[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":851},["ShallowReactive",2],{"news-list":3},[4,153,309,432,710],{"id":5,"title":6,"authors":7,"body":14,"coverAlt":131,"coverCaption":132,"coverCredit":133,"coverImage":134,"date":135,"description":136,"draft":137,"extension":138,"hero":139,"license":140,"meta":141,"metaDescription":142,"navigation":143,"path":144,"reading":145,"seo":146,"stem":147,"summary":148,"tags":149,"updated":142,"__hash__":152},"news\u002Fnews\u002Fopentwin-xr.md","How we build an open human body for our digital twin, in the browser",[8,11],{"name":9,"role":10},"Martin Etzrodt, PhD","Open Science Institute",{"name":12,"role":13},"Prof. Robin Wilkening","Open Health",{"type":15,"value":16,"toc":125},"minimark",[17,29,44,47,64,67,72,87,90,93,97,100,103,111],[18,19,20,21,28],"p",{},"When building a human digital twin, starting with an accurate anatomical\nrepresentation of the human body seems the first logical step. But what is\nalready out there? Are there any open models we can rely on? This is exactly\nwhat we embarked on in building\n",[22,23,27],"a",{"href":24,"rel":25},"https:\u002F\u002Fopentwin.opening.science\u002F",[26],"nofollow","OpenTwin XR",", an open-source 3D viewer of\nexisting models of the human body. The immersive viewer is built using WebXR\nand can also run directly in the browser without the need of installation.\nWhile the viewer itself is MIT licensed, the anatomical models retain the\nlicences and attribution requirements of their original sources.",[18,30,31,32,37,38,43],{},"We have identified a number of well documented anatomical datasets that could\nbe integrated and are now available for comparison. These include BodyParts3D\nfrom Japan's Database Center for Life Science, the Z-Anatomy atlas built by a\ncommunity around ",[22,33,36],{"href":34,"rel":35},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fgauthier-kervyn\u002F",[26],"Gauthier Kervyn",",\nand the male and female reference anatomies from the\n",[22,39,42],{"href":40,"rel":41},"https:\u002F\u002Fportal.hubmapconsortium.org\u002F",[26],"HuBMAP"," Human Reference Atlas, an\nopen-source platform to discover standardized organ, cell type, gene, and\ntissue data across the human body. We also identified two datasets of bodies\nreconstructed from real CT scans. In all, several thousand individually\nselectable structures are now available, with the most detailed atlas\ncontaining 3,617 of them.",[18,45,46],{},"Our viewer allows switching between the integrated anatomical datasets. We also\ninclude specialised models the atlases do not provide, but that can be added\nwithin them: researchers created an animation of a biventricular heart across\n25 cardiac phases, fitted to cine MRI data, which can be embedded into any of\nthe models and replayed at different heart rates. We also found the data of a\nhuman temporal bone whose surface colours were derived from photographs of the\nsame specimen. The tissue therefore looks as it actually appeared, not as\nimagined or painted.",[48,49,50,51,50,60],"figure",{},"\n  ",[52,53],"img",{"src":54,"alt":55,"width":56,"height":57,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fopentwin-xr\u002Fbeating-heart.jpg","Close-up of the viewer's control panel with the beating heart overlay enabled: a heart rate slider set to 60 bpm above a provenance note, next to a translucent upper body showing vessels and organs.",1400,1046,"lazy","async",[61,62,63],"figcaption",{},"The beating heart overlay: 25 measured cardiac phases from one study participant, with the provenance stated directly in the panel. The heart rate slider is a playback rate, not a measurement.",[18,65,66],{},"For our application two things were especially important.",[68,69,71],"h2",{"id":70},"_1-structures-know-what-they-are","1. Structures know what they are",[18,73,74,75,80,81,86],{},"A liver in our viewer is not simply a mesh named \"liver\". Instead it is matched\nwith an ontology identifier. In the\n",[22,76,79],{"href":77,"rel":78},"https:\u002F\u002Fobophenotype.github.io\u002Fuberon\u002F",[26],"Uberon"," Multi-Species Anatomy\nontology, liver maps to the identifier\n",[22,82,85],{"href":83,"rel":84},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ebi.ac.uk\u002Fols4\u002Fontologies\u002Fuberon\u002Fclasses\u002Fhttp%253A%252F%252Fpurl.obolibrary.org%252Fobo%252FUBERON_0002107",[26],"UBERON:0002107",".\nIt also maps to FMA, another domain ontology that represents a coherent body of\nexplicit declarative knowledge about human anatomy. Using ontologies we can\nassign any body structure a machine-readable biological identity.",[18,88,89],{},"All 1,838 BodyParts3D structures now have an FMA identifier, and approximately\nhalf of the Z-Anatomy structures have already been mapped. For 457 structures,\nthe viewer can also provide the ontology's own definition of the selected\nanatomy.",[18,91,92],{},"This semantic layer is what will eventually allow the body viewer to connect\nreliably with real data. A name can change between models and languages; a\nstable identifier can survive an atlas swap.",[68,94,96],{"id":95},"_2-provide-documented-provenance","2. Provide documented provenance",[18,98,99],{},"Anatomical models often originate from donated bodies, medical imaging,\nphysical specimens or research participants. Their origins and conditions of\nuse therefore matter. As an organisation that aims to promote openness, we rely\non the very fact that others have provided us with open and accessible data. We\nwant to ensure that we attribute each work accordingly.",[18,101,102],{},"Each model in the viewer is listed with its licence to ensure documenting\nwhere the model came from, who created it, and under which terms it may be\nused. While the viewer code we generated is open source MIT licensed,\nindividual anatomical datasets remain governed by their respective licences.",[18,104,105,106,110],{},"We ultimately aim to overlay the anatomical features with spatial, possibly real-time medical data\nfrom wearables, as part of the wider ",[22,107,109],{"href":108},"\u002FOpenTwinLab\u002F","OpenTwin"," project. The\nanatomy viewer currently helps us map what open resources there are. It does\nnot claim to provide any medical insight or advice.",[18,112,113,114,119,120,124],{},"Code is available on\n",[22,115,118],{"href":116,"rel":117},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FOpening-Science\u002Fopen-twin-xr\u002F",[26],"GitHub",". The\n",[22,121,123],{"href":24,"rel":122},[26],"viewer"," runs without local installation on\nthe browser. Issues and pull requests are welcome!",{"title":126,"searchDepth":127,"depth":127,"links":128},"",2,[129,130],{"id":70,"depth":127,"text":71},{"id":95,"depth":127,"text":96},"The OpenTwin XR viewer showing a male anatomical model from the combined atlas, abdomen view, with the dataset panel open.","OpenTwin XR: the male donor in the combined 'best per system' atlas, abdomen view.","Open Science Foundation","\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fopentwin-xr\u002Fviewer-overview.jpg","2026-08-19","When building a human digital twin, starting with an accurate anatomical\nrepresentation of the human body seems the first logical step. But what is\nalready out there? Are there any open models we can rely on? This is exactly\nwhat we embarked on in building\nOpenTwin XR, an open-source 3D viewer of\nexisting models of the human body. The immersive viewer is built using WebXR\nand can also run directly in the browser without the need of installation.\nWhile the viewer itself is MIT licensed, the anatomical models retain the\nlicences and attribution requirements of their original sources.",false,"md","dispatch","CC BY 4.0",{},null,true,"\u002Fnews\u002Fopentwin-xr","4 min",{"title":6,"description":136},"news\u002Fopentwin-xr","Every human digital twin needs a body. OpenTwin XR is our open-source, browser-based 3D viewer of human anatomy: several open atlases in one viewer, structures with machine-readable identities, and provenance treated as a feature.",[13,150,151],"Open Source","Digital Twin","4epZkhPr0T6fUdl--HC6ECFQLM8MWvL-WyN3jsgRV94",{"id":154,"title":155,"authors":156,"body":159,"coverAlt":293,"coverCaption":294,"coverCredit":133,"coverImage":295,"date":296,"description":163,"draft":137,"extension":138,"hero":297,"license":140,"meta":298,"metaDescription":142,"navigation":143,"path":299,"reading":300,"seo":301,"stem":302,"summary":303,"tags":304,"updated":142,"__hash__":308},"news\u002Fnews\u002Fdigital-twins-book-all-chapters-in.md","All chapters in: Digital Twins in Medicine book enters Open Access production",[157],{"name":158,"role":10},"Robin Wilkening",{"type":15,"value":160,"toc":287},[161,164,168,171,174,178,185,196,202,206,209,217,229,237,245,253,261,264,268,271,284],[18,162,163],{},"All thirteen chapters are in. Each has been submitted, peer reviewed and\nrevised, and the volume now moves into Open Access production for Q4\u002F2026.\nThirty-seven authors contributed. Submissions came in against an April 1st\ndeadline, ran through peer review and revision, and the last acceptances landed\nin early July.",[68,165,167],{"id":166},"the-book","The book",[18,169,170],{},"The volume appears in Springer's Health Informatics series, edited by Robin\nWilkening, at roughly 240 pages. Thanks to support from the Open Science\nFoundation, it will be published Open Access.",[18,172,173],{},"The argument the book makes is that digital twins in medicine are no longer a\nmetaphor. By integrating multimodal health data into computational models, they\nsupport personalised prediction, simulation and continuous learning, and they\nsit at the join between digital health, systems medicine and artificial\nintelligence. What has been missing is not enthusiasm but an interdisciplinary\nframe, one that holds architecture, computation, ethics and clinical practice\nin the same view rather than treating them as separate literatures.",[68,175,177],{"id":176},"thirteen-chapters-three-sections","Thirteen chapters, three sections",[18,179,180,184],{},[181,182,183],"strong",{},"Foundations and Architecture of Digital Twins in Medicine"," establishes the\ntechnical base: digital twins as core infrastructure for a learning health\nsystem, the multi-layer architecture of the human digital twin, and\nverification, validation and uncertainty quantification for trustworthy medical\ntwins.",[18,186,187,190,191,195],{},[181,188,189],{},"Ethics, Governance, and Societal Implications"," takes the harder questions\nearly rather than appending them as a closing caveat: ethical foundations;\ngovernance models for responsible twin ecosystems; security, privacy and\ngovernance in healthcare deployments; and our own contribution, ",[192,193,194],"em",{},"Building an\nOpen Twin Ecosystem: Reference Infrastructure, Governance, and Adoption\nPathways",", which carries the foundation's position that twin infrastructure has\nto be open to be trustworthy.",[18,197,198,201],{},[181,199,200],{},"Clinical Applications and Future Directions"," is the largest section, six\nchapters covering health promotion and preventive medicine, cardiology and\nchronic disease management, oncology and personalised treatment pathways,\ndigital twin-assisted surgery, dermatology, and psychiatry and mental health.",[68,203,205],{"id":204},"the-author-field","The author field",[18,207,208],{},"Thirty-seven authors contributed, and the list reads as a working map of who is\nactually building medical digital twins right now. A few of the names give the\nmeasure of it.",[18,210,211,216],{},[22,212,215],{"href":213,"rel":214},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.vph-institute.org\u002F",[26],"Liesbet Geris"," is Executive Director of the\nVirtual Physiological Human Institute and coordinator of the EDITH Coordination\nand Support Action, the €5m European effort that produced the roadmap for the\nVirtual Human Twin, so the governance chapter is written from inside the process\nthat is currently defining European policy on this.",[18,218,219,224,225,228],{},[22,220,223],{"href":221,"rel":222},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.kcl.ac.uk\u002Fpeople\u002Fpablo-lamata-de-la-orden",[26],"Pablo Lamata"," at King's\nCollege London directs the Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Twins for\nHealthcare and led the construction of more than 3,800 anatomically accurate\ncardiac twins, published in ",[192,226,227],{},"Nature Cardiovascular Research",".",[18,230,231,236],{},[22,232,235],{"href":233,"rel":234},"https:\u002F\u002Ffaculty.mdanderson.org\u002Fprofiles\u002Fcaroline_chung.html",[26],"Caroline Chung"," is\nChief Data and Analytics Officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center and served on the\nUS National Academies committee on foundational research gaps for digital twins.",[18,238,239,244],{},[22,240,243],{"href":241,"rel":242},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.darpa.mil\u002Fabout\u002Fpeople\u002Froozbeh-jafari",[26],"Roozbeh Jafari",", formerly of\nTexas A&M and MIT Lincoln Laboratory and now a program manager in DARPA's\nBiological Technologies Office, built much of the wearable sensing that makes\ncontinuous, real-world twin input possible.",[18,246,247,252],{},[22,248,251],{"href":249,"rel":250},"https:\u002F\u002Fdermatology-research.centre.uq.edu.au\u002Fprofile\u002F289\u002Fpeter-soyer",[26],"H. Peter Soyer"," at the University of\nQueensland leads ACEMID, the Australian 3D total-body imaging network for\nmelanoma detection.",[18,254,255,260],{},[22,256,259],{"href":257,"rel":258},"https:\u002F\u002Fvito.be\u002Fen\u002Fabout-vito\u002Femployees\u002Fgokhan-ertaylan",[26],"Gökhan Ertaylan"," at\nVITO works across systems medicine, data science and regulatory science, led the\n\"I am Frontier\" deep-phenotyping cohort, and is a partner in EDITH; he writes the\narchitecture chapter.",[18,262,263],{},"Around them: modellers, clinicians, ethicists, security researchers and\ninfrastructure people, from Europe, North America and Australia. That mix was\nthe editorial goal from the start, and it is the reason the book took the shape\nit did.",[68,265,267],{"id":266},"what-comes-next","What comes next",[18,269,270],{},"Production runs through the autumn: copy-editing, figures, proofs and the Open\nAccess licensing steps, with publication targeted for Q4\u002F2026. Authors will\nreceive proofs during that window.",[18,272,273,274,278,279,283],{},"Our own chapter connects directly to work happening on the ground. The argument\nthat open reference infrastructure is a precondition for trustworthy twins is\nbeing tested in the ",[22,275,277],{"href":276},"\u002Fresearch\u002F","OpenTwin project",", where the\n",[22,280,282],{"href":281},"\u002Fnews\u002Fbodyloop-scanner-freiburg\u002F","BodyLoop body scanner recently arrived"," and gave the\nproject its first physical measurement layer.",[18,285,286],{},"We will post the DOI and the open link here as soon as the volume is live.",{"title":126,"searchDepth":127,"depth":127,"links":288},[289,290,291,292],{"id":166,"depth":127,"text":167},{"id":176,"depth":127,"text":177},{"id":204,"depth":127,"text":205},{"id":266,"depth":127,"text":267},"The blue Springer cover of Digital Twins in Medicine, Health Informatics series.","Digital Twins in Medicine: Architecture, Ethics and Clinical Applications for a Learning Health System. Springer, Health Informatics series.","\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fdigital-twins-book-all-chapters-in\u002Fdigital-twins-book-cover.jpg","2026-07-30","letter",{},"\u002Fnews\u002Fdigital-twins-book-all-chapters-in","5 min",{"title":155,"description":163},"news\u002Fdigital-twins-book-all-chapters-in","Digital Twins in Medicine, a reference for the field building computational copies of patients, has cleared peer review. The Open Access volume moves into Springer production for Q4\u002F2026.",[305,306,307],"Publications","Digital Twins","Open Access","1pzIMQTH7kTNF9fUGV7KoIANhjwnV75MNdZ3jqW_pS0",{"id":310,"title":311,"authors":312,"body":314,"coverAlt":419,"coverCaption":420,"coverCredit":133,"coverImage":421,"date":422,"description":423,"draft":137,"extension":138,"hero":297,"license":140,"meta":424,"metaDescription":142,"navigation":143,"path":425,"reading":145,"seo":426,"stem":427,"summary":428,"tags":429,"updated":142,"__hash__":431},"news\u002Fnews\u002Fbodyloop-scanner-freiburg.md","Every OpenTwin starts with a body scan: the BodyLoop arrived",[313],{"name":158,"role":10},{"type":15,"value":315,"toc":414},[316,325,336,340,343,346,362,383,387,390,393,395,398,409],[18,317,318,319,324],{},"On 10 July 2026 we finished setting up the\n",[22,320,323],{"href":321,"rel":322},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.vitronic.com\u002Fen-us\u002F3d-bodyscan\u002Fscanner-for-performance-diagnostics",[26],"Vitronic BodyLoop","\nscanner at the OpenTwin project. This important step changes what OpenTwin is,\nbecause until now we have been working with data about bodies, but now we can\nmeasure one.",[48,326,50,327,50,333],{},[52,328],{"src":329,"alt":330,"width":331,"height":332,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbodyloop-scanner-freiburg\u002Fbodyloop-in-arch.jpg","A person standing inside the BodyLoop arch during a scan, sensors and projectors lining the inner face of the arch.",970,1200,[61,334,335],{},"Inside the arch 32 sensors and 16 projectors scan the whole body in 0.3 seconds · Vitronic",[68,337,339],{"id":338},"what-it-does","What it does",[18,341,342],{},"You step onto the mat with no preparation beyond taking your shoes off and\nstand still. Thirty-two auto-calibrated sensors and sixteen projectors capture\nthe surface of the body from every side, taking 0.3 seconds.",[18,344,345],{},"The surface comes back at 25 points per square centimetre, and the machine\nneeds roughly two minutes to process it. The software then does the tedious\npart. It places anatomical landmarks on the surface automatically and works\nout distances, heights, circumferences, angles and volumes, along with a\nposture analysis. Two scans can even be laid over one another, which means you\ncan follow the same person over time rather than describing them only once.",[48,347,50,348,50,354,50,359],{},[52,349],{"src":350,"alt":351,"width":352,"height":353,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbodyloop-scanner-freiburg\u002Fbodyloop-point-cloud.jpg","A raw point cloud of a standing person captured by the scanner, arms slightly out from the body.",704,1036,[52,355],{"src":356,"alt":357,"width":358,"height":332,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbodyloop-scanner-freiburg\u002Fbodyloop-3d-preview.jpg","A front-view body scan output showing a person's silhouette with circumference measurements labelled at the neck, chest, waist, hips, arms and legs, each in centimetres.",718,[61,360,361],{},"From raw capture to numbers: the point cloud the sensors return, and the anthropometry the software calculates.",[18,363,364,365,370,371,376,377,382],{},"Vitronic's 3D photonic scanning is the gold standard for anthropometry in\nepidemiological research, used across cohorts to produce high-quality\nlongitudinal body scans: the Swiss conscript cohorts at the University of\nZurich, where scans were\n",[22,366,369],{"href":367,"rel":368},"https:\u002F\u002Fpeerj.com\u002Farticles\u002F2980\u002F",[26],"validated against manual anthropometry"," and\nthen used to\n",[22,372,375],{"href":373,"rel":374},"https:\u002F\u002Fjournals.plos.org\u002Fplosone\u002Farticle?id=10.1371\u002Fjournal.pone.0234552",[26],"predict fat and muscle mass",";\nthe ",[22,378,381],{"href":379,"rel":380},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nature.com\u002Farticles\u002Fsrep26672",[26],"LIFE-Adult study"," in Leipzig,\nwhich tested the reliability of 3D laser-based anthropometry against classical\nmeasurement.",[68,384,386],{"id":385},"why-this-matters-for-a-digital-twin","Why this matters for a digital twin",[18,388,389],{},"In most human twins built so far, that top layer is the weakest one. Anatomy\nusually gets in as a population average, a BMI number, or a clinical scan taken\nyears ago. What we have now instead is a real measurement of a real person on\na known date. Preventive medicine has wanted signals like these for years, but\nthe measurements were usually too expensive or too invasive to repeat often\nenough to catch them.",[18,391,392],{},"But there is another reason, and it matters to us more than it might sound. A\nscan of your own body is something you can look at and recognise. That is the\ndifference between a dummy twin and a highly personal twin that is run on you.\nIt gives the twin ground truth, so a model predicting how a body will change\ncan be checked against how it actually changed.",[68,394,267],{"id":266},[18,396,397],{},"Protocol first, data second. We are working out a scan procedure we can\nreliably repeat, and we want to know how much the measurement wobbles on its\nown before we start attributing any of that to biology. Alongside it come the\nunglamorous questions: how scans get stored and versioned, how they connect to\nthe rest of the twin, and how consent and governance work, written into the\npipeline rather than bolted on afterwards.",[18,399,400,401,404,405,228],{},"The argument for that openness is set out at length in our chapter ",[192,402,403],{},"Building an\nOpen Twin Ecosystem",", in the forthcoming Open Access volume\n",[22,406,408],{"href":407},"\u002Fnews\u002Fdigital-twins-book-all-chapters-in\u002F","Digital Twins in Medicine",[18,410,411,412,228],{},"More about the ",[22,413,277],{"href":276},{"title":126,"searchDepth":127,"depth":127,"links":415},[416,417,418],{"id":338,"depth":127,"text":339},{"id":385,"depth":127,"text":386},{"id":266,"depth":127,"text":267},"The BodyLoop scanner room: a white sensor arch on a floor mat beside a desk with the operator workstation.","The BodyLoop scanner, installed and running at the OpenTwin site in Freiburg, 10 July 2026.","\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbodyloop-scanner-freiburg\u002Fbodyloop-installed.jpg","2026-07-10","On 10 July 2026 we finished setting up the\nVitronic BodyLoop\nscanner at the OpenTwin project. This important step changes what OpenTwin is,\nbecause until now we have been working with data about bodies, but now we can\nmeasure one.",{},"\u002Fnews\u002Fbodyloop-scanner-freiburg",{"title":311,"description":423},"news\u002Fbodyloop-scanner-freiburg","A 360° scan in 0.3 seconds, 32 sensors, no radiation. The Vitronic BodyLoop body scanner is now running at Medical Me in Freiburg, OpenTwin's partner site, and it gives the project its first physical measurement layer.",[109,306,13,430],"Open Hardware","ERouJmj-w_RP3_Bk4hdSXKmG6jHf4t-nM91-dXWgDzU",{"id":433,"title":434,"authors":435,"body":438,"coverAlt":696,"coverCaption":697,"coverCredit":133,"coverImage":698,"date":699,"description":700,"draft":137,"extension":138,"hero":139,"license":140,"meta":701,"metaDescription":142,"navigation":143,"path":702,"reading":703,"seo":704,"stem":705,"summary":706,"tags":707,"updated":142,"__hash__":709},"news\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering.md","A Swiss open science gathering at Etherlaken",[436],{"name":437,"role":10},"Martin Etzrodt",{"type":15,"value":439,"toc":691},[440,449,456,459,551,555,576,585,594,603,616,627,631,640,646,651,654,657,669,671,674],[18,441,442,443,448],{},"On 24 June 2026 we hosted the first gathering of the Swiss biohacking and open\nhardware community at the ",[22,444,447],{"href":445,"rel":446},"https:\u002F\u002Fetherlaken.com\u002Fen",[26],"Etherlaken"," site in Matten\nbei Interlaken. Nine invited guests joined the two hosts for a tour of the site,\nan afternoon of hands-on open science experiments, and a shared barbecue at the\nfire place. It was a light hearted day. Each guest brought a small open science\nexperiment of their own, and some food to share.",[48,450,50,451],{},[52,452],{"src":453,"alt":454,"width":56,"height":455,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering\u002Famphitheatre.jpg","Participants sitting in a loose row on the tiered benches of the curved amphitheatre, mid-conversation.",1050,[18,457,458],{},"The meetup was hosted by Martin Etzrodt and Philip Dettinger of the Open Science\nInstitute. Our guests each brought a different aspect of Open Science to the\ntable:",[460,461,462,475,487,498,517,528,539],"ul",{},[463,464,465,468,469,474],"li",{},[181,466,467],{},"Marc Dusseiller (Hackteria)."," Transdisciplinary artist-researcher who\nco-founded ",[22,470,473],{"href":471,"rel":472},"https:\u002F\u002Fhackteria.org\u002Fwiki\u002FDusjagr",[26],"Hackteria",", the Swiss\nMechatronic Art Society, and the Bitwäscherei hackerspace. He co-organises GOSH\nand the BioFabbing Convergence.",[463,476,477,486],{},[181,478,479,480,485],{},"Urs Gaudenz and Miranda Moss (",[22,481,484],{"href":482,"rel":483},"https:\u002F\u002Fgaudi.ch\u002FGaudiLabs",[26],"GaudiLabs",").","\nGaudenz is a Swiss microengineer behind open instruments such as the Wild Open\nPCR. Moss is a Cape Town artist, designer, and outsider engineer. Together they\nrun accessible electronics and biohacking workshops.",[463,488,489,497],{},[181,490,491,492,485],{},"Antonio Lamb (",[22,493,496],{"href":494,"rel":495},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.lambconsulting.bio\u002Flambda-biolab\u002F",[26],"Lambda Biolab","\nMolecular biologist running a shared BSL-1 community lab in Basel. It offers\nlow-cost reagents and remote compute to researchers without an academic or\ncorporate affiliation.",[463,499,500,503,504,509,510,513,514,228],{},[181,501,502],{},"Heidy Baggenstos and Andreas Rudolf."," A Zurich\n",[22,505,508],{"href":506,"rel":507},"https:\u002F\u002Fbaggenstos-rudolf.ch",[26],"art bio-hacker duo",". Their fieldwork produced a\npeer-reviewed ",[192,511,512],{},"Mycoscience"," paper documenting previously unrecorded\nbioluminescence in ",[192,515,516],{},"Mycena crocata",[463,518,519,527],{},[181,520,521,522,485],{},"Diego Garrido (",[22,523,526],{"href":524,"rel":525},"https:\u002F\u002Fkultiva.bio",[26],"Kultiva Bio"," Biologist, formerly at\nthe Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, now leading work across gene\ntherapy, tissue culture, and carbon-capture biotechnology.",[463,529,530,538],{},[181,531,532,533,485],{},"Michael Rebhan (",[22,534,537],{"href":535,"rel":536},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Felevatehealthofficial\u002F",[26],"elevateHealth","\nBasel scientist and co-creator of GeneCards. He is building an open, predictive,\npreventive, and participatory health ecosystem with models shared openly.",[463,540,541,544,545,550],{},[181,542,543],{},"Sascha Radusch."," Open science enthusiast with\n",[22,546,549],{"href":547,"rel":548},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gaudi.ch\u002F",[26],"Gaudi Labs",", wingsuit pilot and aerial cameraman from\nthe Interlaken region.",[68,552,554],{"id":553},"an-afternoon-of-hands-on-open-science","An afternoon of hands-on open science",[18,556,557,558,563,564,569,570,575],{},"Following an extensive tour through the relics of Erich von Däniken's old\nMystery Park exhibits, we ran a laid-back workshop across the outdoor benches\nnext to the barbecue area. The ",[22,559,562],{"href":560,"rel":561},"https:\u002F\u002Fgaudi.ch\u002FOpenDrop",[26],"OpenDrop"," digital\nmicrofluidics platform from GaudiLabs drove droplets across an electrode grid\nfrom a laptop. The ",[22,565,568],{"href":566,"rel":567},"https:\u002F\u002Fopenbrushograph.github.io\u002F",[26],"open brushograph"," pen\nplotter wrote the words \"Open Science\" as a live demonstration. The\n",[22,571,574],{"href":572,"rel":573},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gaudi.ch\u002FOpenTheremin\u002Findex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=180&Itemid=115",[26],"OpenTheremin","\nfield measurement and sensor setup was assembled on the grass. A highlight were\nthe humidity detectors, soldered and assembled hand to hand around the tables,\nusing nothing but the power of the sun.",[48,577,50,578,50,582],{},[52,579],{"src":580,"alt":581,"width":56,"height":455,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering\u002Fopendrop.jpg","Two participants watch a laptop running the OpenDrop digital-biology interface, with the red OpenDrop cartridge board on the table.",[61,583,584],{},"OpenDrop, the open digital microfluidics platform from GaudiLabs",[48,586,50,587,50,591],{},[52,588],{"src":589,"alt":590,"width":455,"height":56,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering\u002Fbrushograph.jpg","An open brushograph pen plotter beside a laptop whose screen reads 'Open Science'.",[61,592,593],{},"open brushograph pen plotter",[18,595,596,597,602],{},"The OpenTheremin is a development of Urs Gaudenz's open hardware take on the\n",[22,598,601],{"href":599,"rel":600},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FTheremin",[26],"theremin",". The instrument is played\nwithout touch: as your hands change the electromagnetic field around the\ntheremin's antennas, the instrument turns that into sound.",[48,604,50,605,50,613],{},[606,607],"video",{"src":608,"poster":609,"controls":143,"muted":143,"playsInline":143,"preload":610,"width":611,"height":612},"\u002Fvideos\u002Fswiss-gathering-field-sensor.mp4","\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering\u002Ffield-sensor-poster.jpg","metadata",810,1080,[61,614,615],{},"Open Theremin - music with the electromagnetic fields of one's own body",[18,617,618,619,626],{},"Cory Doctorow's novel\n",[22,620,623],{"href":621,"rel":622},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FWalkaway_(Doctorow_novel)",[26],[192,624,625],{},"Walkaway"," came to\nmind on this afternoon. The lawn was filled with clever people that each had\nfound their way to walk away from a default path of academia, yet each built the\nproof themselves, that open source and open collaboration must not be a\ncompromise. They are a better and more fun way to work. We felt encouraged and\nconfirmed in our assumption that a lively community gathering in Etherlaken can\ndo a lot of good in this place. As Etherlaken was just in the middle of its own\ntransition this felt like a good beginning.",[68,628,630],{"id":629},"the-lab-is-the-people","The lab is the people",[18,632,633,634,639],{},"Urs Gaudenz not only supplied Open Hardware gadgets but also a framing for the\nday. His essay ",[22,635,638],{"href":636,"rel":637},"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002F@Sachiko\u002Flab-making-d573afa93231",[26],"Lab Making",",\nwritten with Sachiko Hirosue after HackteriaLab 2014, was shared as reading. It\nreads the laboratory as a social space built by its users, not a fixed facility.",[641,642,643],"blockquote",{},[18,644,645],{},"A lab is a place to labor, experiment, research and share. This could be\nanywhere. Build it. Open it. Hack it. And own it.",[641,647,648],{},[18,649,650],{},"The projects will attract a community. Then let the community build the lab.",[18,652,653],{},"We aim to apply the template from the start. This means the programme and its\ncommunity will shape the space. We will not create a fixed lab and then ask\nwhat it can be used for. We will drive the build-out in a project focussed\nmanner.",[18,655,656],{},"One thing we identified that connected all participants was the shared interest\nin low photon emission from living things. That points to a clear first focus\nfor Etherlaken, a topic the community can gather around and build instruments,\nmaterials, and research questions for together.",[48,658,50,659,50,663],{},[52,660],{"src":661,"alt":662,"width":455,"height":56,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering\u002Fbiophotonen-book.jpg","The cover of Marco Bischof's book Biophotonen: Das Licht in unseren Zellen, resting on a wooden table.",[61,664,665,668],{},[192,666,667],{},"Biophotonen: Das Licht in unseren Zellen",", Marco Bischof",[68,670,267],{"id":266},[18,672,673],{},"Our plan is now to make this gathering a recurring format at Etherlaken, and to\nkeep the invitation open to this community to shape the site and its first\nresearch focus. The Open Science Institute will follow up and strengthen the connections\nmade. This was a prototype, and we will run it again.",[18,675,676,677,682,683,686,687,228],{},"The visit was also written up on the open hardware community's own forum:\n",[22,678,681],{"href":679,"rel":680},"https:\u002F\u002Fforum.openhardware.science\u002Ft\u002Fvisit-to-the-open-science-foundation-switzerland\u002F7836",[26],"Visit to the Open Science Foundation, Switzerland",".\nTo read more about the site itself, see ",[22,684,447],{"href":445,"rel":685},[26],"\nand our ",[22,688,690],{"href":689},"\u002Finstitute\u002F#etherlaken","campus page",{"title":126,"searchDepth":127,"depth":127,"links":692},[693,694,695],{"id":553,"depth":127,"text":554},{"id":629,"depth":127,"text":630},{"id":266,"depth":127,"text":267},"Open hardware kits, instruments, and laptops spread across a long table with participants gathered around it.","Matten bei Interlaken, 24 June 2026.","\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering\u002Fgathering-table.jpg","2026-06-24","On 24 June 2026 we hosted the first gathering of the Swiss biohacking and open\nhardware community at the Etherlaken site in Matten\nbei Interlaken. Nine invited guests joined the two hosts for a tour of the site,\nan afternoon of hands-on open science experiments, and a shared barbecue at the\nfire place. It was a light hearted day. Each guest brought a small open science\nexperiment of their own, and some food to share.",{},"\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering","6 min",{"title":434,"description":700},"news\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering","While the Open Science Campus of the Open Science Foundation is still in its planning phase, we invited the Swiss biohacking and open hardware scene to Etherlaken. They came with their own experiments: droplet microfluidics, a plotter in a backpack, the OpenTheremin (an instrument played by the body's electromagnetic field), and kits soldered with sunlight. What connected us most was the faint light that living things emit.",[708,430,447],"Community","x1qx9Zhm7-Bdo0BmDLMTRdwdKXl73kUflhWyCJ4i7O0",{"id":711,"title":712,"authors":713,"body":715,"coverAlt":837,"coverCaption":838,"coverCredit":839,"coverImage":840,"date":841,"description":842,"draft":137,"extension":138,"hero":139,"license":140,"meta":843,"metaDescription":142,"navigation":143,"path":844,"reading":300,"seo":845,"stem":846,"summary":847,"tags":848,"updated":142,"__hash__":850},"news\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena.md","The data is in: our biophoton microscope is ready for business",[714],{"name":437,"role":10},{"type":15,"value":716,"toc":833},[717,726,733,745,756,759,769,772,776,779,790,800,811,814,818,821],[18,718,719,720,725],{},"The data is in. On 8 and 9 June 2026, the biophoton microscope at\n",[22,721,724],{"href":722,"rel":723},"https:\u002F\u002Fopenuc2.com",[26],"openUC2"," in Jena completed its first full measurement\ncampaign. The method is simple to state: an injured leaf is given a small dose of\nhydrogen peroxide, placed in front of a camera cold enough and quiet enough to\nregister single photons, and recorded for twenty minutes in the dark.",[18,727,728,729,732],{},"The result is clear. An injured compass plant (",[192,730,731],{},"Silphium laciniatum",") leaf\ntreated with H2O2 emitted 1.56 times more total light than an untreated injured\nleaf, under identical camera settings. The brightest regions were roughly twice\nas bright, which indicates the additional light comes from localised reaction\nhotspots rather than a uniform rise across the leaf. Living tissue under stress\nemits light, and here that light was measured.",[48,734,50,735,50,740],{},[52,736],{"src":737,"alt":738,"width":739,"height":739,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena\u002Fcompass-plant.jpg","A bushy compass plant (Silphium laciniatum) with deeply lobed green leaves growing in a raised bed outdoors.",634,[61,741,742,743,485],{},"The compass plant (",[192,744,731],{},[48,746,50,747,50,753],{},[52,748],{"src":749,"alt":750,"width":751,"height":752,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena\u002Fbiophoton-quantification.jpg","Three panels: a near-exponential per-pixel signal distribution, a bar chart showing injured+H2O2 at 1.56 times the total emission of injured alone, and a false-colour map of the injured leaf with bright hotspots.",1600,491,[61,754,755],{},"Injured versus injured plus H2O2: 1.56x more total emission, and where on the leaf it comes from (right).",[18,757,758],{},"The character of the signal matters as much as its size. The per-pixel\ndistribution is near-exponential, the signature of single photo-electrons\namplified one at a time in the camera's electron-multiplying register. In other\nwords, the detector was operating at its floor, counting light close to photon by\nphoton. That is the regime required to measure emission this faint with\nconfidence.",[48,760,50,761,50,766],{},[52,762],{"src":763,"alt":764,"width":751,"height":765,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena\u002Fbiophoton-3d.jpg","Three 3D surface plots of signal above baseline: a low flat dark-lid baseline on the left, the injured leaf with a few tall peaks in the centre, and injured plus H2O2 with many more and higher peaks on the right.",555,[61,767,768],{},"Signal above baseline as a landscape: the dark baseline (left), the injured leaf (centre), and injured plus H2O2 (right).",[18,770,771],{},"One limit should be stated plainly. Because the camera's true gain and\nsensitivity were not recorded in the acquisition metadata, the present numbers\nare relative rather than absolute. Closing that gap, with a calibration that\nconverts counts into photons and carries a real error bar, is the next task, and\nit is being built directly into the open-source openUC2 control software so that\na one-off correction becomes a tool the wider community can reuse.",[68,773,775],{"id":774},"the-instrument","The instrument",[18,777,778],{},"The measurements were run at openUC2 in Jena on the open-hardware microscopy\nplatform developed by Benedict Diederich and his team, with the calibration work\ncarried out together with Rainer Heintzmann and colleagues at the Leibniz IPHT in\nJena. The rig itself is deliberately modest: a light-proofed enclosure, an Andor\niXon EMCCD, a liquid cooler, and a laptop.",[48,780,50,781,50,787],{},[52,782],{"src":783,"alt":784,"width":785,"height":786,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena\u002Fmicroscope-rendering.jpg","A CAD cutaway rendering of the openUC2 microscope, with a blue arrow marking the light path running vertically from the sample stage down through the objective to the detector.",573,466,[61,788,789],{},"The openUC2 microscope in cutaway: the light path from sample to detector, in blue.",[48,791,50,792,50,797],{},[52,793],{"src":794,"alt":795,"width":796,"height":739,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena\u002Frig-jena.jpg","A researcher leaning over a black light-proofed enclosure standing on a trolley in a lab, with a laptop, tubing, and a chiller on the shelf beneath it.",605,[61,798,799],{},"Benedict Diederich at the light-proofed biophoton rig, openUC2 Jena.",[48,801,50,802,50,808],{},[52,803],{"src":804,"alt":805,"width":806,"height":807,"loading":58,"decoding":59},"\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena\u002Fandor-ixon.jpg","Close-up of a silver Andor iXon Ultra EMCCD camera mounted under a microscope, with clear cooling tubes running to it.",582,820,[61,809,810],{},"The Andor iXon EMCCD at the heart of the setup.",[18,812,813],{},"These are faint beginnings, in the most literal sense. The detector at the heart\nof the setup is a capable but costly scientific camera. Our aim is to develop a\nversion of this instrument that performs the same measurement at a fraction of\nthe price, and to bring it into as many hands as possible. An open instrument\nonly advances open science if others can afford to build it.",[68,815,817],{"id":816},"outlook","Outlook",[18,819,820],{},"This campaign is the first step of a longer programme. The near-term work is to\nharden the Jena instrument into a fully reproducible rig, complete the\ncalibration, and widen the study across plant species and stress conditions with\nproper biological replicates. From there, the aim is to use these plant screens\nto connect specific photon signatures to the underlying biology, and, further\nout, to translate the deep-cooled bench sensor into an affordable and eventually\nwearable detector, carrying the same measurement from a leaf on a bench toward\nthe human body.",[18,822,823,824,828,829,832],{},"The faint light that living things emit was a recurring subject at our\n",[22,825,827],{"href":826},"\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-open-science-gathering\u002F","first community gathering"," at\n",[22,830,447],{"href":445,"rel":831},[26]," in June. Now it is something we can\nmeasure.",{"title":126,"searchDepth":127,"depth":127,"links":834},[835,836],{"id":774,"depth":127,"text":775},{"id":816,"depth":127,"text":817},"A leaf glowing faint green against black: biophoton emission overlaid on a grey brightfield outline of the compass plant leaf.","Compass plant (Silphium laciniatum) leaf, injured and dosed with H2O2: biophoton emission in green over brightfield scatter in grey.","Open Science Institute \u002F openUC2 Jena","\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena\u002Fbiophoton-leaf-glow.jpg","2026-06-15","The data is in. On 8 and 9 June 2026, the biophoton microscope at\nopenUC2 in Jena completed its first full measurement\ncampaign. The method is simple to state: an injured leaf is given a small dose of\nhydrogen peroxide, placed in front of a camera cold enough and quiet enough to\nregister single photons, and recorded for twenty minutes in the dark.",{},"\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena",{"title":712,"description":842},"news\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena","An injured compass plant leaf, treated with hydrogen peroxide, emitted 1.56 times more light than an untreated control. Our first full measurement campaign on the open-hardware biophoton microscope in Jena is complete, the camera was counting single photons, and the result holds.",[13,430,849],"Instrumentation","YvZtnMrUHimslvGkGIXrAGedGcYFovDnMjABoHYsEhA",1788809659500]