The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
worldsfair | May 6, 2009There a nice piece over that the New Scientist (hat tip to Rebecca), that gathers a number of comments from academics in philosophy, sociology, education, law, and literature into how relevant C.P. Snow's seminal essay is today. Here's a sampling from A.C. Grayling:
One of the major problems identified by C. P. Snow in lamenting the gulf between science and literary culture was that almost everyone in a position of power in society was a product of literary culture, with too little understanding of or sympathy for science. That remains a problem, one exacerbated, if anything, by the rapid…
worldsfair | April 23, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Yesterday at the SCQ, a short paper was published describing a "Kingdom Cake," whereby the various layers represented the different kingdom designations. The cake itself was pretty cool, but made all the more impressive by its competition at a full on bake off for Darwin's birthday back on February 12th.
The range was marvelous, and as I sampled them, I kept wondering what type of baking would Darwin himself have preferred, or even prepared himself. In any event, here are a couple of highlights.
Firstly, the aforementioned "Kingdom Cake"
Accompanying this…
worldsfair | April 21, 2009
Science Scout twitter feed
Unicorns are great. Seriously. And here I'm going to sort of think out loud and think of them in a conventional biology sort of way. You know - have a little fun evolution wise.
In many respects (except for the magical powers bit) I don't think this is necessarily too hard to do. i.e. you have something that looks like a horse, but hey what's this - there's also a horn there.
I guess the question I'm pondering is whether a unicorn could occur from a realistic evolutionary biology point of view - you know, given the right circumstances and the right…
worldsfair | April 17, 2009
This is kind of cute. But also interesting since Kacie Kinzer, the artist responsible, asks:
Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.
Here it is in action:
The bigger question at stake here, was how would this cute if somewhat dispensible robot do in its mission. After all, It would need to rely on kindness of strangers…
worldsfair | April 14, 2009
Science scout twitter feed
Seriously pretty (from Semiconductor Films)...
As well, I'm of the opinion that a visualization like this really provides a great perspective on the awesomeness of magnets specifically and on physics generally.
I'm not sure why it's so effective. I don't think I would be so gushing, if we were viewing a straight up computer animation. Maybe it has something to do with its Roger Rabbit effect, whereby parts of the footage are "real" whereas others are computer generated. All in all, the effect seems to make the images more grounded and therefore all the more…
worldsfair | April 14, 2009As I was composing a few lyrics to a song about thermodynamics (mp3 is further down the page), it quickly occurred to me how the first three laws could easily describe various elements of love.
You've got the first law, a testament to bookkeeping, where explicit in equations like dU=dQ-dW is the idea that what you'll get out (a relationship) is directly determined by what you put in (to a relationship).
Then, of course, there is the second law - a statement on the notion of entropy, often laymanized (is that a word?) as a reflection of "disorder." (I don't think anyone would argue about…
worldsfair | April 7, 2009
Check out this short film on Reuben Margolin's wave sculptures (hat tip to Boingboing). They are really quite remarkable, and I'm thankful I don't have one in my office (this is a complement, since I'd just be staring at it all day).
Best of all, this amazing work is created with salvaged wood demonstrating yet another artistic endeavor that uses recycling as a central tenant.
It's funny, but when I watched the video I was immediately reminded of the "dipping bird."
There must be something about moving entities that draw our eyes in (hmmm - will have to look that up).
worldsfair | April 3, 2009
Attributed to iTop Edition
This post brought to you because of two reasons.
1. I've been thinking about potential banner ideas, and pixelated art came to mind.
2. I'm a little fearful of this blog blowing up (explanation here). Just need something to add a few more readers. Related to this, I'm a little worried about the weekend - I'm just barely making the traffic cut off on weekdays. The weekend will be presumably tougher...
worldsfair | April 3, 2009As the semester winds down, I'm getting that same urge to muck about with my guitars again and maybe record a song or two (it might sound impressive, but really, it's as amateur as it gets).
Last time I did this, I ended up writing a song on science jargon (Jargon Fueled Ways - mp3), which kind of tried to use as many words as possible that were suggested by readers in the comment section. These included the words:
Epiglottis
Flagella
Dictyostelium
Homo erectus
Anyway, I'm in the song writing mood again, and, like last time, I'm going to follow suggestions on what scientific concept to focus…
worldsfair | April 2, 2009
What you see here is a sample of artificially produced feces. More specifically, it's material produced from an artistic feat of engineering. The creation of a machine that can step for step mimic the digestive process.
In other words: you put food in one end... and well, you get sh*t coming out the other.
Anyway, called the "Cloaca," this is probably Wim Delvoye's most famous art installation. Created in 2000, it has since gone through at least five different incarnations, each an improvement (in terms of time and efficiency) over the previous. In truth, he's trying to one day get…
worldsfair | April 1, 2009
At my school, I happen to be involved in a project with a writing contest that has a general public category. Basically, we don't have many entries in this category and there's, like, three bookstore giftcards at stake here ($50, $100, and $350 - all usable online)! This is Canadian dollars, I'll admit, but if you've got a post you've written in the last year or so, that you think fits, then do send it on (basically critieria is very broad - something globally relevant, any genre of writing works - previously published ok).
If it makes it easier, you can even leave your URL in this thread…
worldsfair | March 30, 2009With the exception of my slip up during the introductions (I introduced Charles as "Sir Charles..."), here is a pretty great video of old Chuck talking to a class of high school students.
This was at a recent high school science conference we hosted, where we focused pretty much on all things evolution. And it was awesome to get Dr. Greg Bole at our Zoology Department to come on out and give us his interpretation of Charles Darwin (although it was too bad, he didn't still have the massive sideburns).
The questions at the end are particularly cool, with some pretty level headed answers…
bcohen | March 18, 2009This post was written by guest contributor Jody Roberts.
Follow this link for his most recent contribution to The World's Fair.
The philosopher Marjorie Grene passed away on Monday, 16 March, at the age of 98. Grene's life is difficult to sum up in a few words, and I don't want to do that anyhow, since plenty of others have and surely will in much better fashion than I can muster. But since I imagine most will be unfamiliar with her work, I quote here from a letter composed by Richard Burian, a dear friend and colleague:
Marjorie Grene passed away March 16 at age 98 after a brief illness…
bcohen | February 23, 2009The industrialization of agriculture, egg version.
An egg factory in China. Click on image for link to original site, credited to AP Photo/Andy Wong as posted at the Globe by Alan Taylor.
The Boston Globe has an elegant photo series called The Big Picture at its website. I don't know why this isn't more publicized. Maybe it is; maybe I've been distracted. I got lost for a half hour surfing around past entries. Above is one of the images from a series, "At Work," and below are selections from that set. I put these into the series on Landscapes and Modernity here at the blog. (Try trees;…
bcohen | February 13, 2009I had the chance to see a talk by William Cronon last week here at U.Va. He's a professor at the University of Wisconsin and a recognized world leader in environmental history and environmental studies. His work, while helping define the field of environmental history as it became one in recent decades, also transcends it; there's this too, his skill at public speaking is top shelf. He is and has been for some time working on a book called, simply, The Portage. The talk last week was from that book. Taking one location in Wisconsin--Portage--only miles from which John Muir lived when his…
worldsfair | February 12, 2009I've got a humour piece at McSweeney's today in celebration of Darwin's 200th. Here's a snippet:
Joins the Ice Capades: Darwin is hired for small part in a Lion King-themed ice show. Takes skating lessons and practices hard. Soon nails both the triple axel and the triple lutz. Is fired from the show when he tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
My favourite bit is actually the part about losing his mind, and you can read the rest at McSweeney's and maybe (if you're so inclined) try to come up with a few yourself in the comments below.
worldsfair | February 7, 2009(Earlier the video had server issues, so just reposting - this video is really worth checking out)
If you haven't heard of the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (or UAEM), then put it on your to do list right now. Better yet, sit yourself down and watch Mike Gretes in this video for 20 minutes.
Making medicines for people, not for profit: Mike Gretes from terrytalks on Vimeo.
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Basically, this is one of many great student talks, I've got going up on our Terry talks site, but this one in particular I think is particularly relevant for those within the ScienceBlog readership,…
bcohen | January 7, 2009New research shows links between marshmallow melting and pediatric nutrition.
Perhaps.
Yes, in homage to the Gladwellian oeuvre and generic New Yorker-ese please find "I Dream in Malcolm Gladwell" at The Morning News. We do encourage you to check it out.
bcohen | January 6, 2009This poem was sent along by W.J. Galusky, occasional guest contributor to the site. One nice thing is that it's worth reading, as below, but also worth listening to someone reading it, as at this site.
The poem is by Sarah Lindsay. It is from her book, Primate Behavior (1997).
Cheese Penguin
The world is large and full of ice;
it is hard to amaze. Its attention
may take the form of sea leopards.
That much any penguin knows
that staggers onto Cape Royds in the spring.
They bark, they bow one to another,
she swans forward, he walks on her back,
they get on with it. Later
he assumes his post,…
bcohen | December 17, 2008Although I'm starting to suspect the Talk of the Town will not be noting our stunning performance, and Publisher's Weekly made not give us a starred review, I will still admit that Dave and I gave the best performance --the best performance? -- the best performance of our lives at the Cornelia St. Cafe a few weeks ago. Vince LiCata was the instigator of the whole to-do, in league with Roald Hoffmann. While Vince will no doubt soon be most known for the prize-winning choreography that has just netted him top honors by the AAAS for dancing his research, I'll also make him known here for one…