Art
sciencepunk | September 16, 2010Good news for science-loving fans of philately: Royal Mail have released a set of stamps to celebrate British medical breakthroughs throughout the ages.
The launch marks some of the most important medical discoveries that have taken place in the UK since the late 19th Century and include the pioneering work of Sir Ronald Ross in 1897 which was pivotal in the development of today's anti-malarial drugs. Other stamps recognise heart-regulating beta-blockers, the antibiotic properties of penicillin and the computed tomography (CT) scanner.
You can get your hands on the set at your local Post…
sciencepunk | September 11, 2010I recently picked up a copy of adventurer and anthropologist William Seabrook's 1929 book on Haitian Voodoo, The Magic Island. The book is out of print, so I thought it would be nice to share some of the wonderful spooky illustrations that accompany the text.
See the whole lot on Flickr
(My HP Photosmart C4180 scanner is a piece of crap, sorry, if there's enough interest I'll rescan these at higher quality.)
pharyngula | September 2, 2010What is it about Elsa Lanchester and The Bride of Frankenstein? She's the "it" girl of the 20th century, and here's a whole gallery of Bride images. I have a favorite, for some reason.
sciencepunk | September 2, 2010I have a love of innovative clocks and this is no exception.
The catena wall clock was designed by Andreas Dober for anthologie quartett. Yours for just $2,338.
aardvarchaeology | August 30, 2010
The centre piece of St. Mary's square/park in Stockholm is a brass sculpture group in a fountain, sculpted by Anders Wissler and put in place in 1903. It depicts the god Thor at the moment when he's fished the Midgard serpent up to the ocean surface and prepares to whack it in the head with his hammer. The serpent looks like a standard-issue Medieval dragon. But to either side of it are smaller lizard-like beasts that are clearly modelled after late-19th century palaeontology's ideas about dinosaurs. One is a plesiosaur. The other one, I don't know, but it's got a cylindrical snout,…
sciencepunk | August 27, 2010I stumbled across this delightful psychoactive drug Venn diagram. Isn't it pretty?
[click to enlarge]
cevans | August 10, 2010
Greetings from the People of Earth from World Science Festival on Vimeo.
I made the above video, Greetings from the People of Earth, to open the World Science Festival 2010 panel "The Search for Life in the Universe," which featured personal hero Jill Tarter, David Charbonneau, and Steven Squyres.
In 1977, taking advantage of a fortuitous alignment of planets, NASA dispatched two spacecraft named Voyager into space. These probes, now the farthest human-made objects from Earth, carry with them a unique recording, the Voyager Golden Record. Compiled by a team under Dr. Carl Sagan, the Golden…
aardvarchaeology | August 5, 2010
I met this nice guy at the gaming convention this last weekend. Anders Larsson is a talented artist and graphic designer who works in paint and pixels. Check out his site!
cagapakis | August 4, 2010
My Synthetic Aesthetics partner, Sissel Tolaas, is featured in the terrific current issue of the German interview magazine mono.kultur. Her work focuses on smell, exploring the unique smellscapes of different cities, creating provocative scents to show in art galleries, branded "logo" scents for Adidas, "Swedish" scents for Ikea, and therapeutic memory-triggering scents, part of the healing process for patients dealing with traumatic experiences. Until we have smell-o-vision, her work is almost aggressively analog--"beyond what is seen and heard to something indiscernible yet more…
cevans | July 29, 2010
Earlier this year, I received a charming email from a pair of Helsinki-based artists and designers who work under the name of OK DO. OK DO is a socially-minded design think tank and online publication; they dug Universe and wanted to know if I'd contribute to a new publication and exhibition project they were working on. The project, Science Poems, was perfectly up my alley: a variety of articles and work loosely structured around the "poetry and multi-sensorial aesthetics of natural sciences rather than their functionality and logic."
For the occasion, I wrote a short piece about the…
sciencepunk | July 29, 2010The Smithsonian has an interesting article on Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered penicillin, revealing how the scientist used his bacterial cultures to paint works of art. Fleming used different bacterial strains to create a range of colours, timing his innoculations so that the different species would mature at the same time.
From the OP:
It is not clear why Fleming started painting microbes; perhaps he picked up a brush one day and noticed that it felt like the loop he used for his bacteria. Or maybe it was due to the promiscuous sexual predilections of artists. Fleming worked at…
sciencepunk | July 29, 2010
From Make:
Washington, DC artist Michele Banks, aka Artologica, is a painter who, in her own words, "uses an old and often-disrespected medium, watercolor, to create pieces that are anything but old-fashioned." Her works in Makers Market focus on biological and medical themes, particularly the microscopy of living cells.
sciencepunk | July 27, 2010Dezeen Magazine has the drop on this superb clock that shows the time in every time zone, using just one hand.
The clock is called Bent Hands and is designed by Giha Woo and Shingoeun.
Via Neatorama
pharyngula | July 25, 2010Dr Charles is having a Poetry Contest, with wonderful prizes to be awarded to the winner with the best poem about "experiencing, practicing, or reflecting upon a medical, scientific, or health-related matter."
It sounds great until you realize you're probably going to have to compete against the Cuttlefish.
grrlscientist | July 20, 2010tags: The Secret Powers of Time, time, hedonism, future orientation, education, personality type, popular psychology, society, culture, lucifer effect, teenage pregnancy, Philip Zimbardo, Royal Society of Art, RSA, streaming video
In this video animation, Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.
Learn more about RSA Animate.
grrlscientist | July 16, 2010tags: The surprising truth about what motivates us, tasks, simple tasks, complex tasks, commissions, innovation, mastery, economics, financial rewards, purpose motive, blog writing, making the world a better place, RSA, streaming video
This video is really interesting for two reasons: first, it's a hand-drawn animation that evolves in front of your eyes, and second, I think it explains why scientists like to write blogs for the public about science -- for free! Adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, this fascinating video illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home…
grrlscientist | July 15, 2010tags: ethics, collective action, Science Bloggers Union, ScienceBlogs, Seed Media Group, Adam Bly
Migration #2 (1995)
Fine art quilt by Caryl Bryer Fallert.
[Hand dyed, machine pieced, appliqued, and quilted 100% cotton fabric, 80/20 cotton/poly batting]
Collection of The National Quilt Museum of the United States.
I have been trying to write this blog entry for several days now. I've actually written it a couple dozen times but I have deleted every one so far. But even though it's difficult to write, this is something I need to tell you, dear readers, even if my attempt at an explanation…
grrlscientist | July 10, 2010tags: Validation, humor, funny, social commentary, film, movie, streaming video
This sweet video is actually a short film that has won a lot of awards at film festivals. It's a bit long compared to the usual video embeds I share with you, but I think you'll enjoy this film (I certainly did).
Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis. Writer/Director/Composer - Kurt Kuenne. Winner - Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, Winner - Audience Award, Hawaii Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film,…
grrlscientist | July 9, 2010tags: 1945-1998, nuclear weapons testing, Multimedia artwork, Isao Hashimoto, streaming video
This video documenting worldwide nuclear weapons testing and use is a multimedia artwork that speaks to all of us, regardless of which language we use. It's fascinating and horrifying at the same time.
Multimedia artwork by Isao Hashimoto [contact: hashi123 [at] amy [dot] hi-ho [dot] ne [dot] jp].
2053: This is the number of nuclear explosions conducted in various parts of the globe (excluding both tests by North Korea, on October 2006 and May 2009).
About this artwork [paraphrased]: This piece of…
grrlscientist | July 9, 2010
Railroad Sunset (1929, oil on canvas).
Edward Hopper.
I've noticed that I've recently started to dream in German. Well, the people who pop up in my dreams are speaking German, and I seem to understand them and act accordingly, but I never speak in German in my dreams. Actually, I rarely say anything aloud in my dreams anymore; probably a reflection of real life.
The interesting thing about this is that I don't speak German. Well, I can utter a few words or phrases here and there, and my comprehension of spoken German is growing, but I don't speak it myself.
Oddly, even though I still have…