Bionics for the Evil Genius: 25 Build-it-Yourself Projects [Paperback]

Newton Braga (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0071459251 | ISBN-13: 978-0071459259 | Edition: 1

The best-selling Evil Genius format provides hobbyists with a fun and inexpensive way to learn bionics via 25 complete projects. Once the focus of popular 70's TV, bionics (integrating mechanical and electronic materials with living matter) are being used more than ever to replace or repair physiological or anatomical functions or disorders.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

THE EVIL GENIUS TACKLES BIONICS!

Step into the future -- (or the past, if you have a touch of Dr. Frankenstein in your soul) -- with these 25 incredibly cool bionic experiments! Demonstrating how life forms can be enhanced, combined, manipulated, and measured with electronic and mechanical components, these inexpensive projects from internationally renowned electronics guru Newton Braga provide hours of fun and learning.

Totally safe, Bionics for the Evil Genius guides you step by step through 25 complete, intriguing, yet low-cost projects developed especially for this book -- including an electric fish, a bat ear, a lie detector, an electronic nerve stimulator, a panic generator, and 20 other exciting bioelectric/mechanical projects!

BIONICS FOR THE EVIL GENIUS:

• Introduces you to bionics step-by-step -- you don't need to be a science whiz to get started, but you will be when you're finished
• Teaches all the skills you need, including how to solder, recognize components, and read schematics
• Provides complete lists of tools and parts for each project -- all of them inexpensive and easily obtained
• Vividly explains the biology, electronics, and mechanics underlying each project
• Gives you enjoyable step-by-step directions that build your skills, one small increment at a time
• Provides directions for 25 wild and wacky projects, including an electronic insect repellent, an animal conditioner, audio and visual biofeedback devices, white noise, and many more
• Helps you develop skills you can apply to other bionic and scientific projects
• Encourages you to go beyond the book's experiments -- they're intentionally designed to encourage your own unique creations
• Provides even more fun in the popular Evil Genius format

SUPER-COOL, INEXPENSIVE PROJECTS THAT TEACH BIONICS -- WHILE PROVIDING HOURS OF FUN!

About the Author

Newton C. Braga is one of the most famous electronics authors in the world. An educator and writer in computer science and related technologies, he has written over 70 books and contributed more than 2000 articles to magazines in Brazil, Spain, the United States, Portugal, Japan, Argentina, and other countries. His name is internationally synonymous with electronics, and McGraw-Hill is proud of his contributions to the popular Evil Genius series. Dr. Braga also wrote Mechatronics for the Evil Genius.

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics; 1 edition (December 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071459251
• ISBN-13: 978-0071459259
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #807,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good hobbyist book on an interesting subject, January 18, 2006

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bionics for the Evil Genius: 25 Build-it-Yourself Projects (Paperback)

A contraction of the words, "biology" and "electronics," bionics is the science of how the living emit, receive, and treat various signals so that life processes can be mimicked in machines and robots. For example, sonar illustrates a technology based on the navigation system of the bat.
This book takes the hobbyist approach to bionics in the same style as Newton Braga's other "evil genius" books do. The "Evil Genius" series of books have several different authors, and I think that Braga's efforts are the best in this series of hobbyist project-centric books, in that they tend to strike a happy medium between construction details and theory. The construction details for each project are adequate as always. However, do not expect much in the way of biology or electronic theory. The descriptions of each project tell you basically the mechanism of operation but do not delve deeply into equations. However, if you are just interested in building some interesting projects, and perhaps using it to get a high schooler interested in the subject, this book is recommended. There are just no other readable books on this subject, unless you include the classic "Cybernetics, Second Edition: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine" by Wiener, which has an academic tone and involves a moderate amount of mathematics. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION
SECTION TWO: BIOLOGY AND ELECTRONICS
SECTION THREE: 25 PRACTICAL PROJECTS
Project 1: Experiments with an Electric Fish
Project 2: Visual Biofeedback
Project 3: Audio Biofeedback
Project 4: Nerves Stimulator
Project 5: Stroboscopic Lamp
Project 6: Bio-Amplifier
Project 7: Panic Generator
Project 8: Magnetic Field Generator
Project 9: Hypnotic LEDs
Project 10: Insect Repellent
Project 11: Bionic Trap
Project 12: Animal Conditioner
Project 13: White Noise Generator
Project 14: Bionic Ear
Project 15: Insect Killer
Project 16: Bionic Tactile Organ
Project 17: Lie Detector
Project 18: Bionic Smell Generator
Project 19: Experimenting with Oscillators
Project 20: Ionizer
Project 21: Tactile Hearing Aid
Project 22: Using the Multimeter in Bionic Experiments
Project 23: Bionic Vision
Project 24: Ecological Monitor
Project 25: Bat Ear
SECTION FOUR: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
SECTION FIVE: RESOURCES
INDEX

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great projects for anyone interested in getting started, March 9, 2006

By 

S. Phish - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bionics for the Evil Genius: 25 Build-it-Yourself Projects (Paperback)

I thought this was a great book, full of interesting and educational projects. You get right into the projects with information about how to begin, what you need, and how to put it together. It's not an academic book or a theory book. This is for people (young and old) who want to get their hands into the projects and learn by doing. Excellent for parents to do with their kids. I recommend it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A complete lack of substance, April 10, 2011

By 

Poker Pro "Always Learning" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bionics for the Evil Genius: 25 Build-it-Yourself Projects (Paperback)

I didn't have high expectations when I ordered this book, and yet I was still disappointed. "Bionics for the Evil Genius" is a very basic book, appropriate for elementary or junior high school students. Unfortunately, I can't even strongly recommend it to that audience, because the schematics provided are incomplete, explanations of how the circuits presented work are practically non-existent, and the biological science tie-in is extremely weak. These are just basic circuits that somehow impact human or animal biology/senses, re-branded as "bionic."

Don't be fooled by the ambitious project titles in each chapter. How could our intrepid author fit 25 interesting projects exploring the boundaries of technology and biology in a single short book? The answer: he can't. These are all very basic circuits that have little if any connection with "bionics" - any secondary school with a class in electronics would teach circuits like this - except they'd explain how and why they work and a variety of useful applications for them.

The projects reminded me nothing so much as "spy kits" sold to kids, so they can pretend to be James Bond with a few simple electronic gadgets. A weak audio amplifier becomes "bionic hearing." A light detector is re-branded "bionic vision." A speaker illustrates bio-electrics. Construct a hypnotic device - with the same sort of flashing LEDs a string of Christmas lights would use.

The publisher should make it clear this book is "Juvenile Non-Fiction", and if it were labeled as such, and if it featured more than a few pages discussing the hows and whys of basic electrical circuits, I wouldn't give it a bad review. Since the book really has little if anything to do with bionics, isn't particularly informative even for teenage students, and is poorly written and edited, I can't recommend it. The book just fails on too many levels.