Image above by @liz

Our work in Somerville is developing in partnership with Parts and Crafts. Somerville is also home to Sprout and the Boston-area Dorkbot chapter.

The Public Lab chapter in Somerville is currently hosted out of the p.irateship, a coworking and hacking space at 438 Somerville Ave -- but folks have also held events at or near Parts and Crafts (above).

Projects

In Somerville, we've been interested in

• measuring vegetation health using near-infrared cameras
• detecting heat leaks with cheap, DIY thermal photography, allowing for better winterization and heating bill savings
• investigating waste flows, such as where our trash goes -- with Pablo Rey from Basurama.org
  • check out this map of a landfill in Saugus, MA which we made in late 2011
• improving the DIY spectrometer for investigating oil and tar contamination (mainly for use at the Gowanus Canal and along the Gulf Coast

Above: a kite map of the Saugus incinerator ash landfill, where most of the Boston area's trash ends up.

We occasionally have meetups at the Pirateship, so get in touch on the mailing list if you're interested in participating in or organizing a local meetup.

At Parts & Crafts, we've been doing occasional workshops building spectrometers, infrared cameras, such as the one used to take this photograph:

Tool sharing

Folks on the local plots-boston discussion list often lend and borrow Public Lab kits and other resources. To request a kit, or help with a kit from other local members, please email the list -- you can sign up in the upper left.

To offer resources borrowing, please add your name and the available tool below:

• DIY Spectrometer: warren, kgradow1
• Kites (9-foot & 7-foot): warren, kgradow1
• Balloon Mapping kits: warren
• Space for events: kgradow1
• Infragram cameras: warren

Other things are often available, so please ask on the list if you're wondering!

Where is the p.irateship?

See http://where.irateship.com for a map, the photo below for the front of the building, and http://p.irateship.com for some nonsense which may or may not be useful.