bioephemera | January 1, 2010
I went to see Randall Munroe, creator of xkcd, a few weeks ago at MIT. Unfortunately the line to get him to sign books was about fifty frenzied geeks long, so I didn't stay for that. But I did enjoy his dialogue with the audience, which mainly consisted of answering questions ranging from obsessive fanboy minutia (why is xkcd published on Monday, Wednesday and Friday?) to vast and metaphysical (what is the true difference between geeks, nerds and dorks?) The latter question led to Munroe doodling and tinkering with a ridiculously convoluted Venn diagram, the details of which I can't remember…
bioephemera | January 1, 2010
Happy New Year!
It's been a great two years (almost) here at Scienceblogs. But since most readers don't comment, I don't really know who many of you are. Who are you, where are you, what do you do, and what plans/hopes do you have for the upcoming year?
bioephemera | December 31, 2009
With the Mallard Heels from anthropologie, you can say "Yes, I'm wearing a 3-inch high duck decoy!" with confidence. But alas, I waited too long to blog these - they're out of stock. :( Sorry, Isis.
bioephemera | December 31, 2009
This explanatory video from Wired/the Exploratorium shows how "Dr. Megavolt" (Austin Richards) created a birdcage-topped stainless steel bodysuit, so he can play with the giant Tesla coil he built. This guy knows how to have fun, man.
bioephemera | December 30, 2009Many of the commenters on my earlier post about the so-called wisdom of crowds, "Science is not a democracy," have expressed distaste for the phrase "scientific consensus." I don't really share that distaste, and here's why.
To me, it's like being disturbed by the phrase "electoral college." You may detest the way our nation's electoral system works; you may not trust the outcomes it produces; but there is an established system, and the electoral college is part of it. You can object to the existence of the electoral college and criticize its characteristics, and you can try to change the…
bioephemera | December 30, 2009
the Hallelujah Mountains
film stills from Avatar by James Cameron
The Messengers
Christophe Vacher
Fantasy artist Christophe Vacher was doing the floating mountain thing for years before Avatar.
Update: apparently, for those of you who remember the 1970s, Roger Dean was doing it too:
Jason R suggests this link for more images. (None of them look even remotely familiar to me).
bioephemera | December 30, 2009
If you've ever worked in a bio lab, you know what I mean: these look too real!
Yes, I know Pharyngula and BoingBoing already got to them early this month, while I was in the middle of finals, but I just had to blog them anyway. They're too bioE. Besides, you can use them as a New Year's diet aid.
bioephemera | December 29, 2009
"It is the largest thing we have ever built," says Whitesides, "and we have assembled it from transistors--the smallest things we know how to make. It is a chrysalis we are forming around the planet...a table where we sit to gossip, a suq where we buy and sell; a shadowy corner for planning mischief; a library holding the entire world's information; a friend, a game, a matchmaker, a psychiatrist, an erotic dream, a babysitter, a teacher, a spy....The best and worst and most ordinary of us reflected--and perhaps distorted--in a silvery fog of bits."
--George Whitesides describing the Internet…
bioephemera | December 29, 2009There are two contradictory headlines today on Google News, both regarding someone I couldn't care less about. However, they nicely illustrate one of my key concerns about the internet: the pervasive illusion that the "wisdom of crowds" is in fact wisdom, or in fact fact.
Both stories involve the heinous Jon Gosselin, who as far as I'm concerned is a waste of attention. You may have heard that the former reality TV star had his apartment trashed over the holidays, and that no one knows who's responsible. But if one turns to Google News, one can see that People Magazine appears to have an…
bioephemera | December 28, 2009
scarobeus cornepleura
Mauricio Ortiz
The technically gifted Mauricio Ortiz is originally from Costa Rica, but now lives in London, where his artistic star is on the rise. His octo-beetle, above, was recently selected to appear in a deck of playing cards as part of a high-profile British charity fundraiser, alongside a card by British bad boy Damien Hirst.
The octo-beetle is one of a number of painstaking drawings in the style of scientific illustrations, and inspired by Wunderkammern, the "wonder cabinets" of the Renaissance. Rather than starting with completely unfamiliar wonders, though,…
bioephemera | December 26, 2009
Orchis Nodulosa
Kate Street
The delicacy of Kate Street's pencil drawings belie their sinister undertones: a garden of chimeric orchids flowering with skulls, intricate skeletons of birds perching on leaves, tuberous roots that are half heart and half honeycomb. Her installations, on the other hand, pull no punches. In Bird in the Hand II, disembodied hands clinically display the fragments of a dissected bird.
Street told London's Timeout.com,
My interest in nature is how we like to classify it and manicure it and make it perfect. I like Dutch still lifes of flowers and animals because…
bioephemera | December 24, 2009
The recent blizzard turned our decorative holiday planter into a suspiciously Cthulhulian holiday effigy. A cephaloconiferopod? A gymnosquid? An everoctogreen? I have no idea what to call it, but it obviously says "Merry Christmas, BioE readers!"
bioephemera | December 23, 2009
A year or two ago in Washington, DC, I saw this charming series of windows in the downtown Macy's. It's a technical makeover of the traditional Santa's workshop, complete with pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo like "Through Synchronous Siphonization, Gigglium added in 2:1 ratio to Teeheelium," "Octopusilex arms begin extension/contraction/reaction sequence," and "Once outspoutified, capillary action introduces .43 milligrams per 100 parts of Elation Suspension." I never got around to blogging it, I guess! So here you go. . . Merry Christmas!
bioephemera | December 23, 2009
NPR now has its own science-meets-culture blog, 13.7:
13.7: Cosmos And Culture is written by five prominent scientists or science journalists with different fields and focuses. The five will write, as individuals and sometimes collectively, on the places where science and culture intersect, on all levels. The blog will at sometimes be provocative, controversial, amusing, idealistic, academic, insightful - but always thoughtful. The contributors to this blog stand by the conviction that scientists must engage in the public debate of what science can and cannot do.
All well and good, but I was…
bioephemera | December 20, 2009
artwork by Ryan Abblegen, via iO9.
(Since he was BoingBoinged, his etsy shop is all out of mechanized murder cards, so bookmark him for after the holidays).
bioephemera | December 19, 2009
Photo: Jana Asenbrennerova / The Chronicle
SFGate has a great interview with Raven Hanna of madewithmolecules! I love Raven's stuff an am thrilled to see her getting recognition.
bioephemera | December 18, 2009
"Insectopedia"
Kiff Slemmons
Self-taught metal artist Kiff Slemmons' classic series "Insectopedia" is a collection of metal pins fusing insects with typography. She's also known for working with found objects like shells, stones and bones, as in the following pieces from her recent show with Kay Sekimachi at Velvet da Vinci in NYC:
"Corallary 2 & 3" Brooches
Kiff Slemmons
"Atoll" Necklace
Kiff Slemmons
View a complete set of photos from the Velvet da Vinci show here.
More:
Article on Kiff Slemmons at Ornament Magazine
bioephemera | December 17, 2009
A question I used to get fairly frequently is "what medical advance has saved the most lives?" Guesses usually include antibiotics, vaccines, and septic surgical method, but it's probably. . . clean water. Not a medical advance, you say? Maybe not, at least the way most people think of medicine - but sadly there are still many parts of the world that can't take clean water for granted.
Via John at Tracing Resistance Blog.
bioephemera | December 15, 2009
Found on ebay: "Peter Parley's Tales of Animals, containing descriptions of three hundred quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects. With numerous engravings."
Note to the Critics.
This book is almost wholly a mere compilation; free use has been made, in preparing it, of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, the Family Library, Wilson's Ornithology, Gedman's Natural History of North America, &c. I make this confession to you; but if I chose to keep this matter a secret from my readers generally, and leave them to infer that my various knowledge is original, this is either their…
bioephemera | December 14, 2009Hey readers, since blogging about my holiday educational fundraising push, I've noticed that clicks and views are up - thanks to everyone for helping out! All BioE traffic through the end of December will help benefit CEF, a scholarship and grant program for kids in Washington state, so keep sharing those links! :)