bioephemera | November 25, 2008Andre at Biocurious responds to something PZ Myers said at a talk, with this legit criticism of the "science is beautiful" theme:
How far down the road of "science shares more with art than engineering" do you want to go? Our society supports the arts because they provide beauty and insight and enrich our lives. We support science because it is inspiring and let's us reach beyond ourselves to see and understand things that didn't seem possible and because it provides tangible advances that improve the quality of our lives. Those benefits are worth a lot to people. The National Endowment for…
bioephemera | November 24, 2008
This peculiar little dude is a paper toy for children - and a great example of vintage advertising. "Le Pere Savon" is built of cubes of soap with "72%" embossed on them, indicating a composition of 72% olive oil - which is typical of the French soap savon de Marseille. I believe he is blowing a bubble out of a pipe.
"Le Pere Savon" was later rebranded "Persavon," and I don't find any recent examples of this character in advertising. But you can still build your own personal creepy soap-man using this pattern from Agence Eureka. They've helpfully split the full-size original pattern pieces…
bioephemera | November 22, 2008
The Moment of Conception and Ensoulment
Illumination from Jean Mansel, Vie de Nostre Seigneur Jesus Christ,
fifteenth century, fol. 174. 11.1 x 15.8 cm.
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
From "Making Visible Embryos"
Via the invaluable Morbid Anatomy, I discovered a remarkable new website, "Making Visible Embryos." Assembled by Tatjana Buklijas and Nick Hopwood of the University of Cambridge, with the support of the Wellcome Trust, it traces the evolution of our understanding of the human embryo, beginning with an unexplored mystery within the inaccessible womb, through epigenesis and…
bioephemera | November 22, 2008Imagine if all the incoming members of Congress were required to have "compulsory lessons in scientific literacy under a plan to strengthen evidence-based policy-making," including "classes explaining scientific method and basic concepts." Far-fetched, right?
Well, apparently Britain's doing exactly that:
The plan, drawn up by Adam Afriyie, the party's spokesman for science and innovation, is designed to address concerns about a lack of scientific expertise and understanding in the House of Commons and Whitehall. Though scientific challenges such as global warming, stem-cell research,…
bioephemera | November 21, 2008
Tarantula
Elizabeth Goluch
sterling silver, gold, tourmaline
Canadian artist Elizabeth Goluch's precious metal insects double as treasure-boxes. From her website:
My fascination with nature in general and with insects in particular began while I was a child growing up on a farm in southwestern Ontario. The work that I do reflects the influence of that environment -- the wildlife and the insects, as well the intricacy, the complexity and the order inherent in nature. I am drawn to the beauty, but also to the danger in nature. I relish the visible, yet can imagine much more; which gives rise…
bioephemera | November 20, 2008
From Wired comes this rather odd interview with conceptual artist Jonathon Keats, who advocates turning the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain into a universe nursery.
Keats has already built a $20 "do-it-yourself universe creation kit" (pictured above). The Yucca Mountain project would simply scale it up. What exactly this would look like is a little unclear, since by Keats' own account the mini-univernursery is not terribly exciting to watch:
From the standpoint of being in the universe, making a new universe is very mundane. If you could stand outside it and see the universes cleave, I…
bioephemera | November 20, 2008. . . or, brain worms could be on the rise!
Mo at Neurophilosophy has a really freaky story/video about a parasitic worm that invaded a woman's brain. This one is worth watching. . . and you can use it on your family if they're refusing to wash their hands!
bioephemera | November 20, 2008
Chesterfields ad, 1952
Today, November 20, is the American Cancer Society's 33rd Great American Smokeout. Now, be honest: did you even know?
The Smokeout doesn't seem to get as much attention as it used to, perhaps because the link between cigarette smoke and cancer is no longer surprising or controversial. After decades of anti-tobacco campaigns hammering the research home, no media-conscious American could plausibly believe that cigarettes are actually good for his or her health. Yet this is a sea change from attitudes in the first half of the 20th century, when cigarettes' health…
bioephemera | November 19, 2008
Apparently there is a Mexican eatery down this vaguely threatening corridor. But I think it resembles the kind of trap that an alien with an imperfect grasp of American culture might construct to entrap, tag, and radio-collar unsuspecting policy wonks.
bioephemera | November 19, 2008According to Hill pub Roll Call, former Senator Tom Daschle will be the next HHS Secretary.
No word on the NIH Director yet.
bioephemera | November 16, 2008
Next week, PBA galleries in San Francisco will be auctioning rare books, prints, and ephemera from the medical library of Gerald I. Sugarman, MD. Joanna at Morbid Anatomy has distilled some of the best medical illustrations from this collection into two posts here and here. Thanks, Joanna!
This is wonderful stuff. I think Dr. Sugarman must have been an interesting character. . . the kind of guy I wish lived down the hall from me so I could borrow his books.
From "A System of Anatomy" by Samuel Collins, 1685
From "Anatomia Corporum Humanorum" by Joannem Arnoldum Langerak, 1739
bioephemera | November 16, 2008Scibling Brian Switek over at Laelaps is in the running for the $10,000 science blogging college scholarship, and he needs your help to win. I'm amazed again just typing this that Brian is a college student. He writes more eloquent, insightful essays than most graduate students! (And if you don't read Laelaps, you should. . . his worst crime lies in blogging too much for me to keep up!)
Vote here (voting is open until Nov 20.)
bioephemera | November 15, 2008
The terrifying Siberian Vampire Moth
I took my cat into the vet on Tuesday, and she immediately bit through my arm. Now I'm feverish and my glands are swollen, thank in part to our little furry friends and their bacteria-laden mouths. But it could have been worse; my cat could have been rabid. Or she could be a rare blood-sucking creature, like the vampire bat, or the even rarer blood-sucking vampire moths. (I am not making this up.)
Check out the National Geographic video on the moth. I love when the graduate student says "it's starting to hurt. . ." and laughs nervously. Science is a tough…
bioephemera | November 14, 2008
These are Food Chain Friends. According to FAO Schwartz, "They're friends. They eat each other. It's a complicated relationship!" Uh. . . okay. You try to explain that to YOUR kids!
Via Boing Boing Gadgets
bioephemera | November 14, 2008
Wall of Fishes, Vanderbilt Museum
from Curious Expeditions
Nothing symbolizes the amateur naturalist's aesthetic as well as a wall of preserved specimens in glass jars, like the jewellike Wall of Fishes in the Vanderbilt Museum (captured here by the wonderful Curious Expeditions, in a fascinating slideshow treasure gallery of the Vanderbilt).
A similar glistening room of glass is found in my revious post about London's Hunterian Museum.
The problem with historical specimen collections like these is that slowly but surely, they're falling apart. Storing biological tissue in alcohol or…
bioephemera | November 13, 2008This article originally appeared on the old bioephemera September 9, 2007.
Syphilitic skull with three trephine holes and osteomyelitic lesions
Hunterian museum
One of my favorite London experiences was my visit to the Hunterian museum. If only I had more time there! I liked it so much, I returned on my last day, procrastinating my departure for Heathrow as long as possible.
The Hunterian is tucked away inside the Royal College of Surgeons of England, on Lincoln's Inn Fields. In its Victorian incarnation, it was a wonderful multi-tiered gallery with railings, balconies, and suspended…
bioephemera | November 13, 2008My friend Kiki created this awesome choreography to represent her PhD thesis on sea turtle conservation. Kiki explains,
The dance opens with aerial dancers. The suspended fluidity of their movements embodies swimming in the ocean. The swinging and dancing couples are sea turtles mating. In the wild sea turtles breed and nest in the same time and place that shrimpers fish and so the sea turtles can get caught in the nets and drown. This is depicted by the dancing trio as well as the aerial dancer. As the female sea turtle dancer leaves her mate to swim ashore and nest she is caught by the…
bioephemera | November 12, 2008
It Looks Like a Landscape
Liu Wei, 2004 digital B/W photography
Liu Wei's "landscape" is an homage to traditional black and white Chinese brush paintings - created by digitally collaging photos of nude bodies. It's a surprisingly beautiful scene composed of parts we usually consider unbeautiful, including buttocks, knees, and body hair.
Unless you're familiar with Chinese brush painting, you may not think these look much like mountains at all. But the rounded, doubled forms of thighs and buttocks are very similar to the mountain shapes depicted in Song dynasty paintings, like this one, by…
bioephemera | November 12, 2008
Dutch artisan Gewoon Guus is selflessly striving to meet consumer demand for. . . radiators shaped like sport animals.
They even have pelts. Why? Why?
Via designvagabond.
bioephemera | November 11, 2008The DonorsChoose challenge is over - and given the terrible economy and the distraction of the election, I feel very fortunate to have gotten over $2,000 in donations toward some incredibly creative science/art projects. Here's some of the feedback I've gotten from the teachers:
I am so excited about this project and am very grateful for your generosity. I really appreciate all that you have done to make learning interactive and a unique experience for my students. The chance to express themselves through art will hopefully open their eyes to new possibilities as well as enable them to begin…