Human-centred technology—from everyday life to deep engineering.
Interlocking microscopic electrodes turn a changing capacitance into lateral motion. Derive the nearly constant comb-drive force, estimate a micronewton-scale actuator and see where the approximation fails.
A resistor’s thermal voltage noise contains its temperature. Two amplifiers and cross-correlation separate that tiny signal from much of the electronics’ own noise.
Gray code rearranges binary counts so only one bit changes between neighbouring positions. See how that reduces encoder errors and helps asynchronous digital circuits, with a worked example and simulation.
Legal complexity keeps many citizens dependent on specialists. Could AI close that gap—or merely create a new gatekeeper? Stanford, European experiments, risks and a route toward citizen-centred legal intelligence.
Two carefully timed motion commands can cancel a machine's residual oscillation. Derive the half-period trick, see its timing penalty, and test its limits.
A Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube divides one compressed-air stream into hot and cold outlets. Follow the swirling flow, energy balance and costly trade-off behind its pump-free cooling.
A Coriolis flowmeter makes a tube vibrate, then measures the tiny timing difference caused by moving fluid. Follow the force, phase and resonance physics, plus the limits.
A personal note from rdi on Alkemata’s gradual growth, our learning curve in marketing, experiments with AI and the Exchange, and a forthcoming series on psychology.
From ResearchHub and Bittensor to Olas, Nevermined and Moltbook: eight experiments in exchanging AI work, data, attention and rewards—and the risks of mistaking transactions for trustworthy knowledge.
A rocket chamber faces gases hot enough to destroy its walls. The trick is to route incoming fuel through tiny channels, turning a thermal threat into a heat exchanger.