Abstract

Science outreach and communication are gaining more and more importance for conveying the meaning of today’s research to the general public. Public exhibitions of scientific instruments can provide hands-on experience with technical advances and their applications in the life sciences. The software of such devices, however, is oftentimes not appropriate for this purpose. In this study, we describe a software framework and the necessary computer configuration that is well suited for exposing a complex self-built and software-controlled instrument such as a microscope to laymen under limited supervision, e.g. in museums or schools. We identify several aspects that must be met by such software, and we describe a design that can simultaneously be used to control either (i) a fully functional instrument in a robust and fail-safe manner, (ii) an instrument that has low-cost or only partially working hardware attached for illustration purposes or (iii) a completely virtual instrument without hardware attached. We describe how to assess the educational success of such a device, how to monitor its operation and how to facilitate its maintenance. The introduced concepts are illustrated using our software to control eduSPIM, a fluorescent light sheet microscope that we are currently exhibiting in a technical museum.

Highlights

  • Science outreach can be performed in different ways, e.g. through web publishing, public discussions, school visits or dedicated outreach events

  • The page was divided into three panels: the main panel containing a snapshot of the latest rendering displayed on the microscope computer, a diagram showing the number of stacks acquired since the exhibition was opened and a histogram indicating how often each button was pressed on the current day

  • The concepts presented in this paper apply whenever a scientific instrument needs to be operated reliably without supervision

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Summary

Introduction

Science outreach can be performed in different ways, e.g. through web publishing, public discussions, school visits or dedicated outreach events. In this paper we elaborate the concepts of a modular software framework that is well suited for controlling an autonomously running scientific instrument. Thorough error handling is critical for the unsupervised operation of a fully functional instrument with working hardware attached to it.

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