Gravity trumps sunlight!!
"What seems a detour has a way of becoming, in time, a direct route." And so a long series comes to an end.Posted on May 1, 2008 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The World's Fair
All manner of human creativity on display
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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.
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Recent Posts
- The Future of Objectivity
- John Cage Guest Posts at The World's Fair
- "Leicester School of Design Considers Name Change"
- World Death Rate Holding Steady at 100%
- Michael Pollan: Chewed Up and Spit Out
- Science podcasts heard 12 million times daily
- Borges was a Webelo (and Other Book Jokes)
- Baby 2.0
- EPA Official Fired Over Dow Chemical Dispute
- If you could host your own version of a TEDtalks at your institution, what exactly would you do? Looking for feedback...
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- 1nfinitezer0 on Michael Pollan: Chewed Up and Spit Out
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The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building:
Don't you just hate the difference between seeing things 'as they are' and 'as they ought to be'?
Where viewer and viewed are fused into an indivisible whole. More on Errol Morris, with Richard Powers back to help again.Posted on April 29, 2008 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Bacon, Fish, Arts vs Science, and Dawkins.
I wrote about this over at Terry, but will reprint here as well This is interesting, if not a bit alarming. Essentially, this story follows a trail of individuals that even Kevin Bacon would be proud of. The cast includes:...Posted on April 28, 2008 11:32 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The H.M.S. Beagle Project: geeky science pin-up number 3!
Today at the SCQ, there's an awesome piece that imagines Charles Darwin being brought back to life for next year's bicentennial celebration. As well, the piece is written in the context of him checking out the proposed (and, hopefully by...Posted on April 18, 2008 10:59 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's official - Introducing the Science Creative Literacy Symposia
Presumably, art and sciences interact a little like this? The Science Creative Literacy Symposia is a new fieldtrip program offered at the University of British Columbia, and is designed to provide an engaging outreach experience for students at the...Posted on April 14, 2008 5:01 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Tyger": a beautifully visual short film with environmental overtones.
Recently, I picked up a copy of the latest 3x3 Annual (No. 4 to be exact), and was perusing through the great artwork that it compiles. Here the entries (about 250 pages worth) are essentially on display via a competition...Posted on April 9, 2008 11:58 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Hydrocolloids and Rabbit Mousse: An Experiment in Artscience
Take Jonah Lehrer, add Alton Brown, Le Laboratoire, and some molecular gastronomy, and here's what you get.Posted on April 7, 2008 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Labspotting: A graphic for those who are discontent with research life (or Timon has outdone himself this time).
...and maybe he's a little on the bitter side. Anyhow, Timon Buys has been doing a great job of looking after the Science Creative Quarterly's FILTER site, and today he put up something that is all kinds of awesome. link...Posted on April 3, 2008 7:17 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Timebomb - everybody dance.
Boy, talk about consumption. Great music video featuring the digital art prowess of Chris Jordan. We offer this as a follow-up to last summer's "What We Waste," a post on Jordan's work that was part of a larger discussion of...Posted on March 28, 2008 1:39 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Worst jobs in humanities? What are they exactly?
Worst Science Job 2007 - Hazmat Diver Dave Semeniuk over at the Terry blog has posed an interesting question. Namely, what are the worst jobs in the humanities? (Another pandering to the two culture debate?) The question is framed...Posted on February 29, 2008 9:04 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
What happens when you ask 90 or so students to share their "wish."
(Speaking of the arts and science divide) a couple weeks ago, I ran a few lab exercises that revolve around the use of software to city planning, especially as it pertains to issues of sustainability (there's even an online version...Posted on February 29, 2008 8:49 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Two Cultures are Dead. Long Live the Two Cultures.
Is there an arrogant/sleepy divide in academia? A PowerPoint/chalkboard divide?Posted on February 27, 2008 9:15 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Perfection, Symmetry, and Chaos in Science and History
Solzhenitsyn and Borges as bookends; in between, order and randomnessPosted on February 26, 2008 8:15 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Search for Symmetry and Objectivity goes through Alamogordo and the Crimea
A comment about bombs and mercury and Communists and theater and world historyPosted on February 25, 2008 8:30 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Richard Powers on Biography and Memory
And so much more. A challenge to the uninspired, to the non-observant, to science, to the futurePosted on February 11, 2008 11:20 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Certainty and the Obvious: What It Takes to Bring in the Fabled "Context"
Saying something's "obvious" indicates the absence of a logical argument, asserting truth by speaking loudly.Posted on January 22, 2008 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Pathetic Fallacy
Continuing to ponder knowledge, evidence, Errol Morris, and The Crimea's Sebastopol of 1855Posted on January 21, 2008 9:00 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Since we'll be doing a bit of math today in class (plus this video kind of makes me think of how climate change science is debated)
In my hunt for things to incorporate in a lecture later today, I came across this great video (Ma and Pa Kettle) on the mathematics divide. In the end, I won't actually be using it, but hey, I wonder if...Posted on January 17, 2008 11:02 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Trained Judgment and the Scientific Audience
Consumers and producers of scientific knowledge unite! Maybe? A little? Could we?Posted on January 14, 2008 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Brainspace: Literacy in the humanities and in the sciences vs Britney Spears et al.
Last night, we rolled in the new course (Arts Science Integrated Course - ASIC 200) and it was a lot of fun (a little odd for me doing what was essentially a history speel, but there you have it). Anyway,...Posted on January 11, 2008 2:23 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
My John or Paul Project
Technology--writing, or other graphic representation--helps us see what we think we knowPosted on January 8, 2008 12:30 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
But Which Thousand Words is the Picture Worth?
There are two words that you can never apply to them: 'true' and 'false'.Posted on January 8, 2008 8:30 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Sustainable Building Practices and Gingerbread Houses. All entries are in...
This is too cool. Dave S. over at terry.ubc.ca launched a sustainable gingerbread house contest in mid December and in the span of a less than three weeks, was able to cull a total of 19 entries (plus one latecomer)....Posted on January 7, 2008 3:10 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Scientific Objectivity has a History.
Here's a post about it. A post mentioning morality. And referring to historical contingency. Come on in.Posted on January 3, 2008 8:20 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
La Laboratoire
A new effort housed in Paris explicitly and actively undermines the impoverished art/science divide.Posted on January 2, 2008 2:20 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Engineers as Authors: Technology, Nature, and Sustainable Communities
You take technology and nature, avoid assuming they're opposed, and get a bunch of engineering undergrads to write a book about it.Posted on December 19, 2007 9:20 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Particle Melts Down in Defeat to Darwin. Film at Eleven.
Particle claims Particle-Wave Duality to Explain Lackluster Performance; Darwin Gloats.Posted on December 17, 2007 1:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is what happens when you visit the hospital after accidently injecting yourself with hamster CHO cells.
Patrick comes through with another great piece - this time on his hospital experience after inadvertently stabbing himself with a needle full of tissue culture cells (Hamster CHO cells specifically). He informs me that he has yet to develop the...Posted on December 11, 2007 12:15 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Why don't we love science fiction?
"SF is, in fact, the necessary literary companion to science."Posted on December 7, 2007 7:30 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Rice"
I don't want you just to eat, and be content/ I want you to walk out into the fieldsPosted on December 6, 2007 10:45 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Things that are clever: Snowman Mitosis
Jason did a great job with this. Check out more at Crunchy on the Outside...Posted on December 5, 2007 12:40 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ask a ScienceBlogger, sort of - Can you write and record us a science song?
If I can do it (with the limited skills that I have) then so can others. So the request this time is: can you write us a science song? Let me know if you've got one, and I'll try...Posted on November 2, 2007 12:15 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The World's Fair: now breeders of rock stars (i.e. a first attempt at recording a science song)
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was hoping to play around with my brother's guitars, and to see if I could figure out the recording logistics of using software like Apple's Garageband. As well, I said I...Posted on November 2, 2007 8:43 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Medicine with a "D'oh!"
This is kind of clever. Published a while ago in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, this is a discussion of medical practices using the two central MD characters found in the Simpson's world. Like the forces of good and...Posted on October 26, 2007 9:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Radiohead versus Wilco: Discuss
Wilco is good, sometimes exceptional, but often inconsequential. So it would appear that the above statement is up for discussion. I'm speaking specifically about statement number 9 of the truth, now that Ben has noted that Wilco has relinquished...Posted on October 25, 2007 10:32 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
DIY art in the lab: Snow sculptures in ice buckets
I currently teach an all day molecular laboratory course at UBC, where students go through various techniques in the confines of what is often a 4 to 6 hour session. Anyway, occasionally, there is some downtime, and last week, some...Posted on October 17, 2007 10:56 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Robots playing the game of "Operation."
Had a coffee with a friend (Jon Nakane) who runs the UBC EngPhys Projects lab, and he told me about one of their most recent robot competitions held over the summer. Basically, this is bundled in a with an intense...Posted on October 10, 2007 2:35 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Things that unsettle me: my music collection seems a little on the negative side.
The other night I had the privilege to check out Crowded House at a smallish venue. It was great - I highly recommend any serious music lover to check out Neil Finn and the boys. They are really one...Posted on September 5, 2007 3:03 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lauryn Hill, Marvin Gaye and the discipline of science
First up, an apology for the lack of posting of late. As the school term approaches, things have been more hectic than ever, and so... well... you how it is with prioritizing and all. Nevertheless, once next week rolls around,...Posted on August 31, 2007 12:58 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ghosts in (and out of) the Machines
Why does it matter if human knowledge of the world is incomplete? Final thoughts on Adorno's remainder.Posted on August 29, 2007 1:40 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A Live Experiment Right Here
We won't invite scrutiny by calling it "scientific," but check it out anywayPosted on August 27, 2007 8:12 PM • 31 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Have your Wii and eat it
(By Jacqui Monaghan) I am not ashamed to admit that I have a crush on Martha Stewart. I mean, come on: with those luscious locks, knitted ponchos, freshly baked cookies, and that home in the Hamptons, what's not to love?...Posted on August 14, 2007 12:35 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Thar be monsters: Science, Religion, Art, and the Fear of the Unknown
Fear of the unknown; or, whence Adorno, Sartre, Christo, Rumsfeld, and Plato all fit in one postPosted on August 10, 2007 8:30 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Hot Funky Love
Reasons to have sex, reasons not to...a most thorough taxonomy of sexual motivation.Posted on August 2, 2007 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A Commentary on Flow: Muscles, Trains, and the Internet Converge
On the complexity of natural and human-made systems, and the flows from both.Posted on July 19, 2007 8:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is the truth: The "Wilco Effect" and pushing to the top!
O.K., it's been a while since I've checked in with our little "truth" experiment, but it appears that we're still holding in the top ten for google ranking (top five in google.ca). (Oh yeah, and if you're new to...Posted on July 12, 2007 12:42 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
On the Implausibility of the Death Star's Trash Compactor
Here's one from the vault. But not our vault. It's an all-time favorite of mine, from McSweeney's a few years ago, written by Joshua Tyree: "On the Implausibility of the Death Star's Trash Compactor." Lets file it under physics. For...Posted on July 8, 2007 9:00 AM • 21 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
George Eliot's Environmental Sensibility
That roar on the other side of silence.Posted on July 6, 2007 1:57 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Who's a pretty scientist?
Wow. This collection of portraits is wonderful. Here's an image of Robert Boyle I used for the lecture I mentioned earlier. Anyway, worth checking out. (link)...Posted on July 5, 2007 12:18 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Things that are pretty: London's Natural History Museum
(Image by The Norweigian) Chalk it up to a life size model of the blue whale. Yup, I can say with certainty that the reason I got into science, biology, all of the things that have led to my...Posted on June 27, 2007 12:24 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Where in the world is Dave Ng? (plus a World's Fair flavoured ad for interns)
My apologies for being more or less absent in the last three weeks or so, but I promise to get back to form on Monday. In particular, it's kind of cool that The World's Fair has been around for a...Posted on June 15, 2007 10:41 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Things that haunt me: the music from High School Musical. (a.k.a. science angle in the musical genre)
Last weekend, my family rented a movie called High School Musical (my kids really loved it), and I tell you, it has infiltrated our very being to the point where... hush a moment... wait...be quiet for a second... do you...Posted on May 24, 2007 4:51 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Things that are pretty: Cities and John Hartman.
John Hartman Since Ben put up that great post about urban planning and individualism, I thought I would just show off some of John Hartman's great artwork that explore the concept of the city. They're really very striking, and...Posted on May 22, 2007 4:40 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Phallacy: A Play about Art and Science
Does anyone else always mispell "excerpt" too? What a pain.Posted on May 22, 2007 1:10 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
New Yorker cover makes for nice slide (if you're gonna talk about progress and stuff)
Isn't this pretty? A recent issue of the New Yorker had a marvelous cover that spread over three pages. I couldn't find the three page spread on the New Yorker site, so I thought I'd piece them together myself. Might...Posted on May 18, 2007 12:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Science-y children's book project. Want to play? (a.k.a. Looking for an artist).
So one of the things I'd like to accomplish this summer is to really get a move on on this children's book idea. This is an idea, I've had sitting around my head for a long long while. And I've...Posted on May 11, 2007 2:40 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Portraying the Uncertainty of Facts
Cat and Girl offers a smashing take on facts and fiction. An excerpt from Spoiler Alert:...Posted on May 7, 2007 6:48 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Science Scout anthem, INCREASE THE N, makes the pages of Nature
To hear the HEFE song, go here. Usual Science Scout stuff is here. Sometimes, the web and the connections it provides are so interesting......Posted on May 2, 2007 2:55 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Future Isn't What It Used To Be
A series of postcards showing past visions of 2000...Posted on May 2, 2007 10:32 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A prologue of sorts: that is, getting back to the normal day to day.
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 on April 30, 2007 1:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Guns: As easy as fast food?
Graphically anyway, yes....Posted on April 20, 2007 3:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
An urban experiment: Does beauty and talent out of context, mean less beauty and talent?
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 on April 8, 2007 4:18 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
RadioLab: Experiments in Science Communication
"On RadioLab, science bumps into culture... information sounds like music."Posted on March 21, 2007 4:17 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Scientists of Comedy? Or just (non-mystery) Science Theater...
All together, how about the Galileo Players, Carl Djerassi, Roald Hoffman, Tom Stoppard, and Michel Frayn, for starters. Those, in addition to Playwright Kathryn Walat from this old post. Scientists of Comedy, the Galileo Players call themselves. Or, officially: "The...Posted on March 17, 2007 2:08 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
THE 2007 SCIENCE SPRING SHOWDOWN!!!
Introducing the perfect complement to the NCAA tournament...who are your picks for the Science Final Four?Posted on March 12, 2007 8:49 AM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Things that are effective but dangerous (in our quest for science literacy)
So, as mentioned previously, I got the chance to hang out with Chris Mooney this past week, and gracious as he is, he also took time to meet and greet a few of the local gang of science scouts. Anyway,...Posted on March 9, 2007 12