The Future of Open-Source Hardware and Science - Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs - page 263

al science. With the digital designs of scientific instrumentation shared freely in the scientific
community, old challenges like reproducibility of experiments should fade into memory. In
the near future, if you want to replicate a really good experiment that you freely read about
in PLOS One to build of it, you will download the necessary files for the equipment, use your
3-D printer to fabricate them and run the experiment with the settings that were in the at-
tached files. Then you will get to the next step faster. Others will be doing the same and you
can all collaborate and pool your data to accelerate scientific development at rates never even
dreamed about in the past.

7.5 Concluding Thoughts
The outlook for development of scientific-grade instrumentation utilizing the free and open-
source hardware approach is extremely promising. Inexpensive open-source 3-D printers and
free software have put one-off production of highly specialized tools within the grasp of the
end user, bypassing historically expensive design, marketing and manufacturing steps. Per-
haps more importantly, these technologies and methodologies promise previously unheard-of
access to sophisticated instrumentation by those most in need of it, laboratories in underdeve-
loped and developing countries. Science will be helped and accelerated directly as well as in-
directly, by reducing the costs of high-quality lab-based hands-on science and technology edu-
cation. The future is bright as a virtuous cycle is created with the benefits of sharing designs
helping to further accelerate research within your own laboratory. Join us and enjoy the ride.

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