The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
bcohen | January 21, 2008Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
Here's a supposition, as I continue this series of posts on seeing and knowing: those Morris essays about Fenton's Crimean War photographs at a road outside Sebastopol are a precis for studies of science and technology in society (STS). Inside his essays is a sort of mini-history of the field of that name. A particular and limited story, to be sure, but nonetheless it goes somewhere by following the ever deeper demands of developing context. I'll start in…
worldsfair | January 17, 2008In my hunt for things to incorporate in a lecture later today, I came across this great video (Ma and Pa Kettle) on the mathematics divide.
In the end, I won't actually be using it, but hey, I wonder if it also feels about right to those continually addressing the skeptics.
bcohen | January 14, 2008Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
I wrote earlier (here, to be precise) that there are numerous ways a picture can manipulate its viewers, but most break down into two: a modification of an image after it's taken or staging an image before it's taken. The first way a picture can manipulate its viewers--modifying an image after it's taken--is mostly seen as downright deception and corruption. Someone takes a picture of Fabio and Photoshops George Bush's head on it. It is easy to dismiss and…
worldsfair | January 11, 2008Last night, we rolled in the new course (Arts Science Integrated Course - ASIC 200) and it was a lot of fun (a little odd for me doing what was essentially a history speel, but there you have it). Anyway, one of the first things I got to do was play a little game with the class. It's actually something I do quite often when working with the general public and trying to hone in on the disparity of brain "airtime" devoted to what are essentially trivial things, versus things that really you'd hope everyone was comfortable or literate in.
(Click on the movie to move through slides)
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bcohen | January 10, 2008Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
This post was written by new guest blogger Jason Delborne.*
George Cruikshank (1836), A London Audience, from Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The notion of the "public" often surfaces when we think about science. What does the public understand about science? How can we improve the scientific literacy of the public? Is there such a thing as public-interest science? How should the public hold science and scientists accountable? How do research findings affect…
bcohen | January 8, 2008By Guest Blogger: Oronte Churm. (See here for Mr. Churm's prior guest post and mini-bio.)
As an undergrad, I once attended a seminar where a prof from Berkeley, if I recall correctly, showed us an animated model of the learning path of a neural network. The Navy had funded the program in hopes of developing an autonomous undersea robot that could discern rocks from explosive mines, for obvious reasons. The visual was oddly gorgeous, similar to a leaf falling erratically down though an tall cylinder--each undulation marking a self-correction--until it reached a point at bottom center, which…
bcohen | January 8, 2008Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
"Pictures are supposed to be worth a thousand words. But a picture unaccompanied by words may not mean anything at all. Do pictures provide evidence? And if so, evidence of what? And, of course, the underlying question: do they tell the truth?" -- E. Morris
There are numerous ways a picture can manipulate its viewers, but most break down into two: a modification of an image after it's taken or staging an image before it's taken. The documentary maker Errol…
worldsfair | January 7, 2008This is too cool. Dave S. over at terry.ubc.ca launched a sustainable gingerbread house contest in mid December and in the span of a less than three weeks, was able to cull a total of 19 entries (plus one latecomer).
Anyway, here's one by Anne from Inkling, but see all of them at this easy to peruse link. See the mother load (all 85 photographs at this Flickr portal).
Thanks to everyone that played. We're currently working on luring some luminary judges (3 for 4 so far), and will get back to you regarding the winners.
You know, this was so cool, I think a Science Scout badge is in order…
bcohen | January 3, 2008Preface | Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | (Sidebar 1) | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6Pt. 7 | (Sidebar 2a) | (Sidebar 2b) | Pt. 8 | Pt. 9 | Conclusion
Title page of William Cheselden's (1733) Osteographia; or, the Anatomy of the Bones, showing an artist drawing a half skeleton through camera obscura.
Students end up having favorite readings from their schooling. For graduate students, these are sometimes pivotal works in their own scholarship, influencing later doctoral writing and research and steering patterns of thinking one way or another. Other times, they're just a good and memorable read, bringing up…
bcohen | January 2, 2008There is no precise category for this post, because it is about La Laboratoire, a new effort housed in Paris that explicitly and actively undermines the impoverished art/science divide. NPR ran a story about it last week, while Science published a review of it the week before that.
The "lab" was founded by Harvard bioengineer David Edwards. It is meant to foster opportunities for "artscience," wherein the center (to quote the Science review of it) "aims to give scientists space for creative thinking outside the constraints of specialization and grant applications." Sounds interesting…
bcohen | December 19, 2007I had the fortune to be a bit experimental in the classroom this semester. Curricular innovation, they call it. More precisely, in one of my courses (called "STS 200: Technology, Nature, and Sustainable Communities"), the students wrote an entire book. These are engineering students. All engineers. They wrote a book. A book about relationships between technology and nature as exemplified in a local UVA sustainable housing project called ecoMOD. A full, cohesive, compelling, well-argued, well-researched book. We were glad to see a nice write-up of the project linked from the university…
bcohen | December 17, 2007PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS
I don't even know what to say. Darwin won. It was won, how to put this, how to put this, it was won a little more than handily. Particle didn't even score. Darwin won 142 to 0.
WF: [speaking to the camera, microphone in hand] Let me step into the press conference. Not many folks left. I should be able to get a good spot. I have no idea what I just saw out there. Particle had been so dominant, so free-flowing in defeating General Relativity. I don't know what happened over these past months, during this game. But what a debacle here today.
P:
WF…
worldsfair | December 11, 2007Patrick comes through with another great piece - this time on his hospital experience after inadvertently stabbing himself with a needle full of tissue culture cells (Hamster CHO cells specifically).
He informs me that he has yet to develop the relative strength and speed of a hamster.
(link)
bcohen | December 7, 2007"The British are sniffy about sci-fi, but there is nothing artificial in its ability to convey apprehension about the universe and ourselves."
Folks are always going on about Science Fiction in these parts. And that's fun. Figured I'd add a link to this essay, "Why don't we love science fiction?," from the UK's Times Online. It refers to two works about SF: A Science Fiction Omnibus edited by Brian Aldiss and Different Engines: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science by Mark L Brake and Neil Hook.
A few excerpts. This one:
The big problem with being sniffy about SF is that…
bcohen | December 6, 2007A poem by Mary Oliver (1992). Please make of it what you will. And please, for World's Fair regulars, connect it to prior posts as you will:
Rice [1992]
It grew in the black mud.
It grew under the tiger's orange paws.
Its stems thinner than candles, and as straight.
Its leaves like feathers of egrets, but green.
Its grains cresting, wanting to burst.
Oh, blood of the tiger.
I don't want you just to sit down at the table.
I don't want you just to eat, and be content.
I want you to walk out into the fields
where the water is shining, and the rice has risen.
I want you to stand there, far from…
worldsfair | December 5, 2007
Jason did a great job with this. Check out more at Crunchy on the Outside
worldsfair | November 2, 2007
If I can do it (with the limited skills that I have) then so can others. So the request this time is: can you write us a science song?
Let me know if you've got one, and I'll try and compile a catalog here, with links to the mp3 and corresponding post that may have a story or lyrics, etc. You can even transfer tracks, so that collaborative efforts are done. Anyway, I'll start a track listing with my own little attempt:
TRACK LISTING:
Jargon Fueled Ways (The World's Fair) - mp3
worldsfair | November 2, 2007A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was hoping to play around with my brother's guitars, and to see if I could figure out the recording logistics of using software like Apple's Garageband. As well, I said I would try to incorporate a some of jargon brought up in the comment sections.
Anyway, it's been something that has been brewing on my mind for a while now, but things have just been so chaotic that it's been really difficult to find the time to tinker.
But finally, I had some time last night. Kate had settled in for the night to watch Survivor and Grey's Anatomy, which meant that I…
worldsfair | October 26, 2007
This is kind of clever. Published a while ago in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, this is a discussion of medical practices using the two central MD characters found in the Simpson's world.
Like the forces of good and evil battling for the soul of medicine itself, these 2 physicians are polar opposites. Julius Hibbert is an experienced family physician with a pleasant, easygoing manner, while Nick Riviera is an ill-trained upstart who is more interested in money than medicine. Knowing that appearances can be deceiving (and first impressions rarely correct), we explored this…
worldsfair | October 25, 2007Wilco is good, sometimes exceptional, but often inconsequential.
So it would appear that the above statement is up for discussion. I'm speaking specifically about statement number 9 of the truth, now that Ben has noted that Wilco has relinquished one of their albums to Volkswagon.
Of course, the first contender that comes to mind, especially since we're talking about things such as "selling out" is Radiohead, who recently have seen a lot of press over their IT'S UP TO YOU marketing experiment. And with that in mind, maybe, the truth #9 should be altered with boys from Oxford in mind.
This…