The

Volcano

logists

The

Volcano

logists

The Volcanologists

INTERVIEW

Right

The Sheffield

volcanologists (from

left): Tom Pering,

Andrew McGonigle

Tom Wilkes,

Tehnuka Ilanko

HackSpace magazine meets...

cience is, sad to say,

expensive. You need a ton of

gear, a lab, a travel budget...

and if the powers that be

decide you can’t have a

grant, you get no funding

and the research just doesn’t happen.

That is, unless you’re a maker – then you

can just build your own instruments.

We travelled to the University of

Sheffield’s Geography department

to find out how one small team of

volcanologists are using the tools you

have in your local makerspace to deepen

our understanding of planet Earth. With

3D-printed parts, self-taught Python

skills, and cheap Raspberry Pi kit, they’re

putting knowledge in the hands of local

communities and massively increasing

our understanding of what’s going on

under the Earth’s crust. Strap in for

some science...

S

The Volcanologists

Raspberry Pis go in where others fear to tread