The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
worldsfair | April 14, 2010O.K. Sorry this took a while, but you know, things are busy, having just finally launching the Phylo game website. A while back, I mentioned getting an acoustic bass, and wanting to work on yet another science-geekery song. This one with a biodiversity theme and the inclusion of reader supplied latin names as well. That part was tough, but I tried my best.
Anyway, below is a very quick demo cut of the song (with drums and most backup vocals courtesy of my talented brother Steve), as well as the lyrics below. I quite like this song, so will probably try to do a better take later.
(Link to…
vlicata | April 5, 2010The National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences each are spearheading programs designed to get more accurate science into the movies, and they have two somewhat different approaches to this same "problem". Each presented its plan during a couple of sessions at this year's AAAS National Meeting. The National Academy of Sciences had a session on its "Science and Entertainment Exchange" program, which is celebrating its one-year anniversary. This program acts as a matchmaker service for Hollywood producers and directors, who can contact the Exchange and ask for an "expert…
worldsfair | March 30, 2010In this video, I'm actually speaking (as oppose to dancing silly), since it looks like TEDx has released the mini talks we gave on our experiences hosting a TEDx conference.
Anyway, it only confirms my theory that most people on TV have huge heads (this is data gathered from interacting with the odd TV host in my time). My head is somewhat normal sized, but doesn't it look kind of small in the video?
But I digress, really the point of this video is to check out the actual talks that were given at the TEDxTerrytalks. You can check them out here (they really did deliver).
And the orchestra of…
worldsfair | March 29, 2010A few months ago, for fun, I took a course on "Writing Books for Children." It was pretty good, in that it kind of forced me to sit down and come up and work through an idea. Or at least, work through it enough so that it was close to the stage of maybe querying publishers.
For readers who have followed this blog for a while, you probably know that children's books have always fascinated me, especially with two young children in my own household. It's probably why I've written about it on occasion (see here, here, here, and here for examples). There's something altogether amazing when you…
worldsfair | March 26, 2010Recently, I was on Australian radio doing a bit about the phylomon project and one of the creatures that the host brought up was the Kakapo.
As well, an article at the Escapist was just published (again on the phylomon project), and within the comments there, the Kakapo was highlighted once again.
What is it with this bird that delights the imagination of biology enthusiasts? Well, first you have to check out this video, which is maybe one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
Anyway, I think Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine describe the kakapo best in their wonderful book, "Last Chance…
worldsfair | March 11, 2010This is straight from the main page:
Things are humming along! We have over 100 images submitted, 30 or so queued up for card production, and over 40 folks signed up on the forum (in fact, one set of rules is arguably close to beta testing). The response has been simply wonderful, and these numbers don't even the include the numerous comments and chats culled from coffee meetings to blog posts to tweets. To us, this outpouring is something else, especially in light of the fact that we've technically only seeded an "idea" out there!
The website, itself, is being prodded, poked and tweaked as…
worldsfair | March 4, 2010Wherein the toughest part was trying to edit down 56 minutes of great stuff into a 20 minute clip (as required by his office). Some great anecdotes here, so do pass on if you enjoy this (p.s. He gave another great talk at TED2010, so am also looking forward to that one).
(From terry.ubc.ca)
worldsfair | February 25, 2010Here: Take a look at this.
This was another cool thing we did at TEDactive.
Essentially, we were given a piece of white paper and asked to doodle what we thought the "world needed more of."
Can you guess which part is mine? (hint: I'm such a geek)
worldsfair | February 24, 2010In case those of you (the 2 or so readers we have here) are anxiously waiting for the song on biodiversity that I promised a while back. Well, I'm still working on it (partly things have been busy, also partly I had some new recording hardware to figure out). Anyway, just to show that I haven't been slacking off, here is a draft of the lyrics:
The main body of lyrics being:
There's you and me, within biodiversity
Connecting us together in this world.
But you can't see, it all works so majestically
Almost imperceptively - day by day
Look around yourself and you will find them everywhere…
worldsfair | January 28, 2010Well, now it can be used for the Phylomon project. You know, the one where we're hoping we can guide an open source project into a free and massive card collecting game that is fun and even perchance (oh no, here it comes...) educational.
Now that we're at a stage where we're confident that the mechanics of obtaining images is sound (check out the submissions pool here, and the few from this pool that we've already lined up for beta testing as shown below), we're ready to move onto other crucial components of the project.
Namely gameplay and content on the card.
In many ways, we think these…
worldsfair | January 25, 2010O.K. I just re-strung my guitar and it's sounding oh so pretty right now. As well, my delayed Christmas present is also arriving soon (a Fender acoustic bass - woo hoo!).
In any event, it's high time, I started to write another silly science song. I've done a few already and they're peppered around the World's Fair somewhere (of note were all the really nice comments for my mitochondria song). Actually, if you are geeky enough to want to check them all out, here is a link with all four of them to date.
So, what to write about? What to write about? Well, given it is the International Year…
worldsfair | January 12, 2010If so, you should join this facebook group. Or to discuss further, please go to http://friendfeed.com/phylomon.
Here's part of what started this group and project: a friend of mine passed on this "letter to Santa:"
It quite nicely demonstrates an issue with advocates of biodiversity - that is, what can we do to get kids engaged with the wonderful creatures that are all around them? They obviously have the ability and the passion to care about such things, but it appears misplaced - they'll spend a ton of resources and time tracking down fictional things, when they could easily do the same…
worldsfair | January 11, 2010Was it one of these (From wiki)?
In any event, hopefully you picked the one about Henrietta Lacks. If you didn't: then you really need to get yourself a copy of this book, entitled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and written by Rebecca Sloot, to find out why you should have.
I've just pre-ordered it, and am looking forward to reading it. The advance reviews are really good, and the story of Henrietta is really one that needs to be spread widely (this is speaking as someone who use to be pretty deep into the signal transduction field where use of HeLa cells is pretty much par for…
worldsfair | January 7, 2010I don't drink lattes myself, but these are pretty cool and fitting for the IYB.
(From Flickr member, tonx)
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(From Flickr member, dasedesign)
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(From Flickr member, springleap.cpm)
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(From Flickr member, bun buku)
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(From Flickr member, springleap.com)
I'm actually surprised no-one has done a decent squid one yet (although if you know of one, do pass it along).
worldsfair | December 17, 2009... well this. This being the (now pretty much) annual SCQ Christmas offering from structural biochemist and playwright, Vince LiCata.
NARRATOR: Every Who
Down in U-ville
Liked their research a lot...
FACULTY: (pipeting): I sure like research a lot.
I love running gels,
I get bored when I'm not.
NARRATOR: But the Pinch
Who lived just North of U-ville
Most certainly, did not.
FACULTY: Now, who wouldn't love labwork?
I'm sure I don't know.
They'd have to be a real jerk,
Or perhaps a bit slow.
He sings:
Fah who for-aze
Dah who dor-aze
Welcome Research
Come this way
Fah who for-aze
Dah who dor-…
worldsfair | December 7, 2009
Coming off of Ben's recent hat tip to the paper published at PLoS ("The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and Its Environmental Impact"), I was reminded of some great artwork by Marc Trujillo.
I first heard of this artist by reading a nice profile of his work at a newish online literary journal called "/ONE/" (link).
Marc Trujillo is an urban landscape painter who depicts the big box retail stores, self-service gas stations, and fast-food chains that make up a large portion of the urban environment. Free of political or moral overtones, these works function both as modern…
worldsfair | December 1, 2009As someone who teaches the occasional university undergrad course, this is more real than you might think. Here an excerpt:
TELLER: Right. So, yeah, we split the plutonium atom I guess. And make a weapon out of it.
BETHE: When is this due anyway?
TELLER: I think tomorrow.
BETHE: What?!?!
TELLER: I know, right? I mean we shouldn't have put it off, but ... still sucks.
BETHE: I have another class with one of the Soviets, and he says theirs isn't due until 1949.
TELLER: 1949?!?!
BETHE: I know, right?
TELLER: I knew we took the wrong section. And no wonder the Russkies were out last night.…
worldsfair | November 26, 2009All I can say is, is that this is brilliant...
And there's much more here from Christopher Niemann from the NYT Abstract City Blog. (via Magpie&Whiskeyjack)
worldsfair | November 25, 2009I was listen to the radio as we were coming to the lab this morning, and one of the things that caught my ear was a quick mention of collective nouns. Now these are instances where there is a special and specific term that is coined for a group of things. Wiki describes it as follows:
In linguistics, a collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects, where "objects" can be people, animals, emotions, inanimate things, concepts, or other things. For example, in the phrase "a pride of lions," pride is a collective noun.
Then it kind of struck me that this sort of thing is most…
bcohen | November 24, 2009
"Amaryllis," by Katelyn Sack
I work in the engineering school here at U.Va. My office faces a lobby-type area just outside the main computer lab for undergrads. That space has blank walls. We recently commandeered it and opened up an art gallery. The painting above is one of four currently hanging in this first installment. I make note of the exhibit here, at The World's Fair, because it seems entirely in keeping with the ethos of this blog, where in our best days we cross the so-called boundaries between scientific, artistic, and political worlds.
from KS collection
U.Va.'s…