CBA's digital fabrication facility has expanded into new quarters in building E14, with upgrades to many of our large-scale rapid-prototyping tools. Come by for a tour.
The newest addition to CBA's research facilities is a micro-CT scanner from X-Tek:
http://www.xtekxray.com/products/computed_tomography.html
due to arrive next month. This will allow us to do 3D reconstruction down to micron scales, and 2D radiography at video rates.
CBA's facilities were used by Prof. Boyden's lab in the discovery of a new class of molecules which, when genetically targeted to neurons, enables them to be silenced by specific colors of light. This result, recently reported in Nature:
http://syntheticneurobiology.org/publications/publicationdetail/97/25
provides new tools for the study of the brain, and potential new therapies.
Prof. Gershenfeld will be speaking in NSF's Distinguished Lecture series at 10:00 on February 18, with a working meeting to follow on program plans with interested agencies and individuals. Contact our office if you'd like to attend.
We're pleased to welcome the Manufacturing Institute:
http://www.manufacturinginstitute.co.uk/
as a new CBA sponsor, with launch events for a UK fab lab network planned in Manchester and London the week of March 22. The first lab is under construction in Manchester's historical textile manufacturing district, birthplace of the industrial revolution.
The dates are set for FAB6, the Sixth International Fab Lab Forum and Symposium on Digital Fabrication: it will be held in Amsterdam the week of August 16. The address for more information is info@fab6.nl

A busy month of fab lab travel included a boot camp in Norway with participants coming from as far as India and Afghanistan, a kickoff of an initiative in Portugal, and President Obama visiting in Ohio:
http://lcccfablab.blogspot.com/
A team has assembled to send and support a fab lab in Haiti, to help with post-disaster reconstruction:
http://haitifablab.org/

Contributions of all kinds to the Haiti effort are welcome.

This is an occasional newsletter on the activities of CBA and its partners; to be added or removed from this list, or to submit items, please contact CBA's Program Manager Sherry Lassiter <sherry.lassiter@cba.mit.edu>.