Links to Other Conversations and Articles
vlicata | March 31, 2016The Martian is a feel-good, science positive, uplifting film about the power of the human spirit, botany, and engineering. It looked, from the credits, like it had at least 8 scientific advisors from NASA (and possibly other places). Too bad that Ridley Scott only half listened to them. As one of the primary sci-fi filmmakers working today, it’s kind of amazing how a lot of the science in Ridley Scott’s films sort of leaves a chalky taste in the mouth. (Take a look at this link for a scathing review of the science in Prometheus).
It’s clear that The Martian is science-positive – the main…
vlicata | September 14, 2013Our lab has a paper called: "Enthalpic Switch-Points and Temperature Dependencies of DNA binding and Nucleotide Incorporation by Pol I DNA Polymerases" that was just published in BBA (Biochimica et Biophysica Acta): Proteins and Proteomics. The study follows up on an observation and prediction we had made some years ago in a different paper.
The study deals with quite a lot of rather detailed thermodynamics of DNA binding (free energy, enthalpy, entropy, heat capacity…) and looks for correlations between such thermodynamic measurements of binding and the functional behavior of a couple of…
worldsfair | February 17, 2010
Is Bon Jovi an idea worth spreading? Not sure, but it seemed to do wonders with a certain amount of context at a conference I recently attended. This being the TEDactive conference: a satellite event where attendees viewed and immersed themselves in the TED universe at an "off site" locale, all the while taking in an HD video version of the big show that was occurring only 2 hours away in Long Beach.
This mention of Bon Jovi is in reference to a bus ride that occurred during the conference, where karaoke was suggested and quickly adopted with great enthusiasm. A great idea right? Well,…
bcohen | December 9, 2009I mean that title in the positive sense of critique, like Kantian critique, intended to question so as to make better. I made note last month of a project some students here were doing, called "Is It Possible to Eat Sustainably at the University of Virginia?" This was the prompt:
Four Students set out to determine if it is possible to eat sustainably at UVA. Elizabeth will cover going vegetarian, Michael will cover going organic, Will will cover "The Six Dollar Limit", and Avik will cover going local. The conclusions of all four of us will help determine if eating sustainably is a viable…
bcohen | December 9, 2009The Onion reports on the market-definition of technological progress. Like the new technological breakthrough that fixed the problems of the previous breakthrough, this new device promises to make everything better.
Said one customer: "Its higher price indicates to me that it is superior, and that not everyone will be able to afford it, which only makes me want to possess it more"
More below the fold.
"New Device Desirable, Old Device Undesirable"
December 3, 2009 | Issue 45â¢49
SEATTLE--With the holiday shopping season officially under way, millions of consumers proceeded to their nearest…
bcohen | November 30, 2009"Urbanites Learn the Primal Lure of Hunting"
If you hunt a meal right beyond your backyard, well, that's the fewest Food Miles you're going to find. If you're not a hunter, well, someone ought to teach you. If you're urban or, let's just say it, bourgeois, then isn't this all so fun? The New York Times reports on this new gambit for reducing food miles and its happening right here in my own backyard. "The Urban Deerslayer" reports that hunting clubs are springing up, at least here in central Virginia, at least one. A class in Charlottesville called "Deer Hunting for Locavores" will teach…
bcohen | November 6, 2009Is It Possible to Eat Sustainably at the University of Virginia?
Eating sustainably requires (a) that you come to some resolution about what "sustainable" means, (b) that you have the opportunity to choose so-defined sustainable foods, and (c) that the constraints of your lifestyle, geography, and socioeconomic context make it possible for you to pursue such an endeavor. Threading the needle between all of that is tricky business. Thus many have chosen to run experiments about it, or related to the larger theme, defined in various ways: the "week without" processed food; the "week without"…
bcohen | October 9, 2009Philip Graham is a writer and professor at the University of Illinois. Friend of the World's Fair Oronte Churm recently interviewed him. (Mr. Churm, aka John Griswold, also teaches at Illinois and is also a writer -- check out his beautiful new novel Democracy of Ghosts.) It's a good interview, right here at this link.
Graham wrote a series of dispatches over at McSweeney's about his sabbatical year in Lisbon. His new book brings them together as The Moon, Come to Earth. That would be fascinating just on the face of it since Graham's a fellow dispatcher at the McSweeney's website (as is…
bcohen | October 1, 2009If you know where the Spy Museum is, I encourage you to read "Days at the Museum #4: International Week" over at McSweeney's. If you don't know where the Spy Museum is, well, help me help you find out.
Albert Bierstadt, Among the Sierra Nevada, California,1868 (from the Smithsonian website)
Some other things you may find in this column: Italian food in Chinatown; Japanese tourists; Albert Bierstadt in Rome and California; a French fellow; green denim on Germans; the serenity of a virtuous public space; and Obama's "Hope" poster.
It's part four of Days at the Museum. Part I was noted here;…
bcohen | September 4, 2009I had the chance to interview Rebecca Solnit for The Believer. It's on shelves now, in their September issue. They've also put the full text of it on-line at their website. (Here it is.)
To quote the interview's intro, Solnit is the author of twelve books. She is a journalist, essayist, environmentalist, historian, and art critic; she is a contributing editor to Harper's, a columnist for Orion, and a regular contributor to Tomdispatch.com and The Nation; she's also written for, among other publications, the L.A. Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the London Review of Books.
She talks…
bcohen | August 20, 2009Old school The Onion re-posted below, from 2002:
"Guns Are Only Deadly If Used For Their Intended Purpose"
By Ted Farner
President, Brothers In Arms U.S.A.
June 12, 2002 | Issue 38â¢22
"As the president of Brothers In Arms U.S.A., the nation's third-largest gun-rights organization, I've heard all the arguments made by the anti-gun propagandists. And of the many misguided aspects of their anti-gun rhetoric, the most off-base is this bizarre notion that guns are inherently deadly. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is, guns are only deadly when used for their intended purpose…
bcohen | August 13, 2009Seed/Scienceblog alum Katherine Sharpe (she of austere head office fame), recently conducted a fascinating experiment in deprivation. There's Lent, of course, the standard bearer of voluntary deprivation. And there are those who give up caffeine, or television, or the internet, or long lists, or sarcasm for some time. But this is the first I've seen of someone trying to live in our culture, our 21st century hyper-consumer, radically plasticized culture, without plastics. But Katherine tried it. Plus, she began it with a nod to Chris Jordan's compelling art on our plasticized world (about…
bcohen | August 12, 2009On we go, with the third entry in "Days at the Museum" over at McSweeney's, titled "Mind the Gap." It ran yesterday. It's theme? Beyond relating to a subway conversation, I'd summarize it as being about the gap between what I expected here and what I'm finding.
This is part three of "Days at the Museum." Part I was noted here; it was about macaroni, and France, and tourists. Part 2 was noted here; it was about elevators, more or less. Have a time with them.
bcohen | July 2, 2009I realized of late that I am more a fan of Malcolm Galdwell's reviews than his articles. It's possible I've even poked fun of Gladwellian articles in the past ("I Dream in Malcolm Gladwell"). But oh boy did I enjoy his recent review of Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Anderson, the editor of Wired, puts forth an economic argument about the digital age -- all information wants to be free; all info in the digital age shall thus be free -- based on an impoverished concept of technology. In "Priced to Sell," Gladwell handily calls him out for it.
Anderson's primary…
bcohen | July 1, 2009Among other things, John Stuart Mill wrote about deliberation in a democratic society. It's the philosophy that a strong democracy is one whose members are actively involved in the functioning of that government. This, as opposed to a passive, distanced, and unreflective citizenry. Engagement and participation into the activity of the society offer benefits in at least two directions: in one way, they make for a stronger democratic society as a whole by demanding connections between the everyday life of the citizens and the everyday operations of the government; this is an advantage that…
bcohen | May 12, 2009I guest authored a post for the ineluctable The Education of Oronte Churm, over at Inside Higher Ed. The good Mr. Churm (John Griswold) has guest written for us as well, as with this John and Paul Project post from last year and this one, from two years past, on Hot Funky Love.
But please, by all means, go read the new post at his blog in full. It's theme? Creativity, imagination, grammar. It's purpose? To ponder the identity of the artist, the engineer, the department of vehicles.
And this one license plate I saw that really confused me: "ICR8 ART."
An excerpt below.
One would first…
bcohen | April 9, 2009USA Today's Traci Watson includes a nice graphic showing reductions in CO2 emissions during the economic downturn. It's in this story, "Bad economy helps cut CO2 emissions". This trend follows and fits in line with a post a few weeks ago about landfills receiving less trash during the recession. I'll forgo duplicating my commentary here and say only to read the one at the landfill link.
But here are three stats Watson offers:
Carbon dioxide from U.S. power plants fell roughly 3% from 2007 to 2008, according to preliminary data from the Environmental Protection Agency analyzed by the…
bcohen | April 9, 2009"Do you feel protons decaying? Grand Unification may be occurring near your vital organs."
Michael Rottman at The Morning News brings an important public service announcement to the web. By all means, please be encouraged to read it.
If pressed for time, note some of the highlights of the ten steps of concrete advice:
1. Do not panic. Resist the urge to induce vomiting. If the Higgs boson gets stuck in your teeth, they could turn into pure light.
2. If space and time have inverted within your body, skip to step 10.
...
9. If all else fails, the only foolproof way to remove the Higgs boson…
bcohen | March 16, 2009
Landfills are leading consumption indicators. Their use is declining in the recession. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the Loudon County landfill (that's in Northern Virginia) has seen a decrease of 30% in the past year; nearby Prince William's County has seen a 20% decrease. Loudon County's landfill was slated to close in 2012, filled to capacity by that time. Because of the decrease in consumption--fewer Circuit City boxes to throw away, fewer packages and old appliances, more saving and reuse--it will be open for an additional year and half.
In an extravagantly…
bcohen | March 13, 2009The Morning News's Fifth Annual Tournament of Books, real March madness, is a true highlight of the near-Spring calendar. I'm told there is some other tournament this month, also capitalizing on the month "March" in its title. We'll have to look into that.
This TMN tourney has thus far seen four colossal upsets. In one bracket alone, the Booker Prize winner and PEN/Faulkner Award winner's were both taken down by lower-seeded upstarts. Shocking. Startling. Immense. Bloggable.
Note that Judge Jonah Lehrer, he of The Frontal Cortex, was the arbiter of one of these upsets, picking Mark…