Guerrilla Science: creating scientific instruments in `high tropicallity' conditions

TL;DR

This paper discusses how Cuban physicists innovatively built scientific instruments under resource constraints caused by economic crises, often recycling old devices and everyday items.

Contribution

It presents specific examples of experimental setups created with minimal resources, highlighting innovative approaches in resource-limited scientific environments.

Findings

Successful creation of scientific instruments from recycled materials

Demonstration of resourcefulness in high-tropicallity conditions

Examples of innovative experimental setups by Cuban physicists

Abstract

The 1980s was a flourishing time for Cuban physics, with various achievements ranging from the design of several experiments to be performed by a Cuban cosmonaut in 1980, to the synthesis of the first superconductor with critical temperature above 77 K shortly after being originally reported by US scientists. By the early 1990s, there was a profound economic crisis in the country. The situation strongly affected the availability of scientific instruments to Cuban physicists; a process that continues today. Doing science in such `High Tropicallity' scenario has been challenging. Many Cuban researchers have been forced to create competitive instruments with minimal resources. Here we put examples of some of these experimental setups, created by members of the Group of Complex Systems and Statistical Physics, University of Habana. Most of them involve the recycling of old laboratory instruments, and even the use of daily life devices.