SciencePunk
Russians who raised the dead: book review and excerpt
Posted by Frank Swain on June 17, 2013 Those still sitting on the fence over whether to buy this month’s best pop science debut about zombies can read a review by the kind folks at Arc magazine here, and read an extract from the book in Salon magazine, entitled: Russians Who Raised the Dead: Bryukhonenko had heard about Kuliabko’s experiments with humans and he…
Diagram of the ecliptic would make a great piece of jewellery
Posted by Frank Swain on June 10, 2013 I stumbled across this image by Wikipedia contributor Tauʻolunga whilst researching constellations for a tattoo I’m musing upon. It shows Sun’s apparent path across the heavens. I think it would look great as a ring or a bracelet!
Artist turns graffiti into tag clouds
Posted by Frank Swain on June 9, 2013 The Weburbanist has a nice spot on French artist Mathieu Tremblin, who explores the boundary between digital and real world art. I adored this huge rendering of the Getty Images watermark across a car park wall. As Weburbanist points out, the work sits in some digital/real world uncanny valley: [Tremblin] spoofs the ubiquity of digital…
Out now: How to Make a Zombie
Posted by Frank Swain on June 6, 2013 At long last, my book on zombies is out! You can purchase How to Make a Zombie at all good bookstores in the UK and USA, or online. I’m indebted to a whole host of people for the book ever reaching the light of day, foremost my agent Peter Tallack and my incredible editor…
Mad Science For Girls
Posted by Frank Swain on June 5, 2013 Move over, Rotwang: this femme-domme-themed mad scientist magazine by artist Sardax got a chuckle out of me. Why should mad scientists always be male, pale and stale? Hat tip Mika Tan
Why your friends’ privacy settings matter more than yours
Posted by Frank Swain on April 11, 2013 In the age of life-casting offered by Google Glass, you’ll need to pick your friends wisely. As the first of Google’s goggles are dispatched, we’re starting to see serious conversations arise about the implications of always-on feeds beaming every moment onto the cloud. I’ve seen a few articles expressing alarm at the idea we’ll be…
Zombies > Vampires, obviously
Posted by Frank Swain on April 3, 2013 When I was pitching my book back in 2010, quite a few publishers said that vampires were hot, and zombies were not. Muahahahaha. (How to Make a Zombie is out in June from OneWorld)
Google Time View
Posted by Frank Swain on March 31, 2013 
There’s been quite a lot of coverage in the press about Google’s street-mapping of the tsunami-damaged Fukushima district in Japan, still derelict two years since the disaster. I think this is interesting for a couple of reasons, The first is the use of Google’s Street View as a journalism. The mayor of Namie invited the cameras…
14kg of radioactive material confiscated from man building immortality kit
Posted by Frank Swain on March 25, 2013 Moscow police officers have detained a schoolteacher after 14 kg of radioactive material was discovered in his garage. The police cited the man as saying that he had used the substances to “irradiate” a friend who wanted to become immortal. He reportedly said the friend had even traveled to the site of the 1986 Chernobyl…
Two X ray images of chopsticks lodged inside the skull of living patients
Posted by Frank Swain on March 24, 2013 
A couple of surprising images from the medical literature – two patients with chopsticks buried deep in their skulls. The first belongs to a 38-year-old woman who was dancing at a wedding while eating with chopsticks. Someone accidentally pushed into her from behind, causing the woman to fall forward onto one of the chopsticks. The wooden…