bioephemera | October 7, 2008Dymaxion SkeletonMatthew Day Jackson, 2008
I had a pleasant surprise at our Apple blogging panel last week, when my friend Christopher Reiger of Hungry Hyaena dropped by. He's posted a thoughtful response to some issues we touched on very lightly in the panel.
Like Brian and I, Christopher was a little disappointed that the panel didn't delve into the philosophy of science blogging, or examine whether blogging helps us interlink magisteria that are normally discrete. (I happen to think it does, which is why I blog). Of course if we had gone there, it probably would have been a much longer,…
bioephemera | October 7, 2008
No, that's not a phalanx of nuclear power plants in Harlem - it's a futuristic housing concept proposed in 1964 by visionary Buckminster Fuller and his student Shoji Sadao. The 100-story residential skyscrapers would hold 45,000 occupants each. Fuller and Sadao also proposed a two-mile wide dome over midtown Manhattan, which would minimize energy loss and maintain a protected, artificial climate inside - the better to preserve the city's aging cultural artifacts.
Have fun at New York's millionth-comment party at the Delancey tonight, Sciblings and readers. I can't be there, but if I were, I'…
bioephemera | October 6, 2008Today's NYT describes a new strategy for Down Syndrome screening. The new test, developed by a company called Sequenom, screens the mother's blood sample for fragments of RNA produced from fetal chromosomes.
Dr. Lo looked for genes on Chromosome 21 that were active in the fetus but not in the mother. That means that any such RNA found in the mother's bloodstream comes from the fetus. The Sequenom test then looks at spots where the version of those genes inherited by the fetus from the father might differ from the version inherited from the mother. If the baby has the normal two copies of…
bioephemera | October 5, 2008
Before heading to the Apple Store SoHo for our blogging panel last Wednesday, I dropped by evolution ("science and art in SoHo"), a store recommended by Pam of Phantasmaphile.
Evolution is clearly NYC's prime destination for the amateur natural historian, an east coast cousin of Berkeley's Bone Room. They offer skulls (real and replica), butterflies and beetles in cases, minerals, shells, memento mori carvings, skins, ammonites, coprolites, meteorites, tusks, teeth, arrowheads, and other things one never dreamed one needed. A sphere of elemental copper? Natural hematite magnets? A wallet…
bioephemera | October 3, 2008
fanfin seadevilThe Deep: Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
Claire Nouvian
photographed by David Shale
For anyone who does not yet have a copy of Claire Nouvian's beautiful book, The Deep, here's a chance to win it - through Oceana's Freakiest Fish of 2008 contest. The book also has the Dumbo octopus in it. Is the Dumbo octopus' cuteness the perfect antithesis of the fanfin's hideousness? Would they annihilate each other if they collided? Discuss!
dumbo octopusThe Deep: Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
Claire Nouvian
photographed by David Shale
bioephemera | October 3, 2008A recent PLoS Genetics paper triggered a sea change in the way genetic data is handled by research institutions like the NIH, the Broad Institute, and the Wellcome Trust. The paper, which came out last month, demonstrated that it's possible to identify a single individual's DNA in a pool of DNA from thousands of different people - something previously assumed to be about as feasible as finding a needle in a haystack.
Using the cumulative effect of tens of thousands of tiny differences in each individual's DNA (called SNPs), a team led by David Craig were able to determine if a specific person…
bioephemera | October 2, 2008
Via bookofjoe via geekologie: a glossy black panther bike by Byron Hemmes.
bioephemera | October 2, 2008
Squid Suckers
Jessica Schiffman and Caroline Schauer (Drexel University)Honorable Mention, Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge 2008
The September 26 issue of Science contains the annual S&E Visualization Challenge winners. The feature is pay-only, but the winners are summarized in a free slideshow here. Winners and honorable mentions include short films, web interfaces, photos, micrographs, and digital illustrations (unfortunately, as in previous years, traditional media is somewhat underrepresented). The type of content varied too: the picture above is an artificially…
bioephemera | October 1, 2008
Today is the first day of the annual DonorsChoose Blogger challenge! As you may know, DonorsChoose is a website devoted to funding lessons dreamed up by creative (but underfunded) teachers. Everyone knows that teachers routinely spend their own time and money to create inspiring experiences for their students - and that those teachers don't get paid nearly enough to give their classes everything they need.
That's why i'm asking you, readers and friends, to help fund the bioephemera Classroom of Curiosity Challenge. Inspired by the Cabinet of Curiosities theme, the requests in my challenge…
bioephemera | October 1, 2008Just a reminder that tonight I'll be appearing with some of my Sciblings on a science blogging panel at the Apple Store SoHo. Come join us!
bioephemera | September 29, 2008
A new conservation international ad for the "lost there, felt here" campaign pays visual tribute to the Amazon's nickname "lungs of the world."
bioephemera | September 28, 2008
The Way Things Go
Peter Fischli and David Weiss, 1987
Hirshhorn Museum
I went by the Hirshhorn a few weeks ago, and this was my favorite piece: a film depicting a slow-moving, low-budget Rube Goldberg apparatus built by artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss out of tires, candles, fuses, ramps, ladders, and random objects. I mean, what's not to like about a flaming tetherball?
The purpose of the apparatus? Nothing, really, except to spin itself out. It's pointlessly meditative. And I liked that - you could start watching the film at any point and stop at any point, as if you were watching…
bioephemera | September 27, 2008Apparently this is the latest cover of Nature:
No comment. . . seriously, I didn't even think this was real, but I've seen it enough places now to think it probably is. Hilarious.
update: forgot to mention it's via stinque
bioephemera | September 25, 2008Tomorrow may or may not be the first of the presidential debates between Obama and McCain. I'll watch, although I find political debates really depressing, and not just because reality is a little bleak right now. I'm always frustrated at the level of the discourse. If a candidate goes where a president should be intellectually prepared to go, attempting to seriously discuss the ambiguities and challenges of complex issues like finance or health insurance systems, he'll be totally shooting himself in his (obviously elitist) foot. People don't want to hear serious, complex discussion. They…
bioephemera | September 25, 2008
For some reason, Ben Folds has decided to make giant rotating skulls and brains part of his latest tour - this is the scene on stage last night in DC. There was a "brainwashing" theme in the first few songs, and I think that guided the choice of images, but darn, it was kinda weird!
bioephemera | September 25, 2008Shelley Batts, Nick Anthis, and Tara Smith authored an article on science blogging which appeared yesterday in PLoS Biology. In their words,
We propose a roadmap for turning blogs into institutional educational tools and present examples of successful collaborations that can serve as a model for such efforts.
The article gives solid examples of how blogging has facilitated scientific collaboration, in fields from plant genetics to science policy. I don't think anyone disputes that blogs can open the lines of communication and enable interactions across research groups, institutions, and…
bioephemera | September 24, 2008Shadow Hand
Check out this slideshow of robot hands from Wired. It tracks the evolution of the hand from the first attempts to duplicate the functionality of a human hand, to integration of self-monitoring proprioceptive and sensory capabilities, to replicating the anatomical and physiological structure of the human hand - both in order to better understand the biology, and to accommodate the connection of prostheses. On the way, it becomes obvious what a thing of complexity and beauty the human hand really is.
bioephemera | September 23, 2008Darwin's Ghosts (older than dirt)Dan Kennedy, 2008
Artist Dan Kennedy's new show, "Darwin's Ghosts," is opening next weekend at the Shooting Gallery Gallery Three in San Francisco. Kennedy's work is like spun candy: colorful cartoon figures; Seuss-like, rainbow-tufted plants; floating phrases; ribbons and fireworks. A smattering of vintage fonts give the pieces the flavor of Americana. Phrases seem torn from circus posters, movie marquees, or old ads - strange company indeed for Darwin's famous "from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful. . . " quote.
Darwin, here represented…
bioephemera | September 22, 2008
When was the last time you coveted something, but let prudence prevent self-indulgence - to your later regret? This summer I was gallery-hopping on Martha's Vineyard when I saw these wonderful stone neckpieces by artist Andrea Williams.
I really, really wanted the round Kyuma Pendant, a smooth black tumbled stone cut in half and then made whole once more with a magnetic clasp. The stone can be closed in either an aligned (round) or misaligned (asymmetric) manner; in the aligned state the magnet looks like a decorative silver band, but in the misaligned state, the method of construction…
bioephemera | September 22, 2008For the past two years, Scibling Bora has shepherded the creation of an anthology sampling the best of science blogging, called The Open Laboratory. Blog posts written since December 20, 2007 are eligible for consideration; you can nominate your own posts, as well as posts by other bloggers. The rules are here.
My first nominee? This smashing post by Mo on Wilder Penfield, the man who mapped the brain. It's incredibly long, though. Perhaps Mo should write his own book. . .
Things to consider:
-The deadline is December 1, 2008.
-Multiple submissions are okay - in other words, don't worry if…