The World's Fair
All manner of human creativity on display
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- David Ng is Director of the AMBL at the University of British Columbia - fancy speak for a science teacher.
- Benjamin Cohen teaches at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Notes from the Ground: Science, Soil and Society in the American Countryside (Yale, 2009). His interest is in those places where science, art, and environmental studies come together.
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Recent Posts
- The Challenge of Eating Sustainably: College Edition
- If scientists were to write the music reviews (Vampire Weekend case study)
- Public Health in the 21st Century: the Open-Source Outbreak
- Arithmetic saves the day: Solar cells still an option.
- I've lost my brain (no seriously, I dropped it somewhere at the University of British Columbia). Can you help me find it?
- Master Skeleton Articulator: How cool would that be on a business card?
- Art and Science: It's awkward sometimes.
- What Philip Graham Knows: An American in Portugal
- How a conference managed to get over 250 attendees make Chewbacca sounds at once (plus a Chewbacca cognition poll)
- The difference between how we see things when we're home and when we're away: an aloof problem of knowledge (Days at the Museum #4)
And so forth...
- Send me emails!
Cannonball Series
Author-Blogger Series
STUDENTS ROCK!
"The world is full of light and life, and the true crime is not to be interested in it." A.S. Byatt
Puzzle Fantastica 1 | 2 | 3
Batman as scientist
SCIENCE SHOWDOWN!
Science songs 1 | 2
Recent Comments
- Tony P on If scientists were to write the music reviews (Vampire Weekend case study)
- Jonny Dover on Public Health in the 21st Century: the Open-Source Outbreak
- Student on Quite possibly the only song dedicated to mitochondria, ever!
- Dr. Michael Blume on Public Health in the 21st Century: the Open-Source Outbreak
- M Witt on Buckminsterfullerene: the song - it's dreamy.
- bobh on Arithmetic saves the day: Solar cells still an option.
- David Ng on I've lost my brain (no seriously, I dropped it somewhere at the University of British Columbia). Can you help me find it?
- llewelly on I've lost my brain (no seriously, I dropped it somewhere at the University of British Columbia). Can you help me find it?
- Rosie Redfield on I've lost my brain (no seriously, I dropped it somewhere at the University of British Columbia). Can you help me find it?
- Greg Laden on I've lost my brain (no seriously, I dropped it somewhere at the University of British Columbia). Can you help me find it?
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Into science and badges? Then check out the Science Scouts. Go ahead - join the facebook group, or follow the twitter feed.
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About
"The Long Room.", 1922, Charles Wilson Peale
This Peale portrait shows the front room of his museum. Peale's more famous portrait is the one where he, in sharp color, is holding back the curtain of that museum, inside of which are the wonderful curiosities of natural history. That's just in the direct sense, though: what's really going on is a guy, in post-Enlightenment America, in the vigor of the early Republic, with the hope of so-called Nature's Nation before him, revealing the beauty and wonder-filled grandeur of the natural world. So, I already said "wonder" twice. Add curiosity again, and I think the image is a nice expression of my two main motivating factors: wonder and curiosity for the world.
A watercolour by Ernst Haeckel: "Naples, a view from the observatory on Vesuvius", 1859
Ernst Haeckel, whilst a scientist of some note as well as notoriety, is probably best known for his wonderful paintings - in particular, those of the Radiolaria which were painstakingly done under the guidance of a microscope. Despite this, I'm very fond of the picture shown here, caught during a period of life where he was swayed by the enthusiasm of an artist, and almost very nearly abandon his scientific career. I like the fact that this particular picture and the pictures, that Haeckel is famous for, show two very different perspectives. Which is very appealing to me because as a science teacher, communicator (or whatever you want to call it), I think an effort to look into these different perspectives is important.
