bioephemera is art + biology - everything from representations of science in art and literature to the neuroscience of aesthetics. 
Friends, readers, and new Sciblings: bioephemera has moved to a new home here at Scienceblogs! I'm happy to be here with so many bloggers I respect. And it gives me warm fuzzies to know they invited me to join them because. . . well. . . probably because they didn't have any blogs starting with b.
If you're a regular reader from the old bioephemera, you'll notice some superficial changes. There's a new banner, and as part of my assimilation into the Sb collective, I must comply with this IKEA-esque, milquetoast color scheme. Sigh. But let's be honest; it is easier to read black text on a white background than vice versa. Simplify, simplify, simplify, right?
I'm still tweaking a few features, so look for the sidebar, blogroll, and other bells and whistles to update continuously over the next few weeks. The "old" bioephemera will stay online as an archive indefinitely, but please update your bookmarks (and RSS feeds) to point here instead, because this is where new content will appear.
I'll also be re-posting some of my most popular posts from the old blog over here over the next two months or so. Hopefully that will give you some idea of what this blog is about, because it doesn't quite fit the "science blog" prototype. . . and I think I'll be posting most of my entries to the Humanities/Social Sciences channel, because there is no Art channel.
While writing my last post for the old blog, I went back and read my first post. My motivation for blogging really hasn't changed substantially, and what I said then still goes:
If you ask a biologist why he or she chose biology as a career, I'll bet most will cite a deep feeling of wonder and appreciation for the beauty and complexity of the natural world. But that feeling is not so easy to find in the lab, where we try to be objective and logical (and efficient). How we can initially turn to biology for such emotional, unscientific reasons, and then neglect them afterward, is a puzzling thing. We may never have tried to formally articulate our wonder. We may enjoy the richness and motivation it brings to our work, without needing any articulation. Even so, since art is all about capturing inarticulate truths and inspiring wonder, art may have something practical to offer biologists - a way to recapture that original feeling of wonder and surprise that brought us here.
Yup, that's about right. :)
Comments
Your Atom and RSS feeds (supposedly at http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/atom.xml and /index.xml) don't seem to be working yet. Do you need to turn them on somehow?
Posted by: Ian | February 6, 2008 10:00 PM
They should go live in a few hours. I hope. :)
Posted by: Jessica Palmer | February 6, 2008 11:08 PM
Welcome to Sb! Glad to have you here. :)
Posted by: Laelaps | February 7, 2008 9:32 AM
Sounds fucking cool! PhysioProf is glad you're here.
Posted by: PhysioProf | February 7, 2008 10:07 AM
Yeh.
We will have lots to discuss. This is very good.
Posted by: PhysioProf | February 7, 2008 10:10 AM
Congrats on the new blog!
Posted by: Keri | February 7, 2008 11:17 AM
Hello and welcome! I'm looking forward to seeing your posts and artwork. On my other blog (not the one attached to my name above), I enjoy fusing biology and music.
Posted by: kevin z | February 7, 2008 11:20 AM
I like a women who think simplify simplify simplify
They are rare and hard to find.
Posted by: hemaworstje | February 7, 2008 12:19 PM
The new format IS trying-- a real aesthetic come-down-- but at least you won't have to compromise on content!
Posted by: mdvlist | February 7, 2008 2:16 PM
Nice to see Bioephemera Redux.
However, I simply cannot believe that there is NO channel entry for "Art" in ScienceBlogs ! What were the founders thinking ? My advice is : if there is no such channel, then they HAVE to create one just for you. :-)
Good to see you here as I said, but I will miss the classy look of the "old" bioephemera. The general format here is ... well ... rather cold and uninviting I must say.
Ah ... science people ... (roll eyes) !
Posted by: Pierre | February 7, 2008 6:32 PM
Not having read you until today, I have to say, one, Yea!, two, it's much easier to read on the white SB background then your old dark one. IMHO.
Posted by: PalMD | February 7, 2008 10:41 PM
Thanks for the welcome everyone! I'm getting used to the white background, but I *do* miss the way the images pop on black.
Posted by: Jessica Palmer | February 11, 2008 7:14 PM
Congratulations on your move! (Yes, I'm a bit behind...) The science art perspective is certainly well-need here. I will certainly follow your adventures. But don't write so much that you forget to make art! Oh, and if you ever want to trade...
Posted by: Raven Hanna | February 25, 2008 10:54 PM
Good morning again. I accepted your invitation to visit "the first BioE post." Comment number 4 seems to have come from a site called Physioprof. Since his choice of words were less than acceptable to me I thought I'd take a look at his domain. I didn't have to go beyond the list of hits to discover it's content is an exercise in garbage mouth.
I found your site yesterday because I was in search of the "She may be clean - but," poster I want to use for a book I am writing on a teen-agers view of WWII. I was 16 when I was aboard the LCI 64.
A bonus resulting from my search manifested itself in the discovery of BioE - a truly delightful place upon which to land.
I would have no objection whatsoever if you decided to weed out exceptionally offensive language - I have lived without it despite my half-century in the military and I doubt it compliments civil communication - it's a matter of good taste/manners - not free speech. Thank you for Bioe, I can see where it can become addictive. It's raining here and we need it badly so let me say, Have as good day as I am having
Most sincerely JD Robertson
Posted by: James D Robertson | August 14, 2009 10:08 AM