bioephemera | August 12, 2009I missed a few weeks of Jon Stewart while we didn't have cable, so many thanks to David Bruggeman for pointing out this awesome Daily Show clip of scientists failing to communicate. I'm still chortling.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Human's Closest Relative
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor
Spinal Tap Performance
My favorite part is when Oliver gets the chimp guy to admit no one will read his papers.
bioephemera | August 12, 2009
Japanese artist Kawano Takeshi's 2007 rendition of global warming is simple, a little funny, and a lot sad.
For another version of the same theme - using a real child's toy - check out Ours (the Bear), a video by French artist Simon Dronet. I'll try to embed it, but the link's wonky, so you might have to click through to see it.
OursUploaded by laperitel.
Via Fubiz
bioephemera | August 11, 2009Remember the first time you learned sterile technique, or how to make a bacterial spreader, or how to blow up a distillation apparatus? Well, now you can relive the disorientation and anxiety nostalgic fuzzy feeling with benchfly.com, a site that offers video tutorials on various lab tasks, like making a bacterial spreader using a glass rod and a bunsen burner.
Overall, looks like an excellent resource for teachers. But wait - how'd this one slip in there?
Now that is a productive use of glass and alcohol!
bioephemera | August 9, 2009
R-Evolve, 2009
Jud Turner
To complement my previous entry on bikes with an anatomical inspiration, here are some bike-and-bone inspired sculptures from Jud Turner, who is currently showing work at Device Gallery in San Diego.
R-Evolve, the sculpture above, was created for a group show, Joyride, in conjunction with the Bicycle Film Festival and NYC's Anonymous Gallery.
Turner's artist statement places him squarely in the sciart camp:
Quantum physics tells us that apparently solid objects are comprised of vast empty spaces, populated by tiny particles whose individual relationships create…
bioephemera | August 8, 2009
Le Boson de Higgs, 2008
Korner Union
Gaussian Goat , 2008
Harm van den Dorpel
Both artworks via today and tomorrow
bioephemera | August 7, 2009Reviewer Jerry Coyne appears to have some of the same reservations I do ("Mooney and Kirshenbaum also fail to support their contention that the knowledge gap between scientists and the public is increasing") - but he ends up voting thumbs down:
No matter how much atheists stifle themselves, no matter how many scientists reach out to the public via new media, we may not find the appetite for science infinitely elastic. This does not mean, of course, that we should refrain from feeding it. But figuring out where and how to intervene will take a lot more work than the shallow and unreflective…
bioephemera | August 7, 2009
Father Heart, 2006
Black Nickel on Rolled Steel; Glass Tank - 80cc with pedal
Josh Hadar
It's always puzzled me that bicycles don't take better advantage of the gleaming potential of curvacious, polished metal. Why are most bike frames so boring and triangular? Fortunately Josh Hadar has come to the rescue, with his beautiful curved steel custom bicycles. They're all lovely, but when he adds blown glass "hearts" to their steel ribs, his bikes seem positively. . . alien. Isn't it interesting that adding elements of human anatomy makes the bikes seem more unnatural? More bikes (and the…
bioephemera | August 6, 2009The initial reviews of Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum's new book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future produced a small blogospheric kerfuffle last month. But I think Unscientific America has much more constructive and useful things to offer than provoking more arguments, and there are a lot of reviews focusing on the positives. This surprisingly short but wide-ranging book is a nutshell primer on science policy and communication issues, perfect for dissatisfied lab rats who want to engage in advocacy but don't have communications or policy training outside…
bioephemera | August 5, 2009The Bipartisan Policy Center's Science for Policy Project, co-chaired by former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), past chair of the House Science Committee, and Donald Kennedy, former editor of Science, and directed by David Goldston, former chief of staff of the House Science Committee, released its report today.
The report focuses on the need to draw clean distinctions between science issues and policy issues:
"The fundamental theme of the report is that the Administration needs to put in place procedures to try to distinguish science questions from policy questions," said Boehlert. "Often,…
bioephemera | August 5, 2009So on my return to regular Scienceblogging, I see that Mike the Mad Biologist and Razib are taking exception to a point made by Megan McArdle in the Atlantic. McArdle observes that the heritability of weight is quite high - almost as high as the heritability of height:
Twin studies and adoptive studies show that the overwhelming determinant of your weight is not your willpower; it's your genes. The heritability of weight is between .75 and .85. The heritability of height is between .9 and .95. And the older you are, the more heritable weight is.
Okay: how you take that statement depends…
bioephemera | August 4, 2009
Smarthistory is a wonderfully simple concept: landmark artworks presented with conversational narration (sometimes audio, sometimes video) by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker. Sometimes they focus on a single work, as a professor would in a lecture; in other tracks, they stand in a murmur-filled gallery and comment on the hubbub around them. I have friends who sound just like Zucker and Harris when you get them talking about art - relishing the give and take of ideas; happily tossing out half-formed hypotheses about intent and context; gently mocking art cliches, curation cliches, and the (…
bioephemera | August 4, 2009
Check out this clever riff on vintage science books by Nate Wragg, one of a group of Pixar illustrators who teamed up to create the forthcoming Ancient Book of Sex and Science. Wragg says,
A favorite series of mine is "The How and Why Wonder Books." These were informational books that would focus on a certain subject or form of science per book. As I looked over the entire series, I thought to myself, "There is no sex and science issue." This gave me the perfect excuse to create my own volume for the series. The end result is the long lost "Sex and Science" edition that was never published.…
bioephemera | July 27, 2009
. . . as soon as possible. As you may have noticed, Scienceblogs is having a few hiccups as it transitions to new servers. I'm having a few issues myself as I transition to a new apartment this week, so the blog will be fairly dead until everything gets straightened out.
In the meantime, here's a classic wince-inducing headline from the Albuquerque Journal (1984). Is this good advice? Bad advice? Who can tell!?
You can find many more like this on the tiles in the restrooms in DC's Newseum - I took this snapshot during the SEED Innovation Summit last month.
Have a great week!
bioephemera | July 23, 2009
"O.K., let's slowly lower in the grant money."
Todd Bearson
Arlington, Mass.
This cartoon in the latest New Yorker gave me a (cynical) guffaw this morning. Nice caption, Todd Bearson. . . do you work in science? ;)
bioephemera | July 22, 2009
Do You Like My Hat?
Lori Field
Lori Field uses mixed media, including encaustic, to create collage dreamscapes inspired by medical and botanical illustrations. Apparently two-headed kittens are also a theme. See more at the artist's gallery website. Check out The Little Death and Frog Princess.
found via dr.hypercube
bioephemera | July 20, 2009
Reader Mike sent me the link to this Coke commercial a while ago. I love the exasperated brain pulling himself around - he's like a mob boss driven crazy by his stupid henchmen. Their other ads aren't quite as funny, because they make you overthink the situation (if the eyeball can't drink Coke because it has no mouth, how is it talking?)
bioephemera | July 19, 2009Ethan at Starts With a Bang has promised to shave his head if 100 commenters promise to give at least $10 to charity or volunteer for 4 hours. So naturally, I had to chip in. Wanna help?
bioephemera | July 18, 2009
While browsing etsy this weekend, I was impressed with some of the unusual pieces from seller 19moons. These salvaged, chimeric pieces look much more expensive than they are.
from their etsy profile:
19 Moons is an eco-conscious creation of San Francisco Bay Area native Niffer Desmond. Inspired by re-use, machinery and DIY culture, her designs integrate these concepts into fashion. Vintage and recycled materials are combined to create wares that are both unique and Eco-friendly. If you like to stand out in the crowd, 19 Moons is your lunar gear station!
While I'd love a little more detail…
bioephemera | July 18, 2009Or is it Arma-goo-ddon?
For some reason, balls of unidentified biological goo have started showing up in the news. First we had the mysterious North Carolina sewer blob. It turned out that was just a colony of tubifex worms - yes, the same kind you feed your fish. But now we have a giant oceanic Alaskan goo ball:
"It's pitch black when it hits ice and it kind of discolors the ice and hangs off of it," Brower said. He saw some jellyfish tangled up in the stuff, and someone turned in what was left of a dead goose -- just bones and feathers -- to the borough's wildlife department.
"It kind of…
bioephemera | July 17, 2009
Alstroemeria, sp.
Robert Buelteman
One of my favorite short stories is Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter, in which an eccentric, Frankensteinian botanist breeds increasingly beautiful, increasingly deadly flowers. These images from Robert Buelteman remind me of Rappaccini's garden. His creative process sure sounds like something Dr. Frankenstein might have employed:
Buelteman hits everything with an electric pulse and the electrons do a dance as they leap from the sheet metal, through the silicone and the plant (and hopefully not through him), while heading back out the jumper cables. In…