To have any meaningful setup I was going to need a sensor. At the recent UK MakerFaire (In Newcastle) I picked up a DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor. I decided to use this and an msp430 to monitor our pet Snails. Again I used a bread board to prototype the sensor:

circuit:

Since this was going to be on the Snailarium, I decided to box it up. a reused battery box and with some tricky positioning fit it all in.