Cell Motion

This Blog has MOVED

2008-02-26T13:03:00.001-08:00

The BioBus blog is now here. Thank you!

Microscopes On-Line

2008-02-15T20:01:00.001-08:00

Dennis on the Scope

Dennis' cell!

The Wood Stove Keeps me Warm

This was a really big week!

First, announcements for the inaugural Open Bus were posted, and a mailing list was established to spread the word. Sign-up to stay in the know.

Second, the new website gets more and more hits everyday - 100 hits on Wednesday. Martin Halla has volunteered to expand and develop the site.

Third, Andy Gerson of Olympus delivered a new microscope and camera!

Fourth, I found out that I can get fresh karp fish scales every Tuesday and Wednesday.

Fifth, I had my first student on the bus today, and together we recorded the first cells to be imaged on the bus!

Sixth through I'm-going-to-stop-counting now: Ublip donated a GPS tracker, Fetch Softworks and Marware donated software, and the BioBus Facebook group is going strong!

Please spread the word about the open bus - especially to K-12 students and teachers! I had a meeting with my friend Laura today and we think we can get enough footage for a short, 5 minute video piece about the bus to use on the website and other promotional material.

Want to know "why karp-fish?" and "whats with their scales?" OHHHHH you're gonna have to work for that one.

Revamped Website

2008-02-01T22:24:00.000-08:00

I am very proud of the new website! It is still very light on content, but the basic structure is there and ready to build on. It took me about 12 hours to make, in the process of which I learned some basic java script and flash animation.

Please send me your comments and suggestions - or better yet, please let me know if you might have time to help me with the text or images for different parts of the page. No programming necessary, especially just for helping with text.

In other news - a company called ublip has donated a year of free web-based vehicle tracking. Thanks to my home-town pal Andy Turner for suggesting them! I will be putting a map on the web site that will show the current location of the bus so people can see where I am (as well as where I've been!). In addition, the lovely folks at Marware donated a copy of their great project management software called ProjectX that I hope will help me stay organized with the different parallel tasks, contacts, and volunteers

I had lunch today with a friend of a friend at teacher's college. We had a great chat about the project and she gave me some very good ideas and reinforced some of my ideas. I got very excited about the idea of developing some database software that will allow students to access experiments performed by students at different schools, with the hope that past students might help out current students.

It is amazing how generous people have been so far with their time and their money. But I am still badly in need of people on the ground helping me on the bus - there is SO much to do. Please send me a note if there is anything you think you might be able to help with - even a couple hours a week would be great.

Finally, prompted by Emily's visit later in February, I plan on having the first open-to-public tour of the bus. By this time I should have two working microscopes and some fun cell samples to play with!

Wind Power

2008-01-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

The bus is back in front of Rubulad again - there is a party tonight, hopefully no one will puke on bus. I think I might get some free decorations though! We'll see tomorrow.

The wind turbine is back up. I've getting a lot of comments on it - all positive. Well, except a group of guys who asked me if the bus flew backwards because the wind was blowing from behind the bus.

I like that the bus offers such a wide variety of subjects for teaching - not only biology, but physics and chemistry of solar and wind power collection into a battery bank. Then there is the whole automotive side of things, the house electricity setup, the veggie oil system... lots of different things for different interests.

Air piston limit switches

Engine Electrical Junction Box

This is a picture of one new and one old limit switch for the transmission air shifter system. These switches tell the electrical system that the transmission has fully engaged into either the forward or the reverse gear before shifting the engine out of neutral. The old one was not working right - when the little button is pressed in by the transmission shifter piston when you shift into reverse, the two terminals you see on the left (new) switch should be electrically connected - this wasn't happening. The transmission is now happy with a new switch in place.

In the process of diagnosing the problem with the limit switches, I got very familiar with the engine electrical junction box. This box has close to 100 terminals, with wires coming from the driver's controls at the front of the bus and from the various engine electrical systems, including the air piston controls and the air piston limit switches. If you have the diagram of what all these terminals are for, you can systematically go through the terminals that you suspect and check them for short circuits and other unruly behavior. While it can be tedious, it is also really fun to be in the 'brain' of the bus. My buses brain is not too big or complicated - new buses have microcircuits that control all of this stuff, and you need to plugin with a computer to do these types of diagnostics.

Skins

2008-01-24T20:44:00.001-08:00

Eddy and the Stove

I had to move the bus today because a British TV series called Skins was shooting at Rubulad and needed the street for the production crew. I like film/TV people in general - they have so much cool equipment and I think also tend to be pretty down-to-earth folk but are pretty creative and interesting still. I held the door for the star (who I guess is 15?) and didn't even know it - although apparently the show is super popular in Britain, and according to Sari, even people who hate everything (music critiques) seem to like this show.

I have some nice pictures of Eddy that I wanted to start posting - he has been helping me SO much over the past couple of weeks. Not only did we do a lot of work on the bus together when it was parked in Philly, he also cooked lots of delicious food! Here is Eddy warming up (and enjoying a brew) next to the wood stove that we worked to reinstall in a slightly different place.

Bio Bus Back in Brooklyn

2008-01-24T08:19:00.000-08:00

Last Friday evening the bus rumbled across the Verizano Bridge, around the tight curving BQE, and back home to Brooklyn. All bus systems go - and it is now time to really start working on the lab. Good timing - Olympus has pledged to donate a fantastic digital camera and an inverted phase-contrast / fluorescence microscope to get me going, in addition to the Nikon that had already been donated. I am feeling good and I have a lot of momentum!

Veterans Against War

2008-01-11T21:15:00.000-08:00

Veterans Against War

This great Bus was pulling in for service while I was at Berlin fixing the Bio Bus. Unfortunately I was in the middle of working on my bus and they left before I could say hello!

Electricity

2008-01-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

The bus and I are at US Coach in Berlin New Jersey right now because the bus is a little sick and that is a good place to work on things - the guys there are letting me borrow tools when I need them and are giving me good advice.

There is a wiring problem with the transmission - I am having trouble shifting from forward to reverse. There is a short circuit somewhere and I'm in the process of tracking it down. I have been blessed with amazing weather the last few days and lasting at least until tomorrow I hope. I might be done by the end of the day tomorrow and then I will drive back to Brooklyn! The wiring on the bus is all original as far as I know - 30 something years old. Interestingly, the wires that are failing are all in the engine compartment - high heat and oil and dirt and water taking their tole. And most of the problems I have found so far is crimp-on connectors falling off the wires - hopefully I will just have to replace all these connectors and not have to replace all the wires themselves.

I am looking for a space to park the bus in doors in NYC. This will be very important for the next phase of things - actually getting the microscopes setup and experiments working. I can't deal with worrying about the microscopes getting stolen all the time - the bus is too easy to break into.

Transmission On Floor

2007-11-13T19:53:00.000-08:00

Transmission Wreckage

Transmission On Floor

Transmission Push

The bus limped from NYC to US Coach Repair in Berlin, NJ to fix the transmission. I realized just how lucky I was when they took the transmission off and you could see what was happening inside - well what was happening is that gears were turning into piles of metal.

So I was really lucky for two reasons - one, I was actually able to drive into the shop instead of having to be towed. And two, that the gears disintegrating into little metal bits didn't get wedged into any of the other gears and do even more damage.

So, they took the entire tranmission out on a dolly (the thing must weigh 1000 lbs at least) and replaced the planetary gear set. These gears are involved in both overdrive (third gear) of the tranny as well as somehow fundamentally involved its function in the other gears as well. There was basically nothing left of the planetary gears when we got to them. Fortunately US Coach Repair had a replacement part on site and managed to get it in there. These guys are amazing - they know how to fix this old bus, and I am so lucky for it.

Well, finally it came time to put the thing back together - never as simple as taking things apart, right? It took three of the guys and a crow bar to get the thing back on. Kenny, the main guy working on it, my dad, and I then took the bus for a spin down the Atlantic City expressway, and the bus shifted into overdrive for the first time since the night we pulled into Urbana. in October.

Now we are bringing the bus back to parent's place near Valley Forge, outside of Philly. My dad, Ed, and I will work on a bunch of stuff, like getting the passenger seat and stove installed and more secure and doing some other woodwork to finish up some of the things started in Cali but that we never got a chance to complete.

The Making of Workstations One Two Three

2007-11-02T16:58:00.000-07:00

The stations are assembled, and they are really great. As you can see, the heights are adjustable, but they are strong as heck - I was sitting on them and bouncing up and down earlier and everything is really solid. Daniel and my measurements were right on the money, and there is plenty of space behind them at the bottom of the wall to remount the charge controllers and circuit breakers.
Very exciting!!

Scope Station One

2007-11-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Ed and I put this together yesterday with our donated microscope.
'nuff said!

Home

2007-10-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Robin, Biostar, and I slowly rolled across the GW bridge last night and rumbled down Amsterdam Ave into a prime, free parking spot on Amsterdam & 115th street. Lynn gave me the warmest homecoming I could ask for - hugs, kisses, tea, and Guinness cake!!

Lynn and I spent the day relaxing and enjoying the nice weather - it is great to be back after my two months on the road. The trip home was indeed an Odyssey, but it's telling will have to wait for another day.

Broken Down in PA

2007-10-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

Broken Down in PA
Originally uploaded by benDT

This picture was taken on route 80 near Washington, PA. We were expecting to make it home late tonight - instead we got towed to this out of the way intersection near a truck repair place. This seems to bode badly for the transmission - this time it is a mechanical problem, not electrical. Robin and Lotus are in the left corner - there have been many lows on the trip - but right now feels the lowest.

Robin

2007-10-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

Robin

Starter Motor

This is Robin, relaxing in the parking lot of the truck repair place we got towed to on the East side of Columbus, Ohio. We had been having trouble with the fuel system for a day or two, and kept stalling and not being able to start the bus and spending lots of time with our finger on the starter. It turned out the the starter solenoid needed replacing - but we were still learning that the truck places are NOT the places to be with a bus. The truck people basically said no, they wouldn't fix it, at least not for a week and for less then the bus was worth. Hey - at least they let us camp in their parking lot.

So then we got towed to N&W bus repair. Great place, great people. They let us work on the bus ourselves - Robin and I pulled the starter motor assembly out ourselves, the Connely helped us test it - turned out it was just the starter solenoid that had failed. So they let us look through the half dozen solenoids they had until we found the right part, and then remounted the thing. AND IT WORKED! My first really serious bus maintenance operation.

Oil Hunting

2007-10-03T00:30:00.001-07:00

What a couple of days! About 30 minutes ago we pumped about 30 gallons of grease from the Flowershop stockpile into the dirty tank. Everything is ready for the first test of the entire system tomorrow morning - coolant is flowing (after installing some bleeder valves), the pumps are all wired (after some surgical soldering and electrical taping), and the all the connections have been made. Looking forward to relaying the good news that the BioBus is running on veggie oil!!

Tons of other progress as well. Ed and I slept on the new bed last night and survived, the new wiring in the back is almost complete, and lots of other great stuff. Well, I'll leave you with a bunch of photographs before going to bed.

Gloria and Eddy working on the bed

Sunny the Dragon

Aaron working his magic on the grease collection pump

Well well well well

2007-09-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

I am writing to you from on top of the rear-left wheel well. Today we added a step leading upwards towards the rear of the bus, leading to a 2-1/2 foot wide raised platform directly on top of the fiberglass wheel well. There are four wheel wells, third-of-a-bagel shaped fiberglass domes interrupting the wood-grain of the bus-floor, one at each of the four corners of the bus.
The two rear wheel wells house two wheels each, for a total of four wheels on the rear axel. The back end of the bus is so sturdy in order to support the weight of the enormous, eight cylinder diesel engine that drives the rear wheels, turns two alternators, and pumps coolant and pressurized air throughout the bus. The bus was built to carry 53 passengers and 1 driver on its route across the Golden Gate Bridge. Not it will carry 180 gallons (715 liters), almost 1600 lbs. (720 kg) of vegetable oil in place of some of those people. The bus has a maximum capacity of over 34,000 lbs, but weighed in under the previous owners at 22,000 lbs. This much veggie oil will give us a 1000 mile range on veggie oil alone before refueling.
Well, hear I am, perched above this mountain of metal with a topping of wood. If you walk towards the back of the bus, you step down onto a landing that cuts at an angle to the right, forming a step to the left while provided an enclosure for a heater pump and three coolant lines that lie on the floor here. The coolant lines circulate coolant throughout the bus, heating up air in vents that run along the sides of the bus while providing heat for the driver as well as for defrosting the front windshield.
Stepping down to the left, you are in an open space, surrounded by windows in 3 directions and a skylight above. To your right towards the center back of the bus is the engine, currently visible through an open access hatch. Four shiny black hoses sprout from the engine compartment, running to the far side of the bus (the starboard side), along the floor, over the second rear wheel, and continuing along the wall for four feet until they reach the clean vegetable oil tank. Two of the hoses contain fuel and two contain coolant. When the engine is hot, the coolant reaches a steady 180ºF (82ºC). Coolant cools the engine by absorbing heat from the engine and then dispersing that heat to the surrounding, cooler air. Some of that heated up coolant water flows in pipes and hoses around the bus, providing heat for the cabin while also cooling the air compressor, which gets mighty hot pumping three different air tanks up to 120 psi. We can also use that coolant to heat up veggie oil as the coolant sheds heat to colder, viscous vegetable oil. As the engine temperature rises, hot coolant flows faster and faster, and the vegetable oil heats up and becomes runny enough to easily flow into the engine.
As you stand at the back of the bus and look forward, the big dirty oil tank sits centered over the rear axel. The clean tank is to the starboard side and fills space up to the wall just where the newly uncovered oval windows are. Right now there is a wooden structure resembling a play-pen for a gigantic baby. On top of the wooden structure will be the bed - perhaps by tomorrow night. All that is left to make for the bed are two crossing support bars and place the bed top, a task that will take Gloria and me all of an hour. We've gotten to be quite the team.
Tomorrow Aaron hooks up the fuel lines, we backflush some diesel into the veggie system, and we see if we can run off of the diesel in the veggie system. If that test comes up positive, we then test if we can run off of veggie oil in the veggie system. If that test comes up positive, we can definitely drink a beer.

The only major task left after that is to figure out how to collect grease. Daniel is building a floor where the old air conditioner compartment was, and we will store a big pump and a bunch of hosing in there. The pump will be mobile up to 50 feet away from the bus, connected to the bus via a fuel line and a power cord. The sucking of the pump will pull grease out of waste containers through a strainer and push the grease back down the tube and into the bottom port of the dirty tank. Ed and I both need to get worksuits for handling the grease - it is inevitably a messy task. But I would rather be doing this than having our army fight wars over fossil fuels. There is enough waste oil in this country to power 1% of the cars on the road today (according to Wikipedia, that is).

I missed Savitri and Billy at the film festival opening. They have an early interview, as usual. They are such amazing, hard-working people, and i am really lucky to be part of their community. But Aaron and I had to get the engine hooked back up for diesel in order to get the bus out tomorrow morning for the Love Parade. The movie was at seven, but we didn't get done until about 9. The sad thing is that, in the end, someone else's bus can't move, so I don't need to move my bus in the morning after all!
Noel, one of Elan's old friends from out here, is coming to talk about painting the bus tomorrow. I don't know if there is enough time left for much painting, but at least we can brainstorm and see what we come up with.

Windows

2007-09-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day, although for some reason when we were done all I could think about was drinking a few beers and trying to relax. It is the home stretch, but my home is a big workshop - it is difficult to cook and my bed is a tool shed. But by Wednesday Eddy and I should be on the road and this will all change!

The bed is all ready to be assembled, we're just waiting on finishing up the tanks. The tanks are all ready, we're just waiting to replace the fuel level sensors with ones that will actually fit into the tank as a result of a miscommunication between Brian and us. Luckily there is a place that should have the right sensors in stock, and I can return the wrong ones. The fuel gauges are mounted on the front dash and look great, thanks to Daniel's metal-working skilz.

The most exciting thing today was that we uncovered a bunch of the windows that had previously been covered. There is a whole row of windows that circles the top of the bus above the main windows. Today we removed the insulation and cut holes in the wood panels in order to uncover these windows. I am really happy about this - for now... in the winter time I may have other thoughts!!

We also removed the wood stove. It was easy - it wasn't even bolted down. We found a bench style car seat that we will mount where the wood stove was. I think I need to get rid of this wood stove - it is just too big for the bus. I think I might replace it with two smaller stoves, one for the front of the bus and one for the rear. But for sure I have some time to think this over. The main thing is that we have a passenger seat. Need to search Craig's list for seat belts, but this shouldn't be too difficult to find.

The order for the three driver's-side scope stations is ready, but since we are about to leave and we will pass through Indiana, Ed and I will just stop at the 80/20 factory and pick up the parts there, on the way from visiting Jon Inga and Alex in Iowa and on our way to Jenny Anurag and Jasper in Michigan.

Tomorrow Gloria will start working on building out the desk area in the back, Aaron will finish up the hosing for the veggie oil system, and hopefully Julie will be back to help uncover more of the windows. Julie is here for a few days, from Montreal originally and on her way to Humboldt on Sunday. She was a really big help today, and with four people working we're getting a whole lot of things done. Daniel is also helping out a lot, and tomorrow I hope he will have finished installing the floor for the below bus storage area that we will use for the grease collection apparatus.

In any case, it is looking good for the first testing of the veggie oil system tomorrow. I hope I will be able to write you tomorrow about Sammy's first churnings on veggie grease!!

And tomorrow night What Would Jesus Buy is opening at the SF Documentary Fest!! If you are SF, let me know and I can find you tickets for the Sunday or Monday nights shows!

Metamorphosis

2007-09-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it's because I have a scab on my head from banging against the engine compartment door today, or perhaps 'cause I've been sleeping on the floor of the bus for much of the last month, but I am REALLY excited about the bed construction right now!!

Back in my first post, I described a scheme for fitting the veggie oil tanks, filter and pump, under a bed at the back, with a workbench on the very back wall.

Well, after tearing out the existing interior yesterday, Gloria and I started building off of this design and built a big section of the bed frame. A full sized (a.k.a. double, 54" wide x 75" long) bed fits well in the space. Incredibly, we did not have to buy a single new piece of wood or a single new screw - it will all come from the materials we removed yesterday. This feels really good - and also reminds me of the buses original name - Metamorphobus. The weight of the bed will be directly on the bus floor through a 2x2 and 2x4 wood frame. For the top we will use medium density fiber board (MDF), also reused from the two twin beds for Greg's kids and from the fold out bed at the front that Greg and his wife used. The frame will support the top all the way around the perimeter and there will be three crossing 2x4 supports with columns to the floor to hold them up. I will then throw a mattress up on top of all of this!! Getting up on the bed will prepare you for the high jump, that's for sure - the tanks are 27" tall, the fills are a few inches above this, the platform above this, and the mattress is on top of that.

The bed takes up most but not all of the space on this platform - the full dimension of the MDF platform will be 78" x 69" - so three inch at the foot or head of the bed and a good 15" on the driver's side of the bed. I think I will put a 2x4 lip at the foot of the bed to keep it snug on the platform, taking up most of the room there. Below the plane of the bed in this extra width to the driver's side will be a fuel filter that needs to be changed every 500 miles or so - the access for that will be in the hallway, not the bedroom! It will be a bit messy there, though if I am careful not too bad. I plan to build a compartment around the filter and line it with removable plastic as well as place a little bucket underneath to catch any spills. The rest of this extra width under the bed as well as above the bed could be a 15" deep and 6 feet long storage area. Not a bad space. Some of it would be partially obstructed by the wheel well, but not too badly. I could also access some of this space from the bed to hold nightime things. Oh, I just figured it out - this area will be a bookshelf. Perfect!

OK, so I will add shelving to this section. Hopefully Eddy will help me with that - he is SO good at building bookshelves.

Getting into the room will also be fun - you have to climb up over the wheel well! I will put a step at the front, a step a the back, and some non-slip stuff over the rounded part. It's not too bad - even Gloria, who is tall, thinks is fine, and the kids will LOVE it. OK, I admit, I love it. I am still a kid in a lot of ways.

As much as I hate to do it, I think the wood burning stove has to go into the back area. I hate to do it for two reasons - one, I am lazy and don't want to move the chimney hole! Two, I am lazy and don't want to move the stove.

It is the right thing to do. I love the stove - I used it the other night and was amazed by its efficiency - one medium log heated the entire front of the bus. Two or three should heat the rest of the bus - it is a large one. I need someway to heat the stove, and the propane heater is scary because it is unvented and makes CO. I don't trust the automatic shutoff mechanism with my life.

Finally, we HAVE to move it, and soon, because the only place for the co-pilot's seat is going to be right where the stove is now. Eventually the co-pilot chair might interfere with the microscope stations, but I'm sure I can figure out how to install a quick release chair so that it can come in and out when I need it too. I may even figure out a way to have it double as a seat for the lab bench.

The only other real spot for it to go is at the VERY back of the bus, either on the driver's side corner or the 'passenger' side corner. Driver side corner has two things going for it - one, the heat can more easily be moved down the hallway (perhaps via a fan). Two, you don't run into someone working at the workbench as you come over the wheel well.

Tomorrow morning I am ordering the pieces for three microscope stations on the driver's side of the bus. After the veggie oil system, this is priority one, because it is what I need for the science fair. I will see how the driver's side setup goes - there are three adjustable height stations there - and then see if I want to add two more opposite these. Thttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifhis may be too crowded, but we will see.

Right, the science fair. After convincing the nice people at Columbia facilities that I love the trees on College Walk and wouldn't DREAM of hitting any branches with my bus, they have given me approval to participate in the Siemens Science Day at Columbia University on October 20th on College Walk on the Columbia Campus. The last time I organized a demonstration on college walk it had to do with worker's rights, not cell biology!

If you know any children in the New York between the 4th and 8th grades, please encourage them to sign up for the fair when registration opens on September 29th. And if you are in the area, please plan on coming to visit! I will give you more details as the time gets nearer.

OK, last, but NOT least, Aaron is on the last stretch of hooking up the veggie oil system. He spent the day in the back figuring out how to connect the 1974 spacecraft grade hoses to 2007 regular diesel hoses. He is making making progress, and he thinks we might be able to test out the system as early as tomorrow night!! WOOT.

Thanks everyone for all of your support. Toby is not a hippy and was NEVER a hippy. The West was lost. Still is. Don't ask what flavor the cookie is, especially not in New York. There are no homosexuals in Iran. And Billy, you DO have the fiirst amendment right to recite the first amendment.

The Two Tanks

2007-09-25T23:38:00.001-07:00

Brian finished the tanks and Aaron brought them on his way over this morning!! They just barely squeaked down the hallway. I designed it to be close, but boy I'm glad Brian and I were both using good rulers!!

So it was time to finally rip out all of Gary's beautiful work in the back 15 foot where we are putting the tanks (see previous posts for the design of the space). Boy, he really did a fine job with the carpentry and electrical back there - everything was tight and together. It was his two daughter's room and as Gloria and I tore out the walls, we kept finding little stickers and bookmarks and hairbands for lost by the girls back there. But, in the end it is the right decision - it will give me a row of three natural-lit computing workstations at the back of the bus as well as a single large bed.

Gloria is my new friend who found me through a post on the GMC-bus-nuts yahoo group and lives very close by! She has her own bus and is planning a veggie oil conversion. She also has a great website!! She lives with her partner on the Bay to the East of me and is coming back tomorrow too to help build the bedroom / study area. She also took bunches of pictures today that I will post tomorrow.

Aaron got lots of work done on the veg oil system today. He installed his solenoid system for routing the fluids controlled by the dashboard switches showed in an earlier post. We're really getting close to the end of this thing - we are still waiting on a few pieces of hose and couple more things that should be here tomorrow, and then we will be ready to connect everything together, put some grease in the tanks, and start testing the system maybe by Friday!! Aaron has done a really great job and I am lucky to have had him working with me.

While Aaron was working on the veggie system, I power washed the engine compartment that we accessed from a bedroom panel. From here you can see the rear axle, the rear brakes, the rear air suspension bags, and a huge metal thing that turns the energy from the main transmission shaft into the energy of wheels going round-and-round. This reminded me of how huge a machine this bus is. There will soon be 150 gallons of veggie oil atop this access panel (as well as my bed), so I figured I'd better clean it before it was sealed for (HOPEFULLY) forever. But it won't be too hard to get back in there if I had to.

Daniel and I spent the rest of the night going over the plans for the microscope stations. We have a really solid design worked out that should be both strong and flexible. We will order the parts tomorrow or Thursday and they should arrive on Monday or Tuesday - the first or second, which is right on time. Eddy and I can assemble them while we are not driving.

I'll leave you with a great picture that Kevlar here at Flowershop took with my camera.

Logo!

2007-09-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

What do you think about this logo?

I've also worked out a scale model for the front of the bus:

Rain!!

2007-09-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

I'd never seen California rain, until this morning. It's a good thing I'm leaving in October - I prefer my mental image of the Bay Area as ALWAYS being sunny. Well OK, it's not so bad, but according to the locals, it can (and sometimes does) rain for months in a row here! NYC is cold, but it has the advantage of many sunny winter days.

Tons of progress made in the last few days. Brian has the clean veggie oil tank fully fabricated and the larger dirty tank is almost finished. Once he adds the ports for filling and sucking oil, we can bring them over the Bay Bridge and put them on the bus! I hope they fit down the hallway - it will be tight, but if my measurements were correct, they should squeeze through with an inch or two to spare.

The rest of the veggie fuel system is coming along quite nicely - once we get the tanks in, we will connect hoses and start testing everything out and collecting grease. Aaron wired up a bank of 3 switches based on a design by Green John. One switch is left for diesel, right for veggie. A second switch is left for dirty-to-clean-tank pump on, right for pump off. The third is for routing the fuel return either into the normal diesel or into the veggie tanks.

We installed these switches into the driver's left panel. I also figured out that there is an easy way to shut off the bus batteries - there is a big breaker switch just to the left of the batteries in the main compartment, which makes it much easier to play it safe!

Aaron wrapped copper tubing around the two fuel filters for the veggie oil. They are marine centrifugal filters that should also separate any water our of the fuel. The copper tubing will be for engine coolant to flow through in order to make sure the oil is nice and runny when it goes through the filter, something that speeds up the whole process and makes the filters more efficient.

Aaron also made a simple mount for the dirty filter (the filter for the dirty grease) and the dirty pump. The dirty filter will contain 30µm filters that need to be changed roughly every 500 miles and they will be accessed from the hallway. I am thinking of building a closet in the hallway, since there will have to be a recessed wall that will separate this filter from where the bed will eventually be. The dirty pump will pump grease through the dirty filter and into the clean tank. We are lookig for a good way to have an automatic shutoff circuit for this pump so that when the filter gets sufficiently clogged and the vacuum pressure gets sufficiently high as a result, the pump will shut off and a light will come on on the driver's dash. If we can't do this circuit right now, we will just put in a pressure gauge that will have to be checked periodically.

Daniel cut holes in the side of the bus for the veggie oil fill ports. They are pretty high since the tanks are sitting on the floor of the bus and the fills are at the top of the tanks. We JUST barely made it under the bottom of the window frame!

Daniel also cut holes on the wood panel on the inside of the bus. We removed the piping for the washer and dryer since I don't ever plan on washing my clothes again. At least not on the bus, that is! ;) The vegetable oil fill hoses will come through these holes and dump into the top of the tanks. Normally you would only fill the dirty tank, but if you have oil you know is very clean (or if you are really desperate to move) you can put oil directly into the clean tank. The bed will be above all of this, so under normal circumstances the only thing you might notice is a little heat coming up from the heated tanks.

I've also started designing the first microscope stations in earnest. This is the initial design. It will go between the refrigerator and and the front door. It will be 6 feet wide and 2-3 feet deep and there should be enough room for two microscopes and 4 students. I am currently planning on making the infrastructure from materials from a company called 80/20. It is like industrial strength tinkertoys! There are two local firms that will help me with the design and make sure that it is structural sounds and can withstand the shears the structure might encounter on the open road.

Finally, we are on for the first demonstration on October 20th in NYC at the Siemens-Columbia Science fair. More information on that soon!

Cell Art

2007-09-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a lot better with Illustrator - mainly just need more time ... or someone to help me (you?).

In anycase, the happy starfish on the website has been replaced by one of these critters. What do you think?

Installing wiring to switches, pumps, and solenoid valves yesterday and today - tanks are almost ready, either tomorrow or Monday. Still waiting on some parts, but by the end of next week we might be doing some road tests with the veggie oil system.

www.biobus.org

2007-09-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

A few pieces of great news today.

First, the aluminum tanks that Brian in Berkeley is making are nearing completion. I am really thankful to have found him, he is a real craftsman.

Second, Aaron and I figured out what was wrong with the transmission - turns out it there were some bad electrical connections from the limit switches in the transmission shifter-arm cylinder. Basically, the bus was shifting gears fine, but the limit switch that is supposed to tell the rest of the transmission that shift was successful was just not telling anyone anything! So the bus would not go into gear - that is, not without Lynn (or Leah or Jonathan) going back and manually closing the circuit. Thanks Lynn and Leah and Jonathan for your help - but thankfully now you can do more interesting things with your time than help me shift the bus into forward.

Third, thanks to Matt for suggesting to look for the domain name http://www.biobus.org, I now control this domain. I looked for it when I was first checking domains, but it was not available. Sometime between then and now it became available.

I am also now considering changing the name of the bus from BioStar to plain old BioBus. It is less geeky (not necessarily a plus, but still true), it is more natural to say (perhaps because I don't feel as much like a huge geek when I say it?), and it is very intuitive - not only is the bus biofueled, more important it is a BIO lab. See, I feel silly even explaining it because it is so obvious. And basically everyone (with the exception of some people who call the bus 'sammie bussie') already calls it the BioBus, including me, so I think I'm basically convinced.

On another note, I found out today that the not-for-profit application, after almost two months, is now sitting in the Dept. of Education's Office for Professions, in the department that deals with massage therapists, clinical laboratory technicians, and occupational psychologists. I'm really looking forward to when someone in that office decides to pick up the phone when it rings and explains to me what they've been doing with my articles of incorporation since Aug. 15th, the date that they received them for review. Earlier today I was trapped in a satanic pentagram of government bureaucracy, being transferred from office to office to office to office and then BACK TO THE FIRST OFFICE, at which point I was hung up on. Twice. Tomorrow I will attempt to directly contact the third point on the pentagram and hope that Satan does not clap into existence in a cloud of brimstone and force me to turn over my soul in exchange for the Dept. of Education's stamp of approval.

And for the last time, I AM NOT A MASSAGE THERAPIST! It's just a side thing!!

WTF?!%&?

OK, I will end this post on a happy note - I bought a half dozen LED lights in assorted pretty colors today. I will wire them in series with as many switches as I can, so that the dash of the bus will look like the cockpit of a jet at night.

WOOT!

Website Update

2007-09-17T11:14:00.001-07:00

The cell motion website is looking more spiffy already, thanks to all of your input!

Cell Motion Website

2007-09-16T19:11:00.001-07:00

I had a great time with my Aunt Dena last night, regaling her with stories of Lynn and my trip while we were treated to the delicious wine and food of Universal Cafe. She gave me a push to get business cards made, and so I made a simple design today for business cards and also for the website. Here is the basic idea.
Obviously far from complete - here are some ideas to make it better - 1) replace the picture of the globe with a picture of a cell with nucleus and flailing lamellipodium 2) change the colors to something warmer and more organic 3) alter the swoosh so that it comes down like a road under the bus 4) find somewhere to put an image of a microscope.

Suggestions? Oh, and BioStar is the current name for the bus, but I am open to suggestions here.

Finally, my dad Ed will be joining me for the trip back East! He will fly out here and then we will leave together for NYC, where I will continue developing the curriculum. It will be a great trip!

San Francisco Produce

2007-09-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

One of the many great things about living at Flowershop is that there is a big market right outside the front door every weekend! Saturday is the farmer's market while Sunday is the flea market. HMMMMM strawberries chili peppers chocolate cheese melons chard plums.

Only a few notes on the bus - Aaron is off today. First, found out that the engine compartment was open to the back interior of the bus - the cover was there but was not bolted down. Bolting this down should keep exhaust from coming in the back. Second, there was a leak in the air system that seems to have been fixed when we took the driver's left hand control panel off and back on. I think it had something to do with the disconnecting and reconnecting the parking brake knob, because there is no longer a persistent hiss of air when the parking brake is disengaged. Also, as of now, there is no hiss coming from any of the wheel wells, which is itself a change, and bodes well for the state of the air system.

Finally, I spoke with Daniel, a metal / wood worker here at flower shop. He and I will start working on installing the first microscope station on Monday. We are going to start simple and flexible - there is this stuff called Superstrut that has a dealer on Potrero Hill. It is basically a strut-based Legos system made out of steel, with lots of different joints and mounts attachments. Conveniently, there are mounting holes on the roof where the luggage rack used to be (see Greg's picture showing original racks). The plan is to put in a series of vertical struts that hook into the roof where the luggage racks were and screw into the wood floor of the bus. The lab tables will then bolt onto these struts, like any basic adjustable shelving system. And, like shelving, multiple tables could be installed - for instance the microscopes could be on a lower, full shelf, while there could be a shelf half as deep above the microscope to hold equipment such as a computer monitor and power supplies.

I keep thinking about how perfect it is to be here at the Flowershop. The place is filled with talented people that are really enthusiastic and creative. I'm going to try to give a little bit back to the place tomorrow by giving a little lecture and having a discussion about my PhD work, titled How Cells Move and Why They Might Kill You - basically the same talk as I gave at my thesis defense. I'm really looking forward to it! That will be at 7pm, just before the 8pm weekly radio show (broadcast here) and Double Dutch. FUN. Back in the old days in Philly I used to be able to do double dutch - last week I could get in but only hop once or twice before tripping up. We'll see how I do this time!

One last thing - there is a hippie living here named Diamond Dave (photo to right by Dave Rhodes) who has invited me to give a public lecture at San Francisco City College, where he is a student as well as Minister of Culture (he helped lead a takeover of student government by a coalition of anarchists and other politically radical students). So another thing to look forward. This should also help me kick into high gear my search for used microscopes for the bus! So far I only have one microscope lined up.

That's all for today - heading out now to meet my sweet Aunt Dena for an early dinner!

San Francisco Grease

2007-09-14T17:41:00.001-07:00

I am working in the Flowershop collective just South of Bernal Hill in SF. Veggie oil pro and all around great guy, Aaron, is helping me convert the bus to run on waste vegetable oil. After more than a week of planning, we have decided to redesign the back portion of the bus. Since the front of the bus will be where the microscope lab is going to be, I want there to be a bed and an office in the back of the bus. To the right is a sketch of what it will look like.

I like this design for a few reasons - 1) the bed area can be partitioned off from the workspace so that students can come back into the workspace without being in my bedroom, 2) it consolidates the bed and office space more than before and 3) it allows us to put the grease tanks above the back axle and mostly centered. One interesting feature of the design is that you have to step over the back driver's side wheel well to get into the back. The wheel well comes up about 2 feet - I think that this will make the rear compartment of the bus feel like a cozy little nook, although I suppose that depends on how tall you are.

Why veggie oil? Lynn and I found that the bus gets about 6mpg, and driving from Beresford, South Dakota to San Francisco cost about $700 in diesel fuel. The veggie conversion should cost around $4000 including everything, which, at $3 per gallon of diesel, will pay for itself after around 10,000 miles. So, from a purely economic stand point, the conversion will pay for itself very quickly.

We've hired this great guy, Brian, to fabricate the oil tanks out of aluminum. He lives in the East Bay, about 3 blocks from Aaron! I am really glad we found him - it is great to be able to customize everything and to be able to see the tanks as they're being built, and he is doing both tanks for about $1000. The tanks should be done by the end of next week.

While Brian is working on the tanks we have plenty to do. For instance, Daniel, an awesome metal and wood worker here at Flowershop, built a metal bracket on which he mounted the 'clean' veggie oil fuel filter (it is the tall white thing hanging on the two horizontal arms):

A second filter like this one will sit between the 'dirty' and 'clean' tanks shown in the diagram above. It will be accessible from the hallway as you walk towards the back of the bus. I will have to figure out a way to keep from splattering oil everywhere in the hallway when I change that first filter, which needs to happen roughly every 500 miles. The paper filter replacements (about $8 a piece) are easy to change out, but I think I will be happy that this is not happening just under my bed! I mean, I love the smell of french fries and all, but...

In the coming days, Aaron and I will get all the fuel lines, pumps, filters, valves, and switches in place. Today we installed the wiring for the switches and gauges that will sit on the driver's left hand dash. This will allow the driver to switch between diesel and veggie, backflush diesel into the veggie tanks, and control the flow of oil from the dirty to clean tank. There will also be fuel gauges for the two oil tanks - a step forward from the diesel tank, which has only one gauge right next to where you fill it, and that does not even work!!

In spite of no diesel fuel gauge, Lynn and I managed to NOT run out of diesel on our trip. OK, well there was this one time where we got pretty close - my eyes popped out when I pumped 42 gallons into the tank. I think the tank is 50 gallons, but no one REALLY knows. Throughout the trip we were having really erratic fuel efficiency readings, which made predicting when to fuel even more difficult. Oh, and did I mention that there is no Odometer? HAHAH Fortunately, someone installed one on the rear axel. Once we figured this out, Lynn didn't have to add up the mileage from the map anymore!

Enough for now - when I have time I will put up some retroactive posts chronicling the journey out to SF! For now, here I leave you with a picture, "BioStar in the Badlands"

Hitchiker

2007-08-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

Hitchiker

This is a Beresford grasshopper that wanted to go to Burning Man with Lynn and me. I think it hopped off before we got started - good thing to, since we didn't pack enough water for this cutie.