What's in a picture?
Prof. Benny Shilo knows the value of a good picture. We recently mentioned his book: Life’s Blueprint, which uses photographs of things like bread dough and yeast cells to illustrate the process of biological development. Here is the image from the most recent piece we have uploaded on his research:
This is an individual Islet of Langerhans, as you’ve never seen it before. The white dots are the insulin-containing vesicles inside the beta cells, which both sense glucose levels and secrete insulin. Shilo and his team managed to get “close-up shots” of the individual cell…
Photos
A new book will make you stop and think about the relationship between the microscopic world and the one we pass by every day.
Life’s Blueprint – The Science and Art of Embryo Creation; Benny Shilo, Yale University Press, 174 pages.
Stem cells and their niche
When a stem cell divides, one daughter maintains the stem cell fate while the other produces a differentiated progeny. Stem cells are positioned in a restricted spatial niche that provides signals maintaining them in a proliferative, nondifferentiated state. After division, only the undifferentiated progeny is retained in the niche.…
Here's another article we came across while editing material on the still-theoretical new website. Unfortunately, the article is more about the photographer than Anna Weizmann, herself.
Prof. Anna Weizmann was Chaim's younger sister, (there were a dozen brothers and sisters, all of them chemists, engineers and doctors). She was also one of the original 11 scientists (3 of whom were women) at what was then the Daniel Sieff Research Institute (est. 1934). She never married, (one article she co-authored referred to her as Miss Anna Weizmann) and she ran Dr. Chaim Weizmann's lab after his…
The Dot Physics game inspired us to put up this photo from the Institute's new calendar,* which features images of (mostly) old scientific equipment.
In case you haven't guessed, it was called a "tamnun" (Hebrew for octopus) or, more formally, a Multi-Counter Gamma-Ray Goniometer. It was developed (and patented) at the Institute in the 1970s for use in Tandem Accelerator experiments. The multiple movable arms are meant to grip up to six gamma-ray detectors at precisely calculated angles.
Patent notwithstanding, it does not appear to have been a huge seller, and even the old-timers here were…
We just spent two days at French Frigate Shoals, most of which I spent diving or sleeping. Our research is going very well, which keeps me pretty busy, but I still find time to snap a picture or two. Here are some shots of the cruise so far!
tags: Anne Loftus playground, Inwood, Manhattan, NYC, NYC through my eye, photography, Autumn in NYC
Image: GrrlScientist 6 November 2008 [larger view].
As I've already mentioned, I am having a rough time right now, but I love photography, so I decided that I should view NYC through a shutter as a way to deal with my labile mood state. So as I walked down the street, I decided that I would photograph a rather colorful park that was nearby. Even though I've passed by it many times, I've never visited the Anne Loftus playground, so I spontaneously decided to photograph it.
I took this…
tags: bird behavior, emotional lives of animals, ornithology, birds, avian, photoessay
The bird calls out after realising that his (her?) mate is dead
Image: Wilson Hsu, AbuNawaf.com [larger view].
There are many inexplicable and tragic events in nature, yet few are captured on film. Here is an interesting series of photographs depicting a pair of swallows, Hirundo rustica (known as the Barn Swallow in the United States). In this series of images, we watch the story that unfolds after one of the birds was fatally injured, yet the bird's mate remains nearby, delivering food or water and…
Female Snow Leopard twins born last year at the Bronx Zoo.
When I initially started posting pictures on my blog, I didn't know if anyone would have anything to say about my pictures. I frequent zoos, museums, and aquariums, usually shooting between 200 and 600 shots per trip, the handful of good shots making their way onto the internet. I've been certainly pleasantly surprised, therefore, to see all the positive remarks made about my pictures, especially since I don't really have any idea what I'm doing. Still, many of you have asked how I have been able to get the kind of shots I've…
Daniel Posch from Hillcrest High School in Midvale, Utah took these photos of contrasting stimulants...
Check out more ISEF snapshots on Flickr. And if you haven't yet, upload your own photos and videos.
Kelvin Chiong of Sarawak, Malaysia posted this cool photo of the Malaysian and Brazilian delegations, and some other friends:
Share your photos, too. Post them to Flickr with the tag "intelisef."
Alex Griffin, an Alaskan student observer at this year's Intel ISEF, snapped these choice photos during an afternoon hot air balloon ride over Albuquerque, which was just one of the many tours offered through the Fair organizers.
You can view the full set of twenty pictures in higher resolution here. Thanks for sharing, Alex!
In the aftermath of last night's Student Pin Exchange, out of the dizzying array of commemorative pins, buttons, and cultural trinkets that were swapped, which emerged as the most eye-catching, coveted, and sought after?
We asked three-time Intel ISEF finalist and New Mexico native Susannah Clary to canvas the exhibition floor to find out. Her report is below the fold.
My personal favorite is my pin from Egypt. I love it because it represents the ancient Egyptian culture that still exists today.
Lee Billings, from Brooklyn, New York: "Since this is my first time in New Mexico, I like the…
The Student Pin Exchange is two hours away, but finalists have already broken out their cultural booty to swap in the aisles between their projects.
It's not just students who collect and exchange pins, though. For example, check out our friend Bill Chown:
We caught up with another compulsive pin-hoarder, John Turner, and asked him a few questions about the habit. The Q&A is below the fold.
Q: Can you tell us your name and where you're from?
A: My name's John Turner, I'm from San Jose, California, and I'm on the Host Committee. We're putting on the 2010 international science fair. That'…
The world's largest baking-soda-and-vinegar volcano is now fully operational at our Intel ISEF booth. All morning and afternoon, unsuspecting finalists have fallen victim to the noxious vapors and bubbling lava spewing from the sinister cinder cone. Oh, the humanity...
Some more choice pictures are posted below the fold.
Don't forget to upload your own photos from the Fair to Flickr and tag them with "intelisef"!
We want to see all your amazing Intel ISEF photos and videos - from 2007 and from years past. Upload your photos to Flickr.com and upload your videos to YouTube. Once they're up, tag them with the word "intelisef". We'll be searching for all the photos and videos with that tag regularly, and highlighting the best ones on this site.
Don't have a Flickr or YouTube account? You can get your own account for free, or use our group account. For Flickr, the login is intel.isef and the password is science. On YouTube, the login is intelisef and the password is science.
Don't have a camera or…