Engineering misconceptions: 1) we all wear hard hats all the time 2) we all get our hands dirty all the time 3) we are all male 4) we are all 'boffins' 5) we can count and follow instructions.

Incredible chart (from otherwise depressing news story about bad advice being given to new parents) showing how cot deaths fell by 50% in the first year after the 'Back to Sleep' campaign was launched, and have continued to fall since. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A mega packed May in European Robot Combat! bbb.gd/events Possibly the most countries ever with a Spanish debut and the return of Belgium and Portugal! 🇬🇧🇳🇱🇪🇸🇱🇹🇨🇭🇨🇿🇮🇹🇵🇹🇱🇻🇧🇪🇳🇴

More #art. A cute blåhaj with a #trans rights message in the pink notebook I only draw on with blue and pink, which is SO NEARLY FINISHED. (And then what do I do?)

I'm at another First Tech Challenge robot event today. I'm helping in the Robot Hospital, fixing broken bots! Our hosts, American School in London, have provided an amazing stock of spare parts.

Been working on my Hacky Racers autonomous robot, been vibe coding with Claude. Experience has been very good so far, been able to improve my code and add lots of tests and enhancements including GUIs local/web for the robot, an app calibrating the camera to help with distortion at the edges.

Researchers from Prof. Joohyung Kim's KIMLAB at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) used #Teensy to develop a low-cost, easy-to-reproduce "pneumatic skin" that gives robots a sense of touch www.pjrc.com/pneumatic-ro...

AMP has been kitting out for a build recently... this looks like an interesting project: mitxela.com/projects/scr...

🇬🇧 🇱🇹 🇳🇱 🇨🇿 🇱🇻 🇮🇹 🇦🇹 bbb.gd/events 🇪🇺🤖⚔️📅 March in European Robot Combat! ~ 4th Combat Robotics NI 456g in Belfast 🇬🇧 5rd QRFL ants in London 🇬🇧 7th Bristol Uni ants in Bristol 🇬🇧 7th Klaipeda ant & 454g in Klaipeda 🇱🇹 8th Rock & Robots sportsman ants in London 🇬🇧 14th Robodojo sportsman feathers in York 🇬🇧

It's been a year since I've competed with Paradigm Spin, but I'm back in Bristol to fight again! I've never been happy with Paradigm's reliability, so I've been doing lots of testing and development. This clip is a montage of that, full vid on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB8J...

Just some of the over 50 incredible robots coming to fight at BBB Beetle Brawl 2026! We will be streaming from 11am GMT on Saturday at bbb.gd/stream

It's robot season again! I'm volunteering at a First Tech Challenge event in Oxford today. New for this year: ball launchers!

Due to popular demand, here is a demonstration video of how to make 3D printed PCBs using just vector drawing software, a 3D printed (PETG filament for mine) and self-adhesive copper tape. Any questions, let me know!

I have encountered a little of this. My brother historically has received more praise than I. When I visit India it’s awkward for me. The women talk in the kitchen about cooking while the men sit in the living room talking about global affairs. There is no space to talk about me or science.

Yesterday, Tim was looking at turning a luggage cart into a powered one with the idea of eventually having several in a 'wagon train'. Motive power will be hoverboard hub motors but fitted with pneumatic tyres. Good progress was made, next it will involve chopping the rear frame and some welding.

Did a session at @bridgecommand.bsky.social this afternoon with friends. Stereotyped myself by playing shuttle engineer. Also bumped into a couple of people I know from LARP but haven't seen for years.

(ofc i did not delete BO for production)

In the red corner, hometown hero, you know them, you love them, it’s “Fearless” Bhuge! And hoping to end their season before it even begins, in the blue corner, The Technical Gremlin! It’s the match of the century, only at BBB Beetle Brawl 2026 Saturday 28th February at St Michael's Centre, Bristol.

#RaspberryPi #Pi #rpi are you UK based and up for a raspberry pi challenge have a look at hacky racers (website link hackyracers.co.uk/robotic-raci... ) a robotic vehicle challenge on a rough grass field, Robots ? autonomous or remotely controlled ? race around an outdoor circuit, looks fun

Date for the New Year, there's going to be a CamJam celebrating Raspberry Pi 14th birthday in Cambridge, UK hosted by Makespace, the community's workshop. Tickets will be released on Friday. mailchi.mp/9d1d55c5214f...

#TIL silver balls on cake are not technically food according to the FDA. The idea is they sell them and you remove them before use. Implausible, but then again. Worst case scenario if you eat a fuckton and turn blue, so maybe it's not a priority issue. www.huffpost.com/entry/silver...

My #RaspberryPi project - the PsionPi. A Pi 4 is underneath the screen. Then, I have a 3S Waveshare UPS giving power to the whole thing, over which is a #Psion 5 keyboard. A small adapter board converts the keyboard signal to USB. 2 3D printed halves of the case are held together with M2.5 screws.

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication

I made a thing! It is cloisonné enamel coaster. Took about 3 hrs. Thanks to Be-RAS Creatives Art Cafe, Melbourne. Loved it.

It is finished, and I love it! Word Clock kit from GurgleApps.com

Date for your diaries - Lancaster, UK Wed 25 March 2026 - free to attend, registration required. Hear me talk about my soon to be published book 'Up - A scientist's guide to the magic above us' www.lancaster.ac.uk/scc/about-us...

We hear news that there is a new Make/Hackspace starting up in March, Cambridgeshire associated with the folks at REMO remo.org.uk If you are looking for a Hackspace in the North of Cambridgeshire you may have a new place to check out... #HackSpace #Makespace #Cambridgeshire #IsleOfEly

A silly idea that turned out well! Most flex PCBs are cut by laser, not milled, so you can make perforations by adding incomplete edge cuts. These disks are for cleanly joining LED strips at different angles and different radii, and they break apart with just my fingers, no other tools.

a really neat way to couple sheet metal to a motor shaft. I leaned this from photocopier teardowns.

2nd edition of our The AI Shift newsletter is out. The question today: could AI be making us LESS productive? @jburnmurdoch.ft.com www.ft.com/content/2480... At the individual level, it's clear we're not reliable witnesses on this Q. At an organisational level, it gets even more interesting...

I will be at Assemble, Darby on Saturday, showing off the @pimoroni.com Giant Unicorn hat and other projects. #GiganticUnicorn

I'm at @bristolbotbuilders.com Champs today, supporting @pinski1.bsky.social and his new robot Fig Roll

Good Maker event in Derby, I will hopefully be showing off my Giant Unicorn hat there in October. derbymuseums.org/assemble/

Happy 20th anniversary to the wrong header spacing in the Uno form-factor, btw.

In other news, it fukken WORKS and I've successfully made a tiny stained glass window for my beetle's abdomen. 😍

Hey Derek @extelec.bsky.social seen this? A steam powered Van der Graaf generator

I do love a Makerfaire

I'm in Somerset today for Hacky Racers at Scrumpy Cup. Nice to see a mix of new racers and old timers.

Oh hello 👀 www.cnx-software.com/2025/09/23/r...

I'm volunteering at Hitchin's first Soapbox Derby today. Some great racers and an excellent turnout.

I'm volunteering at Hitchin's first Soapbox Derby today. Some great racers and an excellent turnout.

Welcome to @bristolhackspace.bsky.social Please give them a boost! #Hackspace #Makespace #Bristol

PRESS RELEASE REGARDING BBB BEETLE CHAMPS - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Bristol Bot Builders are excited to share that the BBB Beetle Champs 2025 is scheduled to take place on Saturday 18th October at St Michaels Centre in Stoke Gifford, Bristol. Please find attached promotional material for the event.

I am very excited to report that my book is now available for pre-order!! If you like things that fly – be it aircraft, bugs or birds, then this book is for you! I am also so delighted with the beautiful cover art by @Rachelhillustrates.bsky.social :) www.penguin.co.uk/books/461507...

Today is the 5th Anniversary of the formal opening of Hitchin Hackspace in our own building on the 10th August 2019. It took us 7 years from the first meeting and the formation of Hitchin Hackspace to find and fit out a place of our own. 🧵1/3 #Hitchin #HitchinHackspace #Hackspace #Community

I'm at #Footfest this weekend, near Sudbury, with Hacky Racers. @drfootleg.bsky.social has again mowed us a brilliant track into paddock.

In a field in Suffolk :-) #footfest A giant thank you to @pimoroni.com for their support allowing me to create the Giant Unicorn Hat. #GiganticUnicorn

It was great to have you, and I'm pleased the universe didn't explode when we aligned it to reflect off my WAVE 😂

Can’t wait to introduce bird-based storage into my backup system

We are finally ready to announce that EMF 2026 will happen on July 16-19, 2026, at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Herefordshire. Expect more updates soon as we start spinning up the organisation again.