Destinations
bioephemera | December 3, 2008Scibling Matt Nisbet will be giving a talk, "Communicating Science in a Changing World," this Thursday December 4 at NYAS. He spoke a couple of weeks ago at AAAS here in DC (thanks, Matt!). His talk generated excellent questions and discussion, and that was before last week's controversy about denialism! So go check it out.
bioephemera | December 1, 2008Smithsonian Castle
The US Botanic Garden is once again having its annual holiday exhibit, "Windows to Wonderland." There are two parts to this exhibit: first, there's a collection of adorable replicas of the monuments made out of bark, pinecones, leaves, gourds, etc. Second, there's a delightful room of trains running across elevated bridges and through fantasy villages with names like "Gremlin Corner" and "Caterpillar Garden."
The Capitol
The mini Capitol was pretty impressive, but it lacked its north and south wings, which went on at the same time as the current dome. So historically, it…
bioephemera | November 13, 2008This article originally appeared on the old bioephemera September 9, 2007.
Syphilitic skull with three trephine holes and osteomyelitic lesions
Hunterian museum
One of my favorite London experiences was my visit to the Hunterian museum. If only I had more time there! I liked it so much, I returned on my last day, procrastinating my departure for Heathrow as long as possible.
The Hunterian is tucked away inside the Royal College of Surgeons of England, on Lincoln's Inn Fields. In its Victorian incarnation, it was a wonderful multi-tiered gallery with railings, balconies, and suspended…
bioephemera | November 2, 2008
This is for all those people who wonder why I rave endlessly about Portland, Oregon.
From ahp_ibanez' flickr stream via signal vs. noise (they have some good stuff over there!).
Note: Yes, you purists, I am aware the Pound reference is Chinese. ;)
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 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 | 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 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 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 1, 2008
light table with brain specimen slices
National Museum of Health and MedicineNeuroanatomical 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 21, 2008
Today I wandered over to the National Zoo and saw the baby golden lion tamarins, who are just about a month old now. I've never seen anything so cute in a zoo in my life. The babies leap on any adult in reach and cling as the adults scramble across branches - clearly raising these babies is a team effort. This photo by RoxandaBear captures the excessive cuteness.
Shortly afterward, an orangutan climbing along the O-line dropped feces on the crowd (he missed). You can trust primates to bring the cuteness and the grossness, in rapid succession. . . they are our cousins, after all.
photo via…
bioephemera | August 13, 2008Le Corbeau Volant, 1875
Edouard Manet
While in NYC last weekend, I squeezed in an hour at the MoMA to see their exhibition Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities (July 30-Nov 10, 2008). It's really phenomenal. The main criticism I heard as I wandered the gallery was that the collection was perhaps a bit incoherent and scattered, and that may be true, but order barely imposed on a chaotic diversity of specimens is the essence of a wonder cabinet - isn't it?
This was one of the specimens that caught my eye: a simple, fluid lithograph of a flying raven by Edouard Manet. It's from the…
bioephemera | August 9, 2008So far, the Sb meetup has been tres fun. Last night I met PhysioProf, Bora, Dr. Signout, Brian, Josh, Janet, Grrlscientist, Erin, Kate, Ed, and Mark, and got to see Zuska again. (Whew -did I forget anyone in there? Probably! Sorry!)
It's excellent to put faces with names, especially over martinis and Korean food.
Today there will be more festivities - Seed is hosting a reader meet-up from 2-4pm at Social bar and lounge. I'll be there, as will many of my fellow bloggers, so stop by if you're in NYC! All are welcome, and Seed's buying the first round of pitchers.
Meetup details:
2pm-4pm on…
bioephemera | July 30, 2008Between meaning and material (h.H.R.)
Watercolor, gouache, graphite and marker on Arches paper
32 x 32 inches
Christopher Reiger, 2007
My friend Christopher Reiger is appearing in several group shows this summer, so I thought it was a good time to spotlight his work. Above is one of my favorite pieces, between meaning and material (h.H.R.).
I actually got to know Christopher online through his writing - he maintains a blog, Hungry Hyaena. He's written a number of provocative essays on the changing relationship between humans and nature, drawing on his extensive personal experience as an…
bioephemera | July 16, 2008
The brand-new Device Gallery is hosting a group show called "Fantastic Contraption" featuring artists like H.R. Giger and Christopher Conte. The show opens this Saturday, July 19, from 6-9 pm - check it out if you're in La Jolla!
Steam Insect
Christopher Conte
Via dark roasted blend.
bioephemera | July 11, 2008Michael Dax Iavocone
Another opportunity for DC-area readers: Michael Dax Iavocone's new show opens at flashpoint gallery tomorrow (Saturday), July 12, 6-8pm.
From the gallery press release (pdf):
Artist Michael Dax Iacovone investigates and chronicles his familiar DC environs using mathematical algorithms to govern the way in which he experiences space. Using these formulas, Iacovone creates a blueprint to follow, film and photograph the DC area. Iacovone's solo exhibition at the Gallery at Flashpoint, The Numbers Behind, explores spaces and image-making in a new and mechanical way and is on…
bioephemera | July 8, 2008
Those of you in the greater DC area may be interested in the NIH Science in the Cinema Film Series at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring.
Starting tomorrow, July 9, there will be free weekly screenings of films centered on various medical conditions - like Alzheimer's (Away from Her), locked-in syndrome (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and HIV/AIDS (Life Support). The films will be followed by commentary from researchers in the field and a Q&A session, which could be interesting, given the directorial liberties that are often taken in films dealing with medicine and biology.
If…
bioephemera | June 20, 2008
"Peep Julius II Questions Michelangelo's Artistic Judgment"
Jean Kaleba and family
Last Friday I finally made it to Artomatic, a month-long gallery event that colocalizes hundreds of local artists under one roof, together with musicians, poets, wine and beer. But the real stars of Artomatic were pastel marshmallows - yes, Peeps.
In conjunction with Artomatic, the Washington Post sponsors a Peep-populated diorama contest, Peepsomatic. The entries were creative, hilarious, and occasionally esoteric, like Jean Kaleba's entry above, "Peep Julius II Questions Michelangelo's Artistic Judgment" -…
bioephemera | June 2, 2008
Grand Ballroom ceilingDuke Energy Center
I'm at the NIDA Blending Conference at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati for two days. Honestly, when I heard I'd be coming to Cincinnati for this meeting, I wasn't optimistic, and when I realized I'd be only 20 miles from the infamous Creation Museum, I was horrified. But it turns out that Cincinnati - at least downtown Cincinnati - is charming, especially on a sunny June day. After obtaining delicious, much-hyped Graeter's ice cream (try the tangerine!) at Fountain Square, I headed over to the Contemporary Arts Center (which is free Mondays after…
bioephemera | May 30, 2008
I just watched X-Men 3 again on Sunday - how exactly is a detatched suspension bridge supposed to remain intact? Grumble, grumble. . . As a result, this story on the Golden Gate at Wired.com caught my eye - but I was more intrigued by this pictorial tour of beautiful bridges. Bridges truly are the jewels of human ingenuity!
The Magdeburg Water Bridge is pretty wild, but this one (above) is my favorite:
The Gateshead Millennium pedestrian and bicycle bridge crosses the River Tyne between Newcastle and Gateshead in northern England. It's both a cable-stayed bridge and a drawbridge. Completed…