Customer Reviews

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

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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

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.

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.

First Evil Genus book. Haven't did any of the experiments, but just reading them gets my brain going. Fun read.