Mels Picks

While Danny Banks's Introduction to Microengineering is not the most exhaustive discussion of MEMS chemical sensors, it is a clear explanation of how the various types of microengineered chemical sensors work, with excellent explanatory diagrams. This page discusses ISFET sensors, enzyme-based biosensors, and microelectrodes for neurophysiology. At the end of the page you'll find links to additional related research pages.

 Melanie Martella
Melanie Martella

www.dbanks.demon.co.uk/ueng/chemsens.html

A recent law entitles you to a free annual credit report from each of the three major credit reporting companies. The Annual Credit Report Web site was set up as a central site to allow you to request a credit report from all three simultaneously, rather than having to contact each company individually.



Residents in western states are currently eligible to get their reports for free. The rest of us will have to wait (depending on which region of the country we're in) until September 1, 2005, at the latest. What an excellent idea!



www.annualcreditreport.com

This is so twisted, I couldn't not share. What do you get when you combine the ancient art of bonsai—in which trees are carefully nurtured and trimmed over years to create a perfect dwarf tree—and a car accident? Why, you get Crash Bonsai! Yup, artist John Rooney meticulously mangles model cars and then poses them artfully with a bonsai tree to create the impression that the little car has crashed into the little tree—with possibly tragic results, although no little corpses are in evidence. You can have your very own car accident in painstaking miniature! This is so delightfully bizarre.



www.crashbonsai.com

New to Bookshelves!

Signal Conditioning & PC-Based Data Acquisition Handbook: A Reference for Analog & Digital Signal Conditioners & PC-Based Data Acquisition Systems, Third Ed.

Editor: John R. Gyorki
Published by IOtech, Inc.
ISBN: 0-9656789-3-8

This paperback handbook discusses, with emphasis on practical applications, DA and signal conditioning. It is intended to give the reader sufficient information to understand basic principles involved and identify potential problem areas when interconnecting different systems.



There are twelve chapters, which cover the basics of DA, from A/D conversion, multiplexing and sampling, electrical measurements, fundamental signal conditioning (amplification, filtering, isolation, attenuation, linearization, and so on), noise reduction and isolation, digital and pulse trail signal conditioning, and TEDS. Chapters 6–9 cover sensor-specific topics: temperature, strain, vibration and sound, displacement, and position sensing.

 Quick Poll
Quick Poll

Although produced by IOtech, the handbook is completely product neutral. It is rich with clear graphs and diagrams and is clearly written. If you're looking for a good but not exhaustive DA reference, this may be a good choice.