Destinations
bioephemera | June 13, 2009
I blogged previously about Jan Vormann, who went around medieval villages near Rome patching holes with Lego. Now Vormann has moved on to Berlin, where he's filling World War II bullet holes with multicolored patches. That's just awesome, on many levels. More photos here.
Vormann is represented by the gallery Jarmuschek + Partner. Via today and tomorrow.
bioephemera | June 12, 2009Maybe you can't leave town this weekend on vacation, but you can take an awesome behind-the-scenes video tour of UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, which is closed to the public, courtesy of Wired Science:
Officious handwritten tags tell the story of each and every animal's capture. In a screwtop container on the tray, a half-dozen chipmunk skulls rattle, picked clean of all their tissue by a beetle colony housed downstairs. . . You'll visit the bone room and the fur room, where the big mammals are kept. You'll see capybara furs, komodo dragon skins, and whale skulls.
bioephemera | May 23, 2009
Morgan Care Pharmacy on P St. in Georgetown has all the character so sorely lacking from new drugstore franchises. Drugstores used to be so different: as a child, I savored root beer floats at our local drugstore soda fountain counter. (I know, very Norman Rockwell of me.) Are there any pharmacy soda fountain/luncheonette counters left today?
bioephemera | May 16, 2009
I have a feeling that this is what Isis sees when she looks at a map. Only with sexier shoes, of course.
From one of my new favorite blogs - Strange Maps. Thanks to Jake for the find.
bioephemera | May 10, 2009
We all know some cities "feel" smaller than others. But this set of subway maps presented at the same scale makes the differences obvious.
Just for fun, I made this image layering four of maps from major world cities in red, black, gold, and blue. Recognize the cities? Answer after the fold. . .
Sizewise, the winner here is London, shown in red. New York, in black, is a close second. The much less complex gold-green pattern is Washington, DC - note that it only approaches the size of New York and London because of the long spindly commuter line reaching north into Maryland. And that dense…
bioephemera | April 13, 2009
NightPeeps
Melissa Harvey (after Edward Hopper)
It's that time of year again! As I roasted blue Easter Peeps over the gas stove yesterday, I eagerly awaited this year's collection of Peep dioramas from the Washington Post - and here they are! View the complete Peeps Show here.
Be sure to check out "Double Peep Strike" (Miracle on the Hudson), Bernard Peepoff, and the Trek Peeps of Stardate 2351.6. Many dioramas play on DC themes: "Peep to the Right" refers to clueless tourists who stand on the left side of Metro escalators, blocking those of us who use public transit to get to work; "…
bioephemera | April 7, 2009There are two interdisciplinary science meetings coming up that you should consider attending, in NYC and DC. Strangely enough, the ubiquitous Chris Mooney is speaking at both of them. Hmmm.
From April 30-May 1 in DC will be the AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy, which is a somewhat wonky look at federal science policy and government affairs. The agenda highlight? A plenary session on the future of science journalism, to which I'm looking forward with both enthusiasm and curiosity, given the wide range of opinions on the blogosphere. I'm sure there will also be lots of discussion…
bioephemera | March 24, 2009
The Sleeping Venus (1944)
Paul Delvaux
Observatory is a new collaborative art space located in Brooklyn, where it is reportedly sandwiched between Proteus Gowanus, Cabinet Magazine, and the Morbid Anatomy library. Its illustrious proprietors include Pam of Phantasmaphile, Joanna of Morbid Anatomy, and D&M of Curious Expeditions. And if that's not reason enough to be excited, tonight they are hosting a talk by Kathryn Hoffmann of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, entitled "Reveries of Sleeping Beauty: Slumber and Death in Anatomical Museums, Fairground Shows, and Art."
I saw Dr. Hoffmann…
bioephemera | March 2, 2009If you're in New York tonight, head over to the mysterious new "Observatory" between Proteus Gowanus, Cabinet Magazine, and the Morbid Anatomy Library for
(1) a book release party for Confronting Mortality with Art and Science: Scientific and Artistic Impressions on what the Certainty of Death Says About Life;
(2) a film screening of Art:Science = Science x Art;
and (3) conversation with some really, really cool people. I'm jealous that i'm down here in DC - even if I do get to go see Adam Gopnik tonight at Politics and Prose. I'm going to have to pre-order this darn book on Amazon like…
bioephemera | January 29, 2009Sadly, Hershey has announced the immediate closing of the small Berkeley factory that, since 2001, has been the flagship of Scharffen Berger chocolate. Scharffen Berger's dark chocolates were a favorite among Bay Area residents years before it was sold to Hershey in 2005; the cozy Berkeley factory used to be open for tours and chocolate tastings (followed by obligatory hot cocoa at the cafe next door). I have many fond memories of Scharffen Berger chocolate, so this news is depressing.
To add insult to injury, Hershey is also closing the factory of Joseph Schmidt in San Francisco - a company…
bioephemera | January 23, 2009
Speaking of the unpredictable evolution of language, the NYT shares this map of many formerly innocuous placenames in Britain which, over time, have become inadvertently profane. Apparently there are so many embarrassing locale that they've become the topic of two books:
Mr. Bailey, who grew up on Tumbledown Dick Road in Oxfordshire, and Mr. Hurst got the idea for the books when they read about a couple who bought a house on Butt Hole Road, in South Yorkshire.
The story isn't that surprising, but seeing this ridiculous little map in the sober Gray Lady just made me smile.
bioephemera | January 21, 2009
Satellite Image by GeoEye: [1] detail showing the Capitol; [2] detail of area around the Washington Monument
I'm compensating for the shock of having to return to actual work today by looking at the GeoEye satellite images of President Obama's Inauguration. This high-res image is just fascinating!
Note that most of the people (the brown dots) are clumped around the Jumbotrons (compare with the official Jumbotron map here), but there are some interesting anomalies. I'm looking at the giant mass of people near the National Indian Museum (SE quadrant) and wondering if that is some sort of…
bioephemera | January 21, 2009
Okay, kids - I know you loved those robot photos from SFO's science fiction in popular culture exhibit. So before my flight out of SFO after New Year's, I snagged a few more snapshots! First up: Spaceman Air Freshener. Umm, that doesn't exactly instill confidence - I think the space station probably smells like a rusty latrine.
Ahhhhhh! Attack of the space Mrs. Butterworths!
Tom Corbett Space Academy. (It's just like a wild west fort - in space.)
"Mr. Hustler?" Really?
These are a few female space alien figurines. I'm not sure how powerful a blow they struck for feminism in Mr. Hustler's…
bioephemera | January 20, 2009
This morning we and thousands of others watched the Inauguration on a Jumbotron from the lawn in front of the Lincoln Memorial. We didn't have tickets to get into the area in front of the Capitol, but that worked out fairly well, as we didn't have to wait in long security lines in the freezing wind! The Lincoln Memorial is just over two miles from my home, there were no lines there, and it seemed like the appropriate place to watch, listen, and celebrate on this historic morning.
More photos of our journey through NW DC after the fold...
The crowds walking at 9:30 am at Pennsylvania and H,…
bioephemera | January 18, 2009
Magnetic Movie
Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt)
Last fall I stopped by the Hirshhorn Museum's Black Box theatre to watch a short film by Semiconductor (the artistic team of Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt). Magnetic Movie is a color-drenched, imaginative tour of Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory. The film is below the fold, but before you watch it, take a moment to consider your expectations when you're watching a film about "lab science". Ultimately, does this film transcend or offend those expectations? And what are your expectations for scientific art in general?…
bioephemera | January 3, 2009
Coming through SFO last weekend, I encountered a wonderful exhibit of classic science fiction toys entitled "Out of this World! The Twentieth-Century Space Invasion of American Pop Culture." Tired and sick as I was, it made me wish I had more time to kill in the airport!
The show opened with two monolithic silver robots assembled of found objects by sculptor Clayton Bailey:
Check out Bailey's gallery of robots here.
The robots were followed by display upon display (all in acid 50s aqua, naturally) of vintage board games, toys, costumes, primitive robots, remote control aircraft, cap guns…
bioephemera | January 1, 2009
Fox Fur, A Unicorn, and a Christmas Tree
R. Jay Gabany
via Astronomy Picture of the Day
Tomorrow, Jan. 2, Robert Nemiroff will be giving a public lecture on " The Best Astronomy Pictures of the Day 2008," based on the wonderful Astronomy Picture of the Day. It's at 6:15 pm at AMNH.
bioephemera | December 31, 2008Multiverse
Leo Villareal
National Gallery of Art
Visitors familiar with the National Gallery of Art know that its East and West wings are connected by a subterranean passageway (and a cafe with yummy gelato, and a cool waterfall, but I digress). The moving walkways in that passage are now surrounded by a twinkling LED installation by artist Leo Villareal. When you stand or walk in the tunnel, more than 40,000 LEDs sparkle in synchronized and random patterns all around you.
Villareal says the patterns in his art are inspired by nature:
I'm very interested in rules and underlying structures,…
bioephemera | December 28, 2008
These charming photos by bre pettis capture a lovely, detailed diorama at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. I'm not sure how old it is, but it's very cool.
bioephemera | December 10, 2008This coming June, the NIH Office of Medical Applications of Research is holding a three-day course entitled "Medicine in the Media: The Challenge of Reporting on Medical Research." The agenda is here. Amazingly, course registration is free, and meals and lodging are provided - all you have to do is get yourself to Bethesda, Maryland.
What's the catch? Well, the application process is competitive; only 50 spots are available, and in recent years, only 1/3 to 1/2 of applicants have gotten in. So if you're a science journalist whose "primary target audience is the general public" - and yes, that…