The Art/Science (Non?)Divide Building
bcohen | July 21, 2006"On Evidence"
(and in reference to the on-going, yet still unsolved Puzzle Fantastica #1)
Since this is a science blog and scientists and engineers are all about evidence and experiments and so on, we broach the subject of evidence. Namely, what kinds of evidence have we offered, and how has that evidence been interpreted?
Some commenters have gone for an analysis of numbers. Others are seeking common patterns. Few are treating the clues as accruing, while many are picking out minor features of each clue, interpreting the "real" clue to be a visual subset of the main clue. Some consider…
bcohen | July 20, 2006For centuries we've languished in the abyss of not-knowing what science is. An abyss so deep and so languishable, that we didn't even know we didn't know. A true Rumsfeldian dilemma, with mixed metaphors to boot. What accounts for scientific excellence and credibility? Why do we trust scientists? Is it because they are so serious? We just never knew.
But now we do: how can we define science? what does it take to *be* scientific? Just ask Penn's Chemistry Department and their new building.
The answer: Flemish Bond Brickwork. And it was right there in front of our faces all along!
This…
bcohen | July 19, 2006Dave's recent thread on the Creationist Science Fair brought to mind other examples of internet-circulated satirizations of knowledge and the public. These are, to me, issues of science and society, because they are about argument, reasoning, persuasion, and sources. They are also thus about credibility -- whose sources? for example, as with the anti-abortion posting that was using The Onion as a source -- and argumentative rigor -- how is the argument framed and rebutted? (and there's probably an easier way to phrase that, since argumentative rigor has, what, seven syllables? and now I've…
bcohen | July 17, 2006This is but a link to an interesting summary article about the topic of scientists (physicists) in film. It's by Sidney Perkowitz, who teaches at Emory, and who I've seen speak at the meetings of and know has long been involved with the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA) -- which I call Salsa, but not sure if anyone else does, and which was long called just the Society for Literature and Science (SLS) until a name change a few years ago.
Salsa has a highly respected journal, too, Configurations, which is often fairly theoretically inclined and generally tip top. In fact,…
bcohen | July 9, 2006We won't yet drop a fourth visual clue for the P.F #1, but we will give at this point a few negations:
The answer does not involve Carl Sagan's pet, does not belong to the category "architecture," and is not only about the combination of fishes and cows. Furthermore, it is not something that begins with the letter J. We are not putting you on.
This, we know, helps. We've been told so.
(Stay alert this coming week...)
worldsfair | July 7, 2006
A few days ago, being the start of summer and all, I brought home one of my dissecting microscopes for my kids to play with. This is because they're outside a lot, picking up things, and on a bit of a bug kick right now. Anyway, this is a shot of them checking out a spider (Pholcus phalangioides), apparently dead on the window sill with a smaller bug (also dead) in mid clutch. We couldn't figure out what this other insect was, but I was all excited that my kids were being so sciency.
Still, not sure how I should feel about that. Science is one of those rewarding disciplines that come…
bcohen | July 7, 2006I'm following Dave's lead here, who was following Nick Hornby's lead, who could probably be made aware of our lead following and then wax poetic on the flourishing of his format. Except I'm sure he's busy. Lunching with Cusack. Unless Cusack is lunching with Anjelica Huston, like in The Player. Damn, Robert Altman's good. Can we talk about McCabe and Mrs. Miller?
Did I get sidetracked?
These are the books on my nightstand, and beside my desk at my office. They shift frequently, but this is where things stand today. As of now, early July, the first ten are nightstand-based, the last…
bcohen | July 6, 2006The Worlds' Fair is thinking, pondering, mulling over, mulling under, obsessing around something, something not to be told, something requiring many prepositions. Something to be intimated, perhaps. But something not to reveal. Yet. Not yet. There are things that will lead you to it, things that are helpful. We've made some of them available. One is a fish. A picture of a fish, rather. One is a picture of the cow as a food factory. It's a cow. A third is Elvis related.
There is a puzzle being revealed, but we dare not step closer. We leave that to you. The puzzle is bigger than…
worldsfair | June 29, 2006
A few days ago, Ben put up an interesting article about Natalie Jeremijenko, regarding artistry as it relates to various scientific nuances - an essay that showed one of many many cracks in the "Two Culture" ideals that sprang from C.P. Snow's head. It got me thinking a bit, in that it occurred to me that a place such as scienceblogs.com mostly represents a perhaps more subtle take of the opposite notion: of "the scientist as mad artist." I mean, blogging in itself is a kind of creative outlet, with opinions and commentary that run a wide spectrum of tone and subject matter.
Anyway, we…
worldsfair | June 26, 2006Previously...
(Image via Jay Pinkerton)
"My question to the audience: what kind of scientist is Batman?" (Ben Cohen)
Scienceblogger responses below:
Afarensis
Obviously, he is a forensic scientist...
The World's Fair (Dave Ng)
I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and suggest that Batman is (amongst other things) a "bat scientist." This, I think, would make him a chiropterist, since Bats belong to the family Chiroptera (greek for "hand-wing"). I can imagine Mr. Wayne going to his fancy cocktail parties and providing all manner of banter and trivia on bats, all the while chuckling to himself and…
bcohen | June 23, 2006If ever there was an art-science piece on the web, this would be it: environmental angle, artistic production, scientific context, you get it all. This is, courtesy of our friend Cletus, a piece at Salon about "Activist, environmentalist and former rock promoter" Natalie Jeremijenko.
Go here first, to get into the site, but then pop back to this blog post, and then go here for the article.
Excerpts and comments to come, later on...
...but would include:
1. Why "mad scientist"? Are we still doing that stereotype?
2. What's it take to provide a new perception of something, beyond the lab (…
worldsfair | June 22, 2006Last Friday, I had a photo shoot in my lab, where a firm called Corbis spent the day taking a variety of stock "sciency" photos. It was quite the machine in place, with a crew of about half a dozen, a group of well over 25 extras lounging around, lights angled at beakers full of coloured water (why are they always coloured?), and an atmosphere that I thought was usually only reserved for fashion photography.
Really ironic, since here I was, face to face to poser scientists, whereas 72 hours later, I would have a room full of the real thing.
Anyway, I did ask a few questions out of…
bcohen | June 21, 2006Obviously any course that addresses issues of science, technology, and society uses the 4th Season Simpsons masterpiece, Marge v. the Monorail (unfortunately, this episode capsule doesn't have the full transcript). It is hallowed as a pitch perfect take on the technology-society relationship. That much has already been established. I'm just telling you what you know.
But there are serious weaknesses in its classroom use. These should not go unaddressed, even though the great and inglorious downfall of the Simpsons enterprise after their seventh season or so should (and, to that end, I…
bcohen | June 18, 2006We don't deign to actually do it. We're all about Unpaid Interns. They just looked up "deign" for us, in case you were wondering. The system works.
This, we say, because Sciencebloggers have been asked:
How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?...
Unpaid Interns is the answer. Dave and I have yet to type a single word for the sake of this chump-infested blogging enterprise. We don't write this crap. Get real. You think we'd pen such canned tripe? Dave and I…
bcohen | June 14, 2006There's a new Annals of Science at McSweeneys, which is actually about technology -- internets, trains -- and as such as much about history and philosophy of science and technology as just science straight-up. Although, I'm of the mind that there is no such thing as "science straight up." And I think the piece is more about space and time, to which, who doesn't love space and time?
worldsfair | June 13, 2006Last semester I was fortunate enough to be involved with a UBC project (called Terry) that looks at global issues from a multidisciplinary angle. One of the things in my charge was arranging a kind of high profile speaker series, with an emphasis on bringing out individuals who are not only doing great things, but are also excellent engaging orators. This was wonderful in that I got to hang out with some pretty amazing folks. Anyway, the talks are all available online, a good portal for them being here, but I thought as bait, I'd present a few interesting, funny, at times poignant, and…