All manner of human creativity on display
David Ng is Director of the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia - this is a just a fancier way of calling himself a science teacher.
Benjamin Cohen is an Asst. Professor of Science, Tech., and Society at the University of Virginia. He studies the place of S & T in environmental history, policy, and ethics. He also writes other stuff.
Trying to find your way around this place? Like most expositions, we offer a map: Map of The World's Fair
Need a car? Of course you do. Try this one:
April 30, 2007
Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
Often time, I wonder whether some of the things we present here at the World's Fair are perhaps a little too trivial. Whether it's our puzzles, the showdown, badges, our forays into humour writing, or the other oddities we sometimes...
Posted by David Ng at 1:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Death outpaces us. Upended roots / of fallen trees still cling to moss-furred granite...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 29, 2007
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
I need the proof Peary sought in ice, and Odysseus/ at sea, to believe a fox, say, or a cougar/ can get away, and men and women also
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 5:13 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 24, 2007
Category: Links to Other Conversations and Articles
This is an essay I wrote about my former life at Virginia Tech and Blacksburg.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:32 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 23, 2007
Category: Ethics Palace: Where ethical questions go to live or die
Link to a wiki site at Virginia Tech meant to help teaching about and after April 16th.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:55 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 20, 2007
Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
Graphically anyway, yes....
Posted by David Ng at 3:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
A friend and colleague of mine, who teaches engineers at Virginia Tech and who is a gifted photographer, took a series of photos earlier this week. They are on display here, with captions beneath each one. I've also put a...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:48 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 19, 2007
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
While everyone decides the best way they can deal with the mass murder this week, I'll point only to this commentary in the Chronicle yesterday that I found well put. It's by an author whose written about the Texas 1966...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:09 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 18, 2007
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
...The Blob has been dormant for half a century, but it's out there and the only thing preventing it from squishing through the streets of our cities right now, leaving a slimy trail of death in its wake, is...
Posted by David Ng at 10:47 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 17, 2007
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
Teams have just returned from Sagittarius A*, situated pretty much at the centre of our own galaxy. This was where the final game of the Sweet Sixteen was played in a last minute venue change implemented by the tournament organizers...
Posted by David Ng at 12:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 13, 2007
Category: About writing generally
In reference to this....
Posted by David Ng at 11:28 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 12, 2007
Category: About writing generally
Is it just me or don't you think that Mr. Vonnegut would've been the person to have written the perfect piece about his death. He'll be missed - that's for sure. (Kurt Vonnegut, 1922 - 2007)...
Posted by David Ng at 2:07 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 11, 2007
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
I've got a list up at McSweeney's today. Click here to read. That brings my creationism/intelligent design mockery count to three. The previous include this one and this one....
Posted by David Ng at 4:15 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 10, 2007
Category: The Book Building
Alex Rosenberg, Philosophy Professor at Duke, argues so. John Dupre, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Exeter, isn't buying it. I'm not either, ever averse to such reductionisms.* Here is Dupre's review of Rosenberg's Darwinian Reductionism: Or,...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 8:46 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 9, 2007
Category: Knoxville '82: Where Miscellany Thrive
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 4:29 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 8, 2007
Category: The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
I just finished reading an interesting piece from the Washington Post (thanks Steve), which basically asked whether "objective" beauty and talent from one of the world's finest musicians, playing one of the world's most expensive instruments, can be demonstrated when...
Posted by David Ng at 4:18 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 6, 2007
Category: Humor stuff, and in the best of worlds, science humor stuff
PRESS CENTER | UPDATED BRACKET Welcome folks, to this here what we'll call the beautiful game (at least we'll say that for the molecular level). This game really had it all, it was dynamic, it had equilibrium, it had fluid...
Posted by David Ng at 9:47 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 5, 2007
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
More attention to the dangers of gung ho ethanolism.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 3:16 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
"By relying on a single species for pollination, US agriculture has put itself in a precarious position"
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 10:24 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 4, 2007
Category: Ethics Palace: Where ethical questions go to live or die
Breaking research from 1846 to today: lead, poison, knowledge and action...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 4:39 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nature, as in parts, bits, molecular and stuff
I've talk about Pokemon before (in the context of biodiversity), but here's an interesting bit about how it sideline hundreds of kids, who happened to have watched an episode where the aggressive animation manage to mess with heads. Here's how...
Posted by David Ng at 12:17 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally
This is more a hat tip to a great article by the New Yorker's Michael Specter. In a recent issue, his piece "The Denialists" was published and it does a great job of providing the exasperating context to what is...
Posted by David Ng at 11:58 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 3, 2007
Category: NatureLand: What They Used to Call the Environment
So says Czech President Vaclav Klaus, fan of Thatcher, admirer of Reagan, despiser of global warming rhetoric. Speaking to U.S. Congresspeople last week, he offered a few nuggets to chew on (but didn't mix metaphors like that). The Inter Press...
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 3:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mountaintop Coal Removal
New York Times editorial on the waning legality of blowing up mountains
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 12:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally
Well, despite the political fallacies inherent in drafting such reports, the answer is an unequivocal "hell yes!" But a piece at the SCQ by Sarah Burch (which constitutes the second part of an FAQ about the IPCC reports) is...
Posted by David Ng at 11:37 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mountaintop Coal Removal
New ad campaign: Appalachian Mountaintop Removal Posters
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 9:21 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 2, 2007
Category: The Book Building
April issue of The Believer brings you Pollan's thoughts on food, industry, and more.
Posted by Benjamin Cohen at 4:25 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally
Great White* Tiger* Hammerhead* Thresher* Leopard* Megamouth* - - - Not sure if there are any academic papers that monitor the decline of heavy metal, but there is certainly a wealth of research that examines the decline of shark populations....
Posted by David Ng at 2:37 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I dunno. I'm curious what the verdict is and how much of depends on whether the phrase Boots the Monkey means anything to you....
Posted by David Ng at 1:42 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Nature as in Earth, as in Global, as in Global Issues Generally
Last week, I managed to catch one of last year's Massey lectures on the radio. These are basically a high profile lecture series that is sponsored by both the CBC and the House of Anansi Press. In essense, they usually...
Posted by David Ng at 1:35 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
