Art
grrlscientist | October 1, 2009tags: science, Science is Real, They might be Giants, music video, streaming video
Here's a fun music video; "Science is Real" by the creative group, They Might be Giants. This is one of many wonderful songs on their new album "Here Comes Science."
You can order They Might be Giants' new album [CD/DVD], "Here Comes Science" from Amazon.
grrlscientist | October 1, 2009
The Spix Macaw, Cyanopsittacus spixi, by Karl Plath and published in the April 1931 edition of Aviculture, the journal of The Avicultural Society in London, England [larger view].
A reader is wondering where this painting of a Spix's Macaw is located; does anyone know?
grrlscientist | September 29, 2009tags: light spectrum, ROY G BIV, music video, entertainment, Here Comes Science, They Might be Giants, streaming video
Here is another song from They Might be Giants' new album, Here Comes Science!
grrlscientist | September 28, 2009tags: sun, music video, entertainment, Here Comes Science, They Might be Giants, streaming video
Here is another song from They Might be Giants' new album, Here Comes Science!
sciencepunk | September 27, 2009From New Scientist:
Iranian photographer Babak Tafreshi has won the 2009 Lennart Nilsson scientific photography prize. According to the award panel, his images "reclaim a night sky that most modern people have lost"
ddobbs | September 27, 2009Maybe best argument yet for expanding the US rail system. I need to go here:
awild | September 26, 2009A: Check your house for any signs of ant-art. If, for instance, your garage sports a giant blue Azteca, you might have developed a myrmecological fixation.
On the other hand, if you consider yourself an ant-lover but lack any obvious ant adornments, you're falling behind. Pick up some paint and get to work!
(This garage belongs to myrmecologists Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer, who sent in the picture. Thanks guys!)
grrlscientist | September 25, 2009tags: spider silk, Madagascar, tapestry, textile art, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, NYC, streaming video
A spectacular and extremely rare textile, woven from golden-colored silk thread produced by more than one million spiders in Madagascar is now on display at the American Museum of Natural History in the Grand Gallery.
Drawing on the legacy of a French missionary, Jacob Paul Camboué, this contemporary textile measures 11 feet by 4 feet and took four years to make using a painstaking technique.
Hear from Dr. Ian Tattersall, Curator, Division of Anthropology at AMNH, as well as…
pharyngula | September 22, 2009
I like it!
I know this will set off another round of culture sniping — get over it. You don't personally have to like this genre, just as no one has to like every kind of music out there, and turning your nose up at one form doesn't necessarily mean your taste is better than someone else's. Just recognize that it's different. It's not Mozart or Manilow, it's just its own sound. If it helps you get over the rejection of something that doesn't sound like the music you are familiar with, think of it as a poetry performance instead.
As for myself, most rap and hip-hop leaves me cold, but every…
grrlscientist | September 20, 2009tags: the sneeze, allergies, offbeat, streaming video
Some people are allergic to housework.
grrlscientist | September 18, 2009tags: Jarbas Agnelli, Paulo Pinto, birds on a wire, NPR, Public Radio, music, streaming video
This video is the result of a creative musician, Jarbas Agnelli, who noticed that a flock of birds on wires resembled musical notes. He took a photograph of these birds, by Paulo Pinto, and set them to music. The result of this interesting observation is below the jump;
Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli.
[Original story], many thanks to a reader, Robin, who sent this video link to me.
Of course, I have to ask you; can you identify the species?
grrlscientist | September 17, 2009tags: birds, literature, ornithology, Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience, Jeremy Mynott, book review
Not too long ago, this unemployed scientist had the honor of being asked to write a book review for Science. The Science book review editor was looking for a review of Jeremy Mynott's new book, Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience. The editor, who peeks at my blog when no one is looking, noticed that I am a scientist and bird maniac who writes and publishes lots of book reviews on my blog, so he very kindly (and out of the blue) decided to give me a chance to…
grrlscientist | September 17, 2009tags: nature, Seurasaari, Helsinki, Finland, image of the day
I photographed this sculpture as I walked to Seurasaari (Helsinki, Finland).
Image: GrrlScientist, 4 July 2009 [larger view]. (raw image)
aardvarchaeology | September 15, 2009
Here's a piece of fragmentology. In the 19th century a brooch (inset) was found at Vistena in Allhelgona parish, Ãstergötland. It's a copper-alloy piece decorated with embossed silver sheet panels in the Nydam style, approx. AD 375-450. In 2008 a member of my metal detector team found part of a similar brooch at Sättuna in Kaga parish, a few tens of kilometers east of Vistena. Apparently we're dealing with a regional metalworking tradition. The complete brooch measures 57 mm across the head plate, the fragment 42 mm.
grrlscientist | September 12, 2009My e-pal, Digital Cuttlefish, who is "teh Bard ov da Intert00bz" wrote this amazing poem publicly promoting my candidacy as official Antarctica blogger. Now, I have to tell you that there are several things about this blog entry that I find amazing.
First, this poem is great! I know for a fact that Digital Cuttlefish wrote this poem in less than 24 hours because last night I asked him if he could ask his readers to help me out. And this morning, I find this wonderful poem waiting for me. How many of us could write a poem in such a short time span? Second, this poem made me cry. It is so…
grrlscientist | September 11, 2009tags: music video, Beethoven, moonlight sonata, NASA, space station, Astronaut Ed Lu, streaming video
In this video, astronaut Ed Lu plays Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on board the International Space Station in 2003 (Video courtesy of NASA). I can't help but wonder what Beethoven would have thought about his music being performed in space. Was his music the first to be performed in space?
grrlscientist | September 10, 2009tags: chemistry, elements, meet the elements, they might be giants, music video, streaming video
This is such a cute song that I would use it in my chemistry class if I was teaching this semester. This song, "Meet the Elements" is by the group, They Might be Giants, and it has a catchy tune that will help one to remember all those elements.
grrlscientist | September 10, 2009tags: paleontology, fossils, dinosaurs, evolution, I am a Paleontologist, they might be giants, music video, streaming video
I have been remiss lately regarding music videos because I was in Finland for awhile, and then was otherwise preoccupied. But I just had to share this song with you; "I am a Paleontologist" is by the group, They Might be Giants and is one of many wonderful songs on their new album "Here Comes Science." If I was teaching biology or evolution this semester, I would use it in class.
You can order They Might be Giants' new album [CD/DVD], "Here Comes Science" from Amazon.
ejohnson | September 9, 2009Darwin's On the Origin of Species is the book that introduced the theory of evolution by natural selection and launched the field of evolutionary biology. But the text itself evolved, too, from the first edition published in 1859 to the sixth in 1872. Chapters were shortened and lengthened, words added and deleted—though, more were put in than taken out, as the final edition measures in at 40,000 words longer than the original.
Ben Fry, director of Seed Visualization and the Phyllotaxis design laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has tracked these changes and put it all together in a…
pharyngula | September 8, 2009I never wear it to class, though. Maybe students would fear and respect me more if I did.