10pm - it's free, come along 🌟 https://thentrythis.org/events/nergal-at-the-royal-society-summer-exhibition/

Documentation just finished for how to build a SmogOff air pollution sensor. These have realtime displays of data, alternating with a smiley, neutral or sad face depending on how bad it is - designed to be put out on the street for local activism […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

A bit random - we have a 7m canvas bell tent for sale! It's unused, we had grand ideas of using it for outdoor events. If that sounds like something useful for you let us know. It is this one: https://boutiquecamping.com/products/multidoor-classic-bell-tent?variant=42884629790910 £750 ono (we […]

Just shipped out three bespoke smogoff pollution sensors to community groups around the UK https://thentrythis.org/notes/2025/05/07/smogoff-new-sensors-shipped-to-community-groups/

If your buddy becomes an editor at a Nature journal, your chances of publishing a Nature paper more than double: "For each additional original article published in the two years before the editor’s appointment, these authors had 161% more chances to publish another original article in this […]

New post - six prints showing the evidence basis for how we can better communicate climate/environmental issues (and a typeface!) https://thentrythis.org/notes/2025/04/30/manifesto-exhibition-communicating-our-changing-world/

Bit of light virus maintenance this morning ready for @uniexecec.bsky.social festival of science in a couple of months with @thentrythis.social.thentrythis.org.ap.brid.gy #VirusCraft project thentrythis.org/projects/vir...

Visionary, the national membership organisation for local sight loss charities, has a nice article out on our citizen science game Nergal, from the accessibility perspective […]

Fiddly process getting new SmogOff sensors designed, to hopefully build and get shipped out by the end of the week?! Balancing needing it to actually work, not look too-too bad, and be easy for people to make without specialist tools

Having an odd time with QR codes - this is a small one containing factory sensor calibration parameters that I *swear* I was able to read with a normal android app, and now (all three we have) seem unreadable by anything I try.... What am I missing?

Getting into making prints - these are part of an exhibition on this Tues/Weds at Lovepark in Falmouth, come along if you're around... 5 of the 6 prints outline ways we can do better at communicating climate/environmental issues, based on evidence […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Mongoose technology being prepared for mongoose behaviour research team in Uganda... big update for the Mongoose2000 system we built them for recording and syncing behavioural data back in 2014, been going strong for over a decade! Made to withstand […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Nice little article on our Nergal #citizenscience game in The Microbiologist: https://www.the-microbiologist.com/careers/nergal-science-communication-and-citizen-science-through-a-digital-game/5375.article

ROBOT KNOTS: in the @alpaca lab preparing for tomorrows Andean knots kids workshop at 'Everyday Algorithms' organised by @sk_ in Newcastle.

Oh, my @alpaca research funding with @thentrythis is extended an additional three years! Big things ahead..

Heading back from Manchester after tablet weaving workshop with maths education researchers with lots of good memories and one tantalising possibility... It's possible that tablet braids could be kind of time embedded expressions of group theory...

Tomorrow night @nebogeo will be streaming #OrganisedAtoms mine waste crystal semiconductor "glitch & scream" live from Cornwall, part of "Zero Volts" at @constant in Brussels: https://0v.constantvzw.org/ This will be followed by an up close and […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Seeking new players for Nergal! Each 5 minute game generates data for epidemiology and public health research, and new player data is particularly useful, so please spread far and wide 💚 There is also a 'night mode' for those with little or no […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

Sending an Organised Atoms 'startup package' to @constant for their "0v ⏚ zero volts" event ( https://constantvzw.org/site/0v-%E2%8F%9A-zero-volts.html ) A bag of conductive springs, amps and inverter circuits and 6 geological specimens of […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

24 tablet looms warped and ready for our "Thinking in Threads" workshop at Manchester Metropolitan University next week. As part of @alpaca we're going to be weaving with maths education researchers, and looking at how it can be used to explore mathematics differently.

“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when […]

Happy that Wataru Uegaki and I have some funding for a mini-project "Heritage language as natural code", investigating the boundaries between natural languages and programming languages.. Connecting e.g. multi-lingual poetry, drumming languages, live coding, language universals, ...

Today we're preparing for an upcoming @alpaca tablet weaving workshop about thinking in threads, part of this will be exploring simulations we've created like this one. It attempts to understand the complex twisting and weaving that gives rise to […] [Original post on social.thentrythis.org]

New-old project... we got a bit of funding to improve our SmogOff air pollution sensors, calibrate them to official council equipment, and ship them out to 3 community groups around the UK (who've been very patiently waiting for us to find funding to do this for them!) […]

635g of naturally grown Cornish semiconductor material for dispatch to Germany - a new collaboration! #organisedatoms

Ten minutes after lunch was ready and in classic AccessLab mode, everybody's still chatting and working - this is a group of farmers, artists, research scientists and one politics student 💚

Some progress weaving this three thousand year old tablet weaving pattern. The original was preserved in a salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria. It's much more complicated than more modern Viking patterns I'm a bit more used to. It feels strange to be walking in […] [Original post on post.lurk.org]

I've now had the pleasure of doing #CitizenScience by being a Nergal. It is such a cute and fun way to contribute to #Science and think about disease transmission, that you must give it a try. Great job @thentrythis.social.thentrythis.org.ap.brid.gy nergal.thentrythis.org #ParticipatoryResearch