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I recently moved and our new home is equipped with a ventilation system that distributes fresh (outside) air through the house and recoups heat from the air that is exhausted. There is a problem with this system, though. Sometimes, for example when a neighbour lights their wood stove, the system pulls in smoke, even though… Continue reading Home Assistant-compatible air quality sensor
over a year ago

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More from Willem Pennings

Fixing my heating system

The heating system in my apartment building consists of a group of heat pumps that deliver warm water to the underfloor heating system of about a dozen apartments, including mine. During the warm summer months, the system supplies cool water instead. The heat pumps figure out whether to supply warm or cool water, and a… Continue reading Fixing my heating system

a year ago 66 votes
Balancing cube

This cube manages to balance itself on a corner, and can simultaneously rotate around its axis in a controlled manner. It does so using clever controls and a set of three reaction wheels. The original idea for this device comes from researchers at ETH Zürich, who demonstrate their “Cubli” in this video. Its design has… Continue reading Balancing cube

a year ago 48 votes
ClockSquared improvements

My ClockSquared project has a long history – it goes all the way back to 2015, when it was simply called the “Birthday word clock”. I haven’t spent much time on the project in recent years, but I’ve upgraded the internals a while ago and finally felt like writing a post about it. Two things… Continue reading ClockSquared improvements

over a year ago 38 votes
ClockSquared Mini, a word clock wristwatch

About a year ago, I had some time to spare over the summer and decided to challenge myself with a project that I call “Clocksquared Mini”. It is Clocksquared, but in a tiny wristwatch package. This gives rise to a major challenge, as everything has to be shrunk down approximately ten times from a 300x300x50… Continue reading ClockSquared Mini, a word clock wristwatch

over a year ago 32 votes

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China's most overrated asset with Mike Bird

Episode four of the Works in Progress podcast is about land.

14 hours ago 4 votes
New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder

For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and randomness, like those that model semiconductors. A new method could change that. The post New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder first appeared on Quanta Magazine

15 hours ago 2 votes
How Should We Evaluate Healthcare AI? Some Thoughts | Out-Of-Pocket

Maybe we’re thinking about all of these papers the wrong way

3 days ago 5 votes
The Amazon Rainforest Approaches a Point of No Return

In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — Brazilian filmmakers capture striking images of clear-cutting and explore how human activity is so damaging the world’s largest rainforest that it will not be able to recover. Read more on E360 →

4 days ago 5 votes
Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease

This is an interesting story, and I am trying to moderate my optimism. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the major cause of dementia in humans, is a very complex disease. We have been studying it for decades, revealing numerous clues as to what kicks it off, what causes it to progress, and how to potentially treat it. […] The post Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

4 days ago 5 votes