Microbiology might not be everyone's idea of fun, but a new DIY project from Stanford University aims to bring'playful interaction' to the study of single-celled organisms. A bioengineer has developed a 3-D printed smartphone microscope that allows users to observe microbes called Euglena, to make serious observations or even play games. The researchers have revealed interactive platforms to go along with the device, including a virtual soccer game and a Pac-Man-like maze, which rely on the movement of the tiny light-seeking organisms. A bioengineer has developed a 3-D printed smartphone microscope that allows users to observe microbes called Euglena, to make serious observations or even play games. A small platform on the device holds the microscope slide, where Euglena swim around freely. These microbes respond to light, and four LEDs activated by a joystick can be used to influence the directions by which they travel by varying the intensity.

To say that something is ill-defined is more to describe us than it. That is, for sane system we are dealing with, we are more or less ignorant of its working, and that means that we have special problems in trying to control it. Nevertheless, of course, most of the real systems we deal with are ill-defined in that sense -- like other people. But we do find ways to exercise some degree of control. The main theme here is that -- regardless of exactly what control means -- it is feasible to do better by a succcession of quite small improvements in a strategy.