Reengaging the inner child
Having grown up with a high-school science teacher for a father and surrounded by children’s books on science and nature, Lin is no stranger to the field. He still remembers playing with a Stirling heat engine as a child, and believes that many other adults similarly remember their childhood fascination with science.
After getting his start in interior design, in 2008 Lin set up an online store called Mr. Sci’s Science Toy Factory, aiming to bring a designer’s creativity and eye to science and creating fun, interesting things that would reignite that very hands-on childhood fascination with science.
There are a number of similar operations in other countries, such as Japan’s Otona no Kagaku magazine and US website ThinkGeek, focused on DIY science toys for adults or on science-inspired creative products. “Science design” in Taiwan, though, is still in its early days, and so such products are rarely made locally, meaning Lin has had to look abroad to find products.
Lacking enough staff, Lin and his wife Qian Yunyun had to make use of their free time around their design work to search for information online and travel abroad to attend gift and design shows, and even magic exhibitions, in search of products.
Having traveled the world and accumulated over 400 products in fields like aviation, natural science, and mathematics, Lin finally launched the website. Many of the more novel products make use of scientific concepts, like a faux-antique zoetrope that exploits persistence of vision, or a pen holder in which the pen sits on a cushion of pressurized air.
Interesting aspects of science can be found all around us. Through products like model hypercubes, brain-themed coasters, and playing cards with a 3D effect, science comes to life with color and fun.