HardwareX Podcasts

What does it take to build an equitable and sustainable bioeconomy?Global population growth and overconsumption of many resources are putting increased pressure on the environment and contributing to the acceleration of climate change. One solution and possible alternative to our dependence on fossil fuels is the bioeconomy. But how can we ensure an equitable transition across the globe?In this episode of Open Hardware Talks, we're joined by Dr Jenny Molloy, Associate Professor with the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, advisor to the World Economic Forum and winner of the 2026 EU Open Source Awards in the category Special Recognition for Advocacy and Awareness for her work in pioneering Open Science Hardware. Dr Molloy’s work focuses on better understanding problems facing researchers in low-resource contexts, particularly Latin America and Africa. Join Dr Molloy as she takes us to the wet lab and demonstrates how openness can help democratise access to key research, technologies and biological materials.HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

3D bioprinting is gaining momentum. As an alternative method for fabricating tissue-mimicking constructs serving as tissue models, animal-free drug screening platforms and tissue replacements for regenerative medicine, 3D printing technology is a tool most labs do not want to be without. Owing to rigid designs and high associated costs, however, the technology is barely inching towards releasing its full potential.Then came Nils Bessler and Maj-Britt Buchholz: bioengineers and PhD graduates from Utrecht University who worked together at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology. Focused on using bioprinting to scale organoid and organoid-on-chip technologies, they co-developed and published open-source bioprinters including the Nydus One syringe extruder and the AnyBio bioprinter: An affordable, open-source mSLA 3D printer enabling researchers to grow complex in-vitro models, for instance, for Diffuse Midline Glioma, a deadly childhood brain cancer.HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Summer's coming in hot across the world, and with it, an ever-increasing risk of devastating wildfires. However, while some fires are unwanted, others can be life-saving. Throughout history, humans have managed lands and crops through prescribed fires, inadvertently mitigating the risk of actual wildfires along the way by removing excess "fuel" from the landscape. Knowing exactly how hot such fires burn is crucial to understanding both fire ecology, safety and management, and the actual implications of rising temperatures.This led researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to develop FireLog: A remote sensing device designed to withstand temperatures up to 800°C and simultaneously deliver high levels of spatial replication at a limited cost.In this episode of HardwareX, we're joined by Sabrina Russo, a plant ecologist and professor at the School of Biological Sciences, and Nipuna Chamara, a Research Assistant Professor with the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, to learn more about what happens when nature burns.HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

The Franz Diffusion Cell (FDC) is a piece of equipment used for studying in vitro drug absorption across the skin and other biological membranes over time. Internationally recognised as vital to commercial drug certification and pharmacological research, yet FDCs present a dilemma: Manual systems are cumbersome and introduce more human error, while automated FDCs often come with a high price tag and vendor lock-ins. Enter OTTO: An automated FDC sampling system converted from an open-source 3D printer, and specifically designed to be retrofittable to various systems and analytical equipment.To get to know OTTO, we're joined in this episode of HardwareX by Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics at Newcastle University, Dr Keng Wooi Ng, and Trainee Pharmacist, Liam Archibald.HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

In this episode of Open Hardware Talks, the founder of the RepRap Project, Dr Adrian Bowyer MBE, sits down to explain how it all came to be. Beginning with a childhood dream and ending with an uplifting perspective on human progress, Dr Bowyer takes us from the past to the present, and onwards to the future, handing out golden nuggets on Darwinism, AI and open source along the way.Few things have been as groundbreaking for hardware manufacturing as the introduction of open source 3D printing. Nearly two decades after the RepRap project released 3D printing to the world, biologists are experimenting with printed human tissue as a way to solve the global transplant shortage; architects are envisioning what 3D-printed houses on the Moon might look like; and countless authors on HardwareX are using the technology to develop new designs for crisis response, research, healthcare and beyond.HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Increased evaporation leads to increased precipitation. Warming at nearly twice the rate of the global average, Asia is increasingly prone to heavy rainfall and flooding. While monitoring river levels can help warn local governments and communities of risks, a majority of the world's rivers remain ungauged.To scale river level monitoring, researchers in Laos set about developing an affordable, frugal design for an open-source laser gauge capable of withstanding the harsh conditions of the country's inter-tropical rivers.In this episode, Alain Pierret and Norbert Silvera from IRD, the French Research Institute for Development, explain the challenges that led to the design, the benefits of river monitoring, and why open-source is key to enabling technology transfer. HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

As tools at the forefront of innovation in medicine and biotechnology, bioreactors are increasingly taking centre stage in research facilities and industrial labs alike. From acting as the fermentation vessels that give us beer to enabling a greener, more sustainable way of treating wastewater, bioreactors have played a key role in ensuring the quality of modern life. Yet, the high cost and low flexibility of bioreactor designs can leave researchers struggling to conduct their desired experiments, ultimately putting the brakes on key research and innovation.This was the case for Laurens Parret, a PhD student with the Chemical and Biochemical Reactor Engineering and Safety (CREaS) unit at KU Leuven, Belgium. Seeing as the lab's high-cost bioreactors didn't meet the requirements for his work on biological wastewater treatment, Laurens set out to devise his own, the BIO-SPEC system. In this episode, Laurens, together with Kenneth Simoens, Lab Manager at CREaS KU Leuven, gets technical about bioreactors and helps us understand why more and more researchers are embracing DIY solutions to accelerate innovation.HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

Space is busier than ever before.In the latest edition of the global space race, private actors have joined the game. But space as the next frontier for businesses comes at a price. As debris in orbit continues to increase and more fossil-fuel-powered rockets are sending celebrities into space, what will happen to our ecosystems on Earth? Should the galaxy really only be in the hands of a few, and if not, what happens if everyone can join in?In this deep-diving episode of Open Hardware Talks, we go beyond Earth's atmosphere to explore how open source technologies are shaping the space of tomorrow. We're joined by Eleftherios Kosmas from Libre Space Foundation, an Athens-based organisation developing and sharing open source space technology, alongside Pen-Yuan Hsing, who researches and advises on Open Science and Citizen Science, and Dr. Elena Cirkovic, a researcher at the Department of Law at Aarhus University, Denmark, who's exploring the legal side of space usage, maintenance and sustainability. HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

As the right to repair gained political momentum, it obliged companies to share design files and repair guides with every new device. But what about the right to upcycle older technologies?With the power of machine learning, computerised microscopes are increasing efficiency and accuracy in scientific research. However, commercially available microscopes often come with a large price tag, rendering them inaccessible to labs or institutes on a budget. Instead, an interdisciplinary team at UC Santa Cruz in California decided to explore what it would take to turn legacy microscopes into modern devices fit for the needs of the 21st-century research lab.In this episode of HardwareX, Samira Vera and Drew Ehrlich from UC Santa Cruz in California join us to talk about the challenges of microscopy, the promise of machine learning, and how open-source-driven upcycling can benefit research.HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

MedTech has an accessibility problem. Life-saving medicine, groundbreaking diagnostics technologies and much-needed lab equipment at the hands of profit-driven companies and oligopolies. What are the consequences of betting human health on proprietary markets, and what alternatives can open-source offer?In this Open Hardware Talks, Lukas Winter (Open Source Imaging Initiative), Joe Knapper (OpenFlexure) and Anthony Di Franco (OpenInsulin) discuss challenges in healthcare accessibility, the benefits of open source approaches, and the potential future impact on medical technology, with examples from their succesful open-source projects - an OS low-field MRI system, an OS microscope and an OS protocol for insulin.Open Source Imaging Initiative: Access to MRI systems remains highly unequal between regions, countries and the global north-south divide. Millions of people are denied diagnostic healthcare, and crucial research faces constant roadblocks, as scientists struggle to compare results between closed 'black box' systems.OpenFlexure: Optical microscopes are an essential tool for scientific analysis and the detection of diseases in clinics, yet access to high-performance microscopy is limited in much of the world due to high up-front and maintenance costs and brittle supply chains. OpenInsulin: Most of the world's insulin supply currently relies on the profit-driven business model of three companies. As a result, struggling economies remain undersupplied, and, when a drug is pulled from the market, patients are left shuffling to find alternatives, as seen with the removal of Levemir by Novo Nordisk from the US in 2023. HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.