Sandboxes to Think & Play With

Biophysicist Shawn Douglas and designer Chaim Gingold discuss their inspirations and strategies for building computational tools that introduce new ways to play and think. Recently, they have been collaborating on Gelbox, a simulation and visualization tool for teaching Gel Electrophoresis—a notoriously hard to learn yet foundational tool in biology. This project grew directly out Shawn’s earlier work in making computational tools to transform laboratory practices (e.g. Cadnano, a CAD tool for DNA nanostructures), and Chaim’s work in designing interactive simulations and games (e.g. Earth: A Primer, a science book you play with).