Using Lego for science

Did you know Lego pieces can serve as a primitive analog Monte Carlo agent?

Yeah, I didn't either. In fact, I hardly know what that sentence means.

What happened is a mathematician at a German university dumped a bunch of Lego pieces in a washing machine (without washing powder, he is careful to note in his report on the project. Some of the Lego bricks stuck together (“many stable complexes arose”) and the mathematician with too much time on his hands recognized this could be used to visualize aspects of spontaneous self-organization, because why not.

Lego pieces are intended to be versatile. And while the creators of the classic construction toy may not have planned for their product to be used to model advanced mathematics via washing machine, the ABS bricks have served plenty of uses beyond model Eiffel Towers and Millennium Falcons.

I found a few other examples of scientists using Lego products to create their own specialized tools. Often driven by budget constraints, their inventions are clever and cost-effective and a little more distinctive than your average microscope (although someone made one of those, too.

The plant holder

Researchers at Iowa State University built little Lego brick containers to hold germinating seeds for their study of how variations in the environment can affect root systems.

The transparent bricks, holding a growth medium that is also transparent, give researchers a 3-D view of a plant's roots. The Lego bricks can be reconfigured to provide whatever size and shape of container the scientists need and, according to their report, the hardy ABS can even be sterilized in an autoclave without melting.

The insect gripper

A group of entomologists developed a tool to help them study fragile pinned insect specimens.

Natural history collections are invaluable data sources, but bugs-on-a-stick are prone to damage when handled. The scientists needed a mechanism to hold a specimen that would allow it to be adjusted easily, while also allowing proper illumination and magnification. But commercially available products can be expensive and often don't fit all insect groups.

Using Lego rods and connectors, the entomologists built pinned insect manipulators in a range of sizes. Inspired by the “daily grind of comparative morphology” (we've all been there, amirite?), the design allows specimens to be rotated on any axis with minimal fumbling of clumsy human hands.

The bone dipper

Scientists from Cambridge University investigating ways to create artificial bone used a Lego creation to automate part of their research process.

There's more information on their process in the video below. Basically, it involves repeatedly dipping a sample into a series of beakers of liquid. The researchers built a tiny robotic Lego crane to do the dipping, cleverly sparing themselves from such drudgery.