bioephemera

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February 4, 2011
PMS Quilt, 2008 hand embroidered and crocheted pantyliners Laurel Roth Yes, that is just what it says it is: a collection of pantyliners embroidered with profanity. One thing is clear about artist Laurel Roth: she is not afraid to make viewers uncomfortable. Her series "Hope Chest" is constructed…
February 1, 2011
Experiencing late-afternoon unproductivity? Go play with Google Art Project and virtually tour the world's museums. Update: NYT review.
February 1, 2011
Pinkies from Food Chain: Encounters Between Mates, Predators and Prey by Catherine Chalmers Photographer Catherine Chalmers (who may be best known in biology circles for her portraits of genetically modified mice) goes beyond brutal accuracy in her animal photography. Food Chain: Encounters Between…
January 31, 2011
Gratifyingly, my post on Nabokov and Gould has generated interesting feedback, including this post by Jonah Lehrer, who expands on Nabokov's own opinion of how his science informed his art. (Let's just say he and Gould didn't see eye-to-eye.) The post includes some wonderful Nabokov quotes about…
January 30, 2011
Is it advanced physics? biotech? fashion? Heck if I know. "The Theory of Everything Disguised as a Handbag," from RandomIntent's etsy shop.
January 29, 2011
Dark pictures, thrones, the stones that pilgrims kiss, poems that take a thousand years to die but ape the immortality of this red label on a little butterfly. - excerpt from Vladimir Nabokov's "On Discovering a Butterfly" It's not very well known that novelist Vladimir Nabokov, author of…
January 29, 2011
I have no idea why there is a disembodied mannequin foot in a tree in Cambridge, MA, but so there is. Sort of gruesome, eh? Maybe io9 should do another post on severed limbs. Update: my friend John O reminds me that he did a post on severed hands two years ago. He beat us all to the punch! (ha ha).
January 29, 2011
An invitation from scienceforcitizens.net: As record levels of snow blanket much of the United States this year, Science For Citizens is collaborating with an important climate research project at the University of Waterloo called Snow Tweets. We're pleased that this is the first of many scientific…
January 27, 2011
I'm honored to get a brief shout-out today from the awesome Ed Yong in his post on female bloggers. I mention this not to toot my own horn, but to call attention to the amazing number of women blogging about scientific research - something I rarely do anymore at BioE, but which is very important…
January 25, 2011
I think DNA is amazing. I think biotech inspires great design. And if you've read this blog at all, you know I love sciart. But I just cannot understand the new infogenetics product from DNA 11 - the company behind that trendy gel electrophoresis wall art. While I'd normally just say "I don't get…
January 23, 2011
From NextNature, an intriguing post about the Institute for Digital Biology: During the exhibition, visitors were able to feed a colony of microscopical pop-up creatures, save Chinese websites from a pageview-shortage, preserve an Amazone tribe from extinction by subscribing to its homepage and…
January 23, 2011
How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. An artist is emotional, they think, and uses only his intuition; he sees all at once and has no need of reason. A scientist is cold, they think, and uses only his reason; he argues…
January 23, 2011
Joe DePasquale was a winner of the European Southern Observatory's hidden treasures 2010 competition with this lovely photo. From ESO: "The pictures of the Universe that can be seen in ESO's releases are impressive. However, many hours of skilful work are required to assemble the raw greyscale…
January 23, 2011
It might look something like this: Arm of God Galacia, Kansas 2009Mitch Dobrowner Those of you who enjoyed Sean Heavey's photos of storms in the American West may appreciate this epic, crisp black-and-white storm photography by Mitch Dobrowner. Vapor Cloud Near Clayton, New Mexico 2009 Mitch…
January 22, 2011
I got a very nice email today from Sam Gaty, one of the filmmakers behind the Synthetic Biology Documentary I blogged about earlier. He acknowledged the "mad scientist" type concerns, but emphasized that's not what they're going for in the final documentary, and suggested I share another short clip…
January 21, 2011
An impressive short film, "Core," by animation group selfburning, via Fubiz. The music is lovely.
January 21, 2011
So I'm all in favor of promoting struggling artists, and that includes documentary filmmakers. But I have to say I'm a little taken aback by the aesthetic of the "Synthetic Bio" documentary project by Field Test Films (and endorsed by Carl Zimmer). They've posted a short over at Kickstarter, where…
January 21, 2011
Autumn Salt Marsh 2 Linda Behar I defy you to look at Linda Behar's embroidered marshlands and not be fooled into thinking they're photographs. To achieve this unusual level of textile realism, she prints photos taken on-site onto cloth, then improvises over them with embroidery. See more of her…
January 19, 2011
Psychologist Robert Kurzban's new book promises to explain Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite. It's a bold promise, and I was skeptical when first invited to review it. But Kurzban delivered - hilariously, entertainingly so. Although since I agree with almost everything he writes, I may not be the…
January 19, 2011
I found this children's encyclopedia in a pile of books on the curb a few weeks ago. Some of its depictions of science are charming; some are odd, and all are really, really dated. More snapshots below the fold. . .
January 17, 2011
TurningArt is a startup that lets you make a queue of prints by various independent artists, try the prints out in your home or office, and exchange them as often as you like. After you've lived with the print long enough, you can trade it in for the original canvas, watercolor or collage; you…
January 17, 2011
Observatory is hosting another great event tonight: From Heumann Heilmittel, "Eine Reise durch den menschlichen Körper" (1941) Body Voyaging: an illustrated lecture with Kristen Ann Ehrenberger Date: TONIGHT, Monday, January 17th Time: 8:00 PM Admission: $5 Presented by Morbid Anatomy We human…
January 16, 2011
Caption for non-PhDs: aren't these sciencepunk brain ice cubes awesome? BRAIN FREEZE! Caption for PhDs: Still hoping against hope to celebrate your thesis defense in style? Try cocktails with roughly anatomically accurate cortical ice cubes. [Look at it this way: even after six years of beating…
January 16, 2011
Peter Eudenbach's mixed media artworks are inspired by technology gone right and gone wrong. Check out his coffee table that actually brews coffee, his Failed Attempt at Perpetual Motion, "based on a 16th century theory of perpetual motion that was never tested," or (euw) lead castings from the eye…
January 15, 2011
A video montage from a sci|art institute for high school students hosted by UCLA's Art | Sci Center and the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). The stuff they're playing with is cooler than what I got in grad school! Jealous now. More information about the course here. I don't know when…
January 13, 2011
Isis the Laboratory Goddess sent me a Buzzfeed link featuring this incredible anatomical gown: The artist/seamstress deserves credit for what appears to be an incredibly elaborate embroidered stiff satin gown that, on different panels, depicts circulatory, skeletal, muscular and pulmonary systems…
January 13, 2011
The City: Majestic miniature dioramaLori Nix, 2006 The Ruins of Detroit: United Artists Theater photograph Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre, 2010 Is urban decay beautiful, heartwrenching, or both?
January 12, 2011
An unbelievable octopus chair - nay, throne - by Maximo Riera. "the Octopus Chair places the animal and human being in harmony, where each is considered equal and one is not subject to the other. The octopus is not decoration; it is as intrinsic to the chair as the person sat upon it." Via NotCot…
January 12, 2011
A new biology game called EteRNA "crowdsourc[es] the scientific method" by inviting players to design their own self-folding RNAs. The best designs are synthesized and tested in the lab to see how well the predicted structure plays out in the physical world - an innovation the game's creators see…
January 12, 2011
Like a snake Transfer/painting on aluminum Berit Myreboee, 2010 Norwegian artist Berit Myreboee's aluminum transfer paintings are like troubled seaside dreams: tattooed skin dissolves into floating tendrils and tentacles of black and prussian blue. Each image is the product of an idiosyncratic…