As I prepare for a big three-artist show in January, I’ve been trying some new materials and techniques, including ink and water on different surfaces. I was so enthusiastic about some of the results that I was tweeting pictures as I painted, and Glendon Mellow (aka @Flyingtrilobite) asked me to write a post for Scientific American’s Sci-Art blog, Symbiartic. Buy one here.
The eastern part of the US is bracing for hundreds of millions of visitors this spring – the Brood II cicadas, which emerge from underground only every 17 years. The “coming frenzy of sex and death,” as the Washington Post put it, is the largest since Brood X emerged in the summer of 2004. That year, many artists from the area used the cicadas’ discarded carapaces, which lay on the ground in thousands all over the region, in their artwork. So I went to look for cicada-based art, and found a few interesting things. Continue reading “The Art of Science: Cicada Invasion”
There are only five species in the order of monotremes – mammals that lay eggs – and they all live in Australia. Four of the monotreme species are echidnas, a sort of anteaters. The fifth is the single strangest mammal out there: the platypus.
The platypus is so unique, and so unmistakably different from any other animal, that I get really annoyed when people want to be super-specific and call it “duck-billed platypus”. As if we were at risk of confusing it with any of the many other different types of platypus. Oh, that’s right. There are no different types. There is just platypus.
I first saw a platypus at Healesville sanctuary, when I was 13. I most recently saw one at the British Museum. That one was dead. But my favourite platypus encounter was at Eungella National Park in Queensland.
“Fomite” isn’t a word that most people hear very often. However, if you’re a microbiologist (or are under the influence of one), you are likely to find yourself considering fomites as you go about your day. Fomites are everywhere, are difficult to avoid, and while it’s a good idea to be aware of fomites, they should not be feared. Continue reading “Don’t Fear the Toilet Seat!”
Part 1:
Part 2: Remix
High fives to Jurgen Otto for this work.
“Meet the…” is a collaboration between The Finch & Pea and Nature Afield to bring Nature’s amazing creatures into your home.
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