Category: Artists & Art • Medical Illustration and History • Museum Lust • Neuroscience
In the New York Times, a quick article on a study in the journal Neurosurgery by two Johns Hopkins professors. The abstract argues that Michaelangelo
concealed another neuronanatomic structure in the final panel of this series, the Separation of Light From Darkness, specifically a ventral view of the brainstem. The Separation of Light From Darkness is an important panel in the Sistine Chapel iconography because it depicts the beginning of Creation and is located directly above the altar. We propose that Michelangelo, a deeply religious man and an accomplished anatomist, intended to enhance the meaning of this iconographically critical panel and possibly document his anatomic accomplishments by concealing this sophisticated neuroanatomic rendering within the image of God.
You can read the whole article here, with pictures even.
Now, I enjoy stories of intrigue and conspiracy and codes and Renaissance artists as much as the next girl, although I prefer Umberto Eco to Dan Brown. But since I'm on hiatus, I have no more to say about this new study than I did a couple of years ago in this post - that, and {cough} pareidolia {cough}.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 10:07 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogosphere • Department of the Drama • Ephemera
Everything is ephemeral - including bioephemera.
As of today, May 31, I'm going on hiatus for at least this summer - and probably longer. While I've met many wonderful fellow bloggers and faithful readers through the blog, keeping BioE going has become a significant investment of time that I just don't have. Since I started blogging, there's been an explosion in the number of blogs covering crossover sciart topics, like Morbid Anatomy, where I found the delicious image above. So I just don't feel BioE is strictly needed anymore - if it ever was. And I need to refocus on work, life, and art.
I deeply appreciate all of your interest and loyalty, and hope that someday BioE may return, in a limited form - in the meantime, best wishes to all of you. It's been a blast.
Image: "Yasutaro Mitsui poses with his own steel humanoid, Tokyo, Japan, in 1932." Via Morbid Anatomy via Retroliciousdesigns.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 11:12 PM • 55 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Biology • Design • Ephemera
So cute, so bioephemeral: designer Wes Thomas created a laser-cut business card that snaps out to assemble a little giraffe. He's also done a gorilla.
Via Notcot.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 6:15 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Artists & Art • Biology • Museum Lust • Science
The God Particle, 2008
Andy Harper does amazing work with oils: fantastic gardenscapes populated with unanticipated plants. Many of his works incorporate dramatic symmetry, reminiscent of a Rorschach blot or the patters on a flowerhead.
Half Devil, Half Buccaneer
Read an interview with Andy Harper at failedrockstar.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 12:20 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Biology • Conspicuous consumption • Wearables
Here's a big time want: a sterling silver necklace cast from a frog spine and skull, by Elizabeth Knight. Wow. You can find it at Catbird!
While you're there, check out Knight's spin on pearl earrings (the pearls are held by skeletal frog hands!), the 14K paired ant necklace by Jezebel, which I like even better than the skeleton (but it's way more expensive) and Cloven Hoof's Cleopatra jewel beetle necklace. Yes, they're all pretty pricey, but their brass monocle necklace is a sexy-naturalist (or librarian) option for only $22.
Via the catbird blog - highly bookmarkable for all scifashionistas.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 8:14 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Artists & Art • Photography
Wired published a gallery a few months back featuring the art of Nikki Graziano, a math and photography student at Rochester Institute of Technology, who combines photos with equations. Her Found Functions series is awesome - I love the way she spots functions and patterns in nature.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 11:04 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Cephalopodmania
I recently stumbled across an interesting post (don't ask how I got there; how do you ever end up anywhere on the Web?) about how the octopus has been used as a propaganda symbol, from WW2 to Big Oil, to represent the terrifying Other. Fascinating stuff - read more here for starters, and here is an entire blog on the topic.
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 9:31 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Artists & Art • Blogosphere • Events • History of Science • Medical Illustration and History • Museum Lust • Photography • Wonder Cabinets • Yikes!
Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy has just unveiled a new website, the Secret Museum, to house her "exhibition of photographs exploring the poetics of hidden, untouched and curious collections from around the world." So if you can't make it to her show in NYC (through June 6), you can browse her virtual exhibition of photos - like the eerie fetal skeleton tableau above (from Paris, circa 17th century).
Posted by Jessica Palmer at 7:05 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Jessica Palmer has a PhD in Molecular Biology, experience in health policy, and has been blogging about the intersection of art and biology since 2006. 
