bioephemera | February 3, 2010
Modeling the flight of a bat (click to enlarge)
Dave Willis et. al., Brown University and MIT
Visual complexity is a paradox. On the one hand, complexity is a compelling feature known to capture a viewer's attention and stimulate interest. . . . On the other hand, complexity only arouses curiosity up to a point. When a visual is extremely complex, viewers may tend to avoid it altogether. -- Connie Malamed
I had a great time this weekend devouring Connie Malamed's oversized treasury of data visualization, Visual Language for Designers. The book couldn't be more appealing: it's like someone…
bioephemera | February 2, 2010
Why time goes slower when we get older
Rhonald Blommestijn
for Douwe Draaisma interview, Audi Magazine
Dutch graphic designer Rhonald Blommestijn's illustrations play with medical and technical themes in unexpected ways. Check out his blog, and his series of concept illustrations for the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
The Effect of Playstation on the Human Body
Rhonald Blommestijn
For Playstation Belgium
Rhonald Blommestijn
For the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
bioephemera | February 1, 2010
Matthew Albanese makes miniature dioramas out of everyday materials and photographs them, producing Uncanny Valley landscapes that seem almost, but not quite, real. His Paprika Mars, above, is made of 12 pounds of charcoal and spices (paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder). Fields, After the Storm, below, is mostly faux fur and cotton.
Albanese's scenes are convincing precisely because they're so paradigmatic - the standard desolate planetary surface, Western grassland, etc. His work exploits our cognitive tendencies to interpret stimuli against the backdrop of our experience, especially…
bioephemera | January 31, 2010
Another clever use of the periodic table in design: Washington State's Wines of Substance, who won Seattle Magazine's "Coolest Wine Label" Award in 2008.
According to Substance, "wine is as much an art as it is a science. What better way to express this basis than a Periodic Table of Wine with each varietal reflected as an element or substance?" Their interactive "periodic table" website is hardly scientific, but it does look pretty awesome:
In addition to looking all sciencetastic, Substance sponsors selected nonprofits - in January, 25% of all purchases go to Helpline Women's Shelter.…
bioephemera | January 31, 2010Okay, so between vampires and zombies, the undead have officially conquered pop culture. It's not really new - I was fascinated when young by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles - but it does seem a bit out of hand.
With the release of "Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers," I feel like we have slalomed down the slippery slope marked by "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," ducked under "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters," and smacked a tree with our collective faces. From the synopsis:
Soon after 'twas apparent that the fate
Of all on Earth--the evil and the…
bioephemera | January 30, 2010This is apparently a real ad for the hotly contested Orleans Parish Coroner's race:
Poor Dr. Frankenstein Minyard. This takes negative campaigning to a whole new level.
bioephemera | January 30, 2010"Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them."
-John Updike
bioephemera | January 28, 2010Virtual reality trailblazer Jaron Lanier has a somewhat curmudgeonly, critical new book out called You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto. Here's an excerpt:
If you want to know what's really going on in a society or ideology, follow the money. If money is flowing to advertising instead of to musicians, journalists, and artists, then a society is more concerned with manipulation than with truth or beauty. If content is worthless, then people will start to become empty-headed and contentless. The combination of hive mind and advertising has resulted in a new kind of social contract. The basic idea…
bioephemera | January 28, 2010
Via my friend Sylvia, here's an old (2008) but interesting post arguing that over time, the quality of medical illustrations have declined. From Artemy Lebedev.
bioephemera | January 27, 2010
I came across this lovely beach in Maine a few months ago, near Bar Harbor. The remarkable thing here is that the beach is very far down - about fifty feet - yet the rocks so strongly resemble typical landscaping gravel that the beach seems to be at the level of the observer. Unfortunately, the beach was surrounded by cliffs and appeared inaccessible at high tide, so we couldn't get a person among the stones for perspective, but they must be similar to grapefruit and basketballs. (Some among you can no doubt do the math and figure out exactly how big they were - I've long forgotten how).…
bioephemera | January 26, 2010When I dared my friend John to make "You've Been SCIENCED" into a pop culture tagline, using his science radio show as a platform, I didn't think he'd actually DO it. But he did:
I just wish Drew Carey had used the "Pigs In Space" intonation of "You've been SCIENCED."
bioephemera | January 26, 2010This is the best blog post ever. And read the comment thread - it's totally worth it.
Via many people.
bioephemera | January 26, 2010Suppose you have a question about a new medication your doctor has prescribed to you. How do you find out more about it? You probably Google it, right? But what do you do with the list of results that come up, which is likely to include a Wikipedia page, a blog entry or two, some posts on e-patient forums, the manufacturer's website, and a few online pharmacies with FREE SHIPPING? Perhaps you skim these pages, judge their usefulness and reliability, and end up at a Wikipedia page or a knowledgeable blog entry written by the likes of Scibling Abel Pharmboy. No problem.
But now suppose it's…
bioephemera | January 25, 2010A quick plug for Fashion For Nerds, a fun blog by a San Francisco biologist with an eye for mixing thrift store finds. See? Living in the lab doesn't mean you can't have style.
bioephemera | January 25, 2010
Yoda Borguereau
Mandrak
An old link, but still a good one - the "Star Wars in classic art" digital fx (advanced) contest from Worth1000.com. And the sequel contest (not as good). And the third contest. (Let's hope they're more prudent than George Lucas, and stop at three!)
bioephemera | January 24, 2010"There is no rest, really, there is no rest, there is just a joyous torment all your life of doing the wrong thing."
poet Derek Walcott, 1982
excerpted in Harper's Magazine, February 2010
bioephemera | January 23, 2010
Jorge Cham's PhD skewers the "wisdom of crowds" - and poorly done stats.
bioephemera | January 23, 2010
Peacock Backpiece
Paul Roe
British Ink DC
From the files: one unfortunate consequence of trying to cover all of last year's Artomatic event in a single visit was that I didn't get to explore British Ink's faux-Victorian tattoo parlor. I don't do tats myself, but how awesome is this?
PS. This was not intended to coincide with Conan's last day on the Peacock network, but since it did: I'm with Coco.