A documentary film about our dying coral reefs was released this weekend by Netflix. The film “Chasing Coral” was produced by Exposure Labs who also produced “Chasing Ice” which documented glacier melt. The technical challenge of catching a reefs death were immense and this film gets right into the details. There is one scene in the movie where you see the engineering team creating an underwater time lapse camera complete with wiper and network communications. It utilized a Raspberry Pi, Beagle Bone Black and many custom 3D printed parts.
Photo Credit: The Ocean Agency
The death of a reef is caused by ocean temperatures rising a few degrees above normal. Initially the coral tries to reflect any additional light by turning white. This coral “bleaching” phenomenon was noticed in the 1980’s, but has increased in frequency in different reefs across the planet.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
