Robots & Dinosaurs is located in Gerard Lane, Gladesville . We’re open Saturdays from about 11am and some weeknights, but you should check by asking on our mailing list.
Experimental Gameplay project: INANIMATE
Jeremy, Jenna and Dave will be at the ‘space on Monday night rattling their heads to try to get the ideas out for January’s Experimental Gameplay project theme, INANIMATE.
The Experimental Gameplay project is a friendly worldwide competition among game developers to produce an innovative game in just seven days, once a month, based around a particular theme. Previous themes have included “NEVERENDING”, “NIGHT & DAY” and “ZERO BUTTONS”. The results are always amazing, and such indie game greats as World of Goo, Crayon Physics and Canabalt started their lives as EGP entries.
Come to Robots & Dinosaurs on Monday the 17th at 6pm and join us in making a game!
Yesterday Jeremy and Dougall collaborated on bringing the “Scrap Station” Starcraft 2 map to life though some fancy python and perl hackery. The Space’s CNC cut the depth of the level in to a piece of scrap High Impact Polystyrene.
Max casting some bronze at the ‘space.
Shigawire and Gav worked together on scanning this Airplane with a little robot depth sensor, an old plotter project of Gav’s, and python software written by Shig.
(Source: flickr.com)
Gavin was CNCing some circuit boards, but the tape wasn’t holding. This is the short tale of a solution.
Robots and Dinosaurs tour a nuclear reactor and particle accelerator.
On Saturday members of R&D headed to south western Sydney on an excursion to ANSTO, the centre of nuclear science, research and development in Australia. ANSTO hosts Australia’s only nuclear reactor OPAL, the ANTARES particle accelerator, the Neutron Guide hall and it’s suit of instruments and many other experiments and facilities.
At the Visitor Centre we were greeted by Professor Proton who gave a fantastic demonstration on the basics of nuclear science and the design of the OPAL reactor. We then travelled by bus into the secure site where we inspected a number of instruments and facilities such as: OPAL nuclear reactor: 
- The tour included an intimate view inside the reactor with a high resolution remotely controlled panning/zooming camera.
- Not used for power generation, produces no electricty.
- Used as a highly controlled neutron source for scientific and industrial applications.
- Neutron beams from this reactor feed the suite of instruments housed in the Neuton Beam Guide Hall.
- Irradiates large crystals of silicon for the global semi-conductor industry in a process called Neutron Transmutation Doping.
- http://www.ansto.gov.au/discovering_ansto/anstos_research_reactor
ANTARES particle accelerator:
- This relatively small accelerator is optimised for beam analysis for carbon dating and materials analysis.
- Vaporises a sample then shoots the resulting ions at high speed to ascertain the exact makeup of the sample.
- http://www.ansto.gov.au/research/facilities_and_equipment/antares
Neutron Guide Hall:
- Neutron scattering techniques permit scientists to explore the structure and dynamics of materials under different conditions at atomic or molecular levels.
- http://www.ansto.gov.au/discovering_ansto/what_does_ansto_do/neutron_scattering
Due to security restrictions we were not able to bring any cameras beyond the visitor centre so the pictures of OPAL, ANTARES and the Neutron Guide Hall were ruthlessly stolen from the ANSTO website. Many thanks to ANSTO for providing free tours of such an amazing facility and Tristan Steele for helping organise it. For information on ANSTO tours see here: ttp://www.ansto.gov.au/discovering_ansto/visiting_ansto/ansto_tours
R3becca
RnD Halloween Time Travelers Party!
We had/will/did have our time travelers halloween party on Saturday night. It was simply great! Everyone had a ton of fun showing off their awesome costumes, arguing over which interpretation of primer was correct, and whether or not we could have jumpstarted civilisation armed only with the content of our pockets! In the afternoon we did workshops on essential time traveler skills, such as how to make fire without matches, uses of a towel, and must-have survival kits for chrononauts of all ages. Nat brought in something we didn’t think of, a series of antidotes for everything from Bubonic plague to leprosy. (Very handy!) We also did our traditional watermelon carving again this year, and had a ball.
