How many have you read?

Posted on November 20, 2006 by cicada

Discover Magazine: The 25 Greatest Science Books of All Time

The list is worth a look, especially since they’ve reproduced the covers/frontispieces from each book. The graphics emphasize at a glance how venerable most of the winning books are – we’re talking Aristotle, Copernicus, Newton, Galileo, Hooke, Vesalius. I wonder whether the average person ought to struggle through these older texts, instead of recent, updated popularizations of the fields; I personally found The Elegant Universe (a runner-up) immensely more enjoyable than A Dialogue Concerning Two World Systems. But as far as biology is concerned, no one says what Darwin thought about evolution better than Darwin himself.

Also very amusing are the quotes from eminent scientists that follow each blurb:

“You don’t have to be a Newton junkie like me to really find it gripping. I mean how amazing is it that this guy was able to figure out that the same force that lets a bird poop on your head governs the motions of planets in the heavens? That is towering genius, no?” —psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman, Cornell University

Posted in Biology, Books | Comments Off

Funny, I’ve never seen one of those. . .

Posted on November 20, 2006 by cicada

map12_400.jpg

Net Data Space vs. Every Day Life — Aram Bartholl

I was showing my mom a Google Map the other day and we puzzled over it for several minutes before we realized it hadn’t been updated. A recently completed thoroughfare in my town was completely missing, and without it, I was disoriented. I guess I take it for granted that online maps are accurate representations of reality . . except of course for the little destination icons. But with his “Map” Project, Aram Bartholl has changed that, too.

Thanks to NextNature for the link.

Posted in Artists & Art, Frivolity | Comments Off

Stem cells: when they’re bad, they’re naughty

Posted on November 20, 2006 by cicada

globeandmail.com: Stem cells core of more cancers

Grumble, grumble.  I can’t access Sunday’s two Nature advance articles, on the role played by stem cells in tumor growth. (Nature and its ilk are way too expensive for our small local college to carry, which made teaching upper-level biology there . . . interesting). This mainstream media summary is pretty good, though.

No one disputes the similarities between cancer cells and stem cells. The broad question is how this similarity arises. Do differentiated tumor cells, through mutation, acquire stem-cell-like properties, or do endogenous adult stem cells become cancerous? If the latter (and the hypothesis does make a lot of sense), stem cells could be hidden ringleaders promoting tumor growth, which could change the methods used to treat cancer substantially.

Although stem cells are mostly known for their “good” potential to repair and replace cells lost to trauma or chronic disease, researchers have always been concerned about the risk of stem cells growing uncontrollably. In some cases, experimental stem cell transplants have resulted in tumors. However, I don’t think most people realized stem cells gone bad could be the root of familiar cancers like colon cancer. When stem cells are good, they are very, very good; but they may be naughtier than we knew.

Posted in Biology | 4 Comments

Deadlines, both good and bad

Posted on November 16, 2006 by cicada

Alas, National Novel Writing Month is half over, and I once again forgot to start my novel. Do I wait until next year? Do I write a half-novel? Or do I (gasp) ignore the arbitrary deadline imposed by National Novel Writing Month, start writing, and just write until it’s done?

Maybe I’ll think about it some more. Until, say, next November 1.

Posted in Books, Frivolity | Comments Off

Sinister, yet surprisingly perky

Posted on November 14, 2006 by cicada

sinister.jpg

Ah, the mix cd. Its jacket, bland and functional, begs for artistic redemption. In junior high, we collaged magazine photos and doodled on our mix tapes. In high school, I coaxed the primitive tools of a Mac SE to create a series of (grayscale) covers. Now, of course, we have Photoshop, which makes layering & tweaking almost sinfully easy. But this one was done the old-fashioned way, with ink & collage.

This Sinister Yet Surpisingly Perky mix is for my friend Sylvia. That’s me in the pigtails. Don’t I look sinister?

Posted in Frivolity, My Artwork | Comments Off

Rosamond Purcell: From Fins to Bookworms

Posted on November 11, 2006 by cicada

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Squirrel Monkey
Rosamond Purcell
National Geographic Magazine, 2006

From Fins to Wings @ National Geographic Magazine

A very accessible and beautifully illustrated article on my favorite subject in biology: developmental evidence for deep evolutionary homologies. The companion photography is by artist/photographer Rosamond Purcell. In this photo, a squirrel monkey embryo is cleared (rendered transparent), then stained with Alizarin red S to reveal its bone structure. The skeleton appears discontinuous because the ends of the growing bones are still cartilaginous.

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With the Modern
Rosamond Purcell
From Bookworm, 2006

Purcell, who collaborated with the late Stephen Jay Gould on several books juxtaposing art and biology, just released a new collection entitled Bookworm. In it, she blurs the boundaries between the documentation of specimens and the creation of art objects, with books themselves as the raw materials. To create the example above, she allowed a termite colony to partially digest scientific texts, then collaged them together, fusing the processes of decay and design.

Bookworm looks excellent; I can’t wait to get my hands on it. In the meantime, you can preview some of the images and sample Purcell’s earlier works in this slideshow-essay from Slate.

Posted in Artists & Art, Biology | 1 Comment

I do call it “pop”!

Posted on November 10, 2006 by cicada

But people usually think my accent is Canadian. . .

What American accent do you have?

Your Result: The Inland North

You may think you speak “Standard English straight out of the dictionary” but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like “Are you from Wisconsin?” or “Are you from Chicago?” Chances are you call carbonated drinks “pop.”
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The Midland
North Central
Boston
The South
The West
What American accent do you have?
Take More Quizzes
Posted in Frivolity, Words | 1 Comment

Eduardo Recife’s Misprinted Type

Posted on November 10, 2006 by cicada

One of my favorite experimental artists and designers, Eduardo Recife, just got his commercial portfolio up and running over at eduardorecife.com. You’ve probably seen his work already and not known it, because his work (and work derivative of his) is everywhere these days. He designed the vintage-history-collage promo spot for HBO’s Assume the Position (in keeping with the theme of my previous post, Assume the Position was a comedy special debunking common historical fictions). Eduardo also created some irresistable design fonts – the Bio in my Bioephemera banner is his font Porcelain (thank you, Eduardo!). When you’re done looking at his commercial work, check out his fonts and personal portfolio at misprintedtype.com.

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History: Fiction or Science?

Posted on November 9, 2006 by cicada

A remarkable video ad for a book claiming that the medieval and classical periods didn’t really happen.

I guess my BA in English (emphasis: medieval literature) is even more useless than I thought!

This little infomercial is repetitive; you should get the gist after 2 minutes or so. I was hoping for more detail myself – like what the author posits was actually happening prior to the Renaissance, if all the stuff we thought was happening wasn’t! I guess if you want to know, you have to buy the book, History: Fiction or Science? (Amazon). How tempting. I do love the title, though. Last I checked, history was a little bit of fiction and a little bit of science, but mostly, well, history. How naive of me.

Posted in Books, Frivolity | Comments Off

So Go Vote

Posted on November 7, 2006 by cicada

Scientists and Engineers for America: Questions for Your Candidate

I don’t see much point in voting today, since the results for my state are demographically preordained. But this has still been an interesting election cycle for me as a scientist.

At some point in my career, I decided scientific objectivity required me to be apolitical, at least in the public sphere. When wearing my scientist-educator hat (it goes so well with the lab coat and goggles), I take pains to speak neutrally about social issues, even if I have strong opinions about them. I felt scientists should remain above the partisan fray, in order to preserve our professional credibility in the service of society as a whole.
Continue reading →

Posted in Biology, Uncategorized | Comments Off