bioephemera | September 19, 2008
Blue Forest
Kevin O'Neill
io9.com posed its readers a challenge a few months back: design a synthetic lifeform using BioBricks. They didn't want another Spore creature - it had to be something biologically plausible, and preferably, functional. The question: would those readers voluntarily do the equivalent of biochem lab homework?
The answer appears to be heck, yes. The winner, nerd overachiever Vijaykumar Meli, proposed a modified rhizobial bacterium capable of invading rice roots, conferring nitrogen fixation capability on the plant and significantly reducing its need for fertilizer. He…
bioephemera | September 18, 2008
Vernon Grant, 1944
If you enjoyed the vintage public health posters I wrote about a while ago, you might want to stop in and see the National Academies' new exhibition, "An Iconography of Contagion." (Such a great title!)
Over twenty public health posters from 1920-1990 will be on display until December 19. Michael Sappol of the National Library of Medicine (and curator of Dream Anatomy) will give a free gallery talk tonight at 6pm.
bioephemera | September 17, 2008
Skeleton appetizer plates
Pottery Barn
I usually just toss my Pottery Barn catalogs, because I no longer have a house to decorate. But the Halloween edition just arrived and there's some good medical-specimen stuff in there. In addition to the skeleton appetizer plates above, which I totally covet, they have a skull tray, vampire teeth placeholders, and glossy black skull candles. But alas! This smashing skull cocktail shaker set is "no longer available" online. . .
bioephemera | September 15, 2008
(1) John McCain, photographed for the Atlantic Monthly, 2008; (2) inset: Atlantic Monthly cover, October 2008; (3) monkey portrait. Photographer: Jill Greenberg
All of these portraits are by Jill Greenberg, but one of them is getting a bit more attention than the others. Guess which!
Before this week, Greenberg may have been best known for her "monkey portrait" series, which was recently released as a book. When I saw them here at the National Academies last spring, I was delighted by the remarkably human expressions she coaxed out of the primates. The portraits seemed like an idealistic…
bioephemera | September 15, 2008John, the self-appointed 'Neurosigntist,' turned up this Korean paragon of inscrutably bizarre signage:
I can't possibly ask the obvious questions any better than John does:
Are women as a group prohibited from using the teeter-totter, or is the sign only prohibiting women dressed in Victorian clothing? Perhaps, the cartoon depicts two witches disguised as 1850's Victorian women using the teeter-totter, in which case, are these witches specifically prohibited from using the equipment? Or, are women dressed in Victorian clothing allowed to use the equipment, regardless of their involvement in…
bioephemera | September 15, 2008
Today, Sciencedebate 2008 got as close as it's likely to come to its original goals: John McCain released his answers to the "14 top science questions facing America." Barack Obama released his two weeks ago, so you can now compare the candidates' positions on those 14 science questions side-by-side.
It seems that everyone has an opinion on whether the original goal of a televised debate on science themes (which the National Academies volunteered to host) was a good idea or not. Everyone will also have an opinion on whether these questions are the best ones - and how the vice-presidents'…
bioephemera | September 14, 2008
Pam at Phantasmaphile has just written an MSN travel guide for the incorrigibly curious, called "An Old-World Sense of Wonder." Pam kicks off her list of wonder cabinet destinations with three NYC shops I plan to visit next month: Obscura Antiques and Oddities (280 East 10th Street), de Vera (1 Crosby Street), and Evolution (120 Spring Street). Yum!
Fortunately for me, de Vera and Evolution are just a few blocks from the Apple Store SoHo, where I and four of my Sciblings will be doing a science blogging panel October 1. If you're in NYC that evening, please stop by - Apple's a great venue,…
bioephemera | September 11, 2008
19th century anatomical study cabinet #1
Alex cf, 2008
The undisputed modern master of the horrifying cryptozoological specimen is Alex cf, bane of vampires and cthulhu spawn. Unfortunately, there's an immense demand for his work, and he isn't very prolific. So how's a girl to fill her curiosity cabinet - especially with Halloween right around the corner?
Luckily, Repository For Bottled Monsters turned up a great DIY project: how to bottle your own mad-scientist monstrosities. Check out these jars, created using inexpensive plastic toys from the dollar store:
from imakeprojects.com
These…
bioephemera | September 11, 2008
Madonna and Horsefly
John Brophy, 2008
Pam over at Phantasmaphile never fails to discover wonderful, quirky new art. Her latest find: John Brophy. His "Madonna and Horsefly" kind of freaks me out, not in a bad way, but because I've been planning some paintings along this exact theme! But Brophy's are better than mine would have been, so it's just as well. (But darn it all anyway! This is why I need to paint ideas, and not just sit on them indefinitely.)
Princess Minky Momo
John Brophy, 2007
Like Madeline von Foerster and Cristina Vergano, Brophy is clearly influenced by the old Dutch…
bioephemera | September 11, 2008Yesterday the large hadron collider started up successfully, and the world did not end. But it will still be months before we have exciting collision data, so don't hold your breath waiting for that Higgs boson - unless you want to buy a stuffed one at Particle Zoo:
Wait - a Higgs boson costs just $9.75?! Someone should have told CERN before they spent all those billions of Euros!
If the Higgs boson is too trendy for you, Julie at Particle Zoo also offers a Z boson, which looks kinda like a Pac-Man ghost, or one of the three neutrinos, which resemble the disembodied heads of Ninja turtles…
bioephemera | September 10, 2008Just in case you aren't following the savage recipe war between Isis the Scientist and PhysioProf, I have to call your attention to PP's latest entry: it's a tentacle salad. You CAN have your cute little squid, and eat it too!
Despite the attractiveness of Isis' steak salad, when it comes to cephalopods I'm a one-issue voter. (Luckily neither of the presidential candidates has taken a position on cephalopods, or I might be placed in an awkward situation.)
bioephemera | September 7, 2008
Prototypical "bioephemera" - butterflies and flowers - as seen last Saturday at the wonderful Dumbarton Oaks Gardens in Georgetown. I think it's a palamedes swallowtail (Papilio palamedes), which is common to DC/Virginia; but I'm not sure. (Unfortunately I only brought my iPhone, not my real camera!)
bioephemera | September 6, 2008 This is one of the most bizarre commercials I've ever seen (and yes, I'm including the Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld spot in that sample). It's a French ad for Orangina, which I discovered via Stephanie at almostdiamonds. It appears to be an innuendo-drenched Technicolor musical extravaganza set in a baroque painting peopled by anthropomorphized woodland creatures. There's even a cephalopod bartender reminiscent of Carmen Miranda! And a lot of exotic dancing.
What does any of this have to do with my favorite carbonated orange beverage? According to the Independent, "The adverts were said to be…
bioephemera | September 4, 2008
DC has some random late-night destinations. One of my favorite dives is Pharmacy Bar, with its medicine-cabinet theme. (You'll note the banner also says "Krogs Aptieka" - Aptieka is Latvian for pharmacy!)
bioephemera | September 3, 2008Last night the staffer and I were watching the Republican National Convention when we noticed an unfortunate, unintentionally hilarious staging problem. Fred Thompson was speaking on the arena's glossy black stage, with a HUGE projected photo of John McCain behind him. The photo of McCain was taken from about desk height in an office, capturing a looming McCain, a window, and the back of a leather desk chair. The net result? It looked like McCain the Giant Senator has a Fred Thompson doll (complete with mini-podium!) perched cutely on his shiny desk:
Someone at CNN apparently realized this…
bioephemera | September 1, 2008
light table with brain specimen slices
National Museum of Health and Medicine
Neuroanatomical collection
A few months ago I took a tour of the National Museum of Health and Medicine's neuroanatomical research collection. It's a remarkable hoard of preserved and sectioned human brains, most sandwiched between plates of glass. Some of the specimens are quite old (the NMHM has specimens dating back to the Civil War). I took a few photos to show you what the facility is like.
storage cabinets for NMHM's neuroanatomical collection
The cabinets above house trays of glass slides containing serial…
bioephemera | August 31, 2008My friend mdvlist sent me the link to some rather odd educational materials, called "Lyrical Life Science." They're folk songs set to familiar tunes, but the lyrics are all biology. I realize that folk songs about science have a storied history. But these are kinda weird - like "Sirenians" set to "Drunken Sailor," or "Oh Bacteria" set to "Oh Susanna" ("though lacking any nucleus, you do have a cell wall. . . ")
mdvlist claims that the kids in her party LOVED these CDs, although she was not impressed by the quality of the music. Nor was I - in fact, I couldn't understand half of what they are…
bioephemera | August 28, 2008
Tia Resleure
Winged Cat
Mixed Media, 2002
Speaking of possible hoaxes, I noticed thanks to Zooillogix that the Chinese winged cat story is making the rounds again. I blogged about this in May 2007 on bioephemera - apparently they haven't even changed the photo accompanying the story!
Although the Tia Resleure sculpture above is a fake, and the Chinese story may be a recycled urban myth with suspiciously few specifics, reports of winged cats have been around a long time. Here's what I had to say about it back in May 2007:
You've probably heard the recent reports of a winged cat. The cat's…
bioephemera | August 28, 2008
A sad story from Bangladesh: a baby boy born with two heads has passed away at just two days old. What makes the story especially sad is that apparently the boy, named Kiron, was doing surprisingly well shortly after birth, even eating, but his parents could not afford further medical treatment at a larger hospital. They took him home, where he died of respiratory problems.
The photo above shows how remarkably normal both heads look - at first, I thought it was a hoax. It's unclear at this point how Kiron developed two heads, although what little I've seen suggests that it was probably a…