Royal Ontario Museum

The Royal Ontario Museum collection is part natural history, part cultural history. I lived within walking distance for seven years, but I’ve only visited a few times. One of those times was in the summer of 2007, at the opening of a new section of the building.

The ROM hired Daniel Libeskind to design a new extension to the museum. The winning design, the “Crystal”, drew some criticism: it looks a little bit as if a spaceship crashed into the building.

ROM Crystal East

I vaguely recall that I didn’t like it at first, but it’s grown on me and now I think it fits the location. The side of the building with the new extension is directly at an upscale shopping district, in the neighbourhood where the annual film festival is held. But the museum is located on university grounds, and the rest of the museum still looks suitably academic and old. Continue reading “Royal Ontario Museum”

Walking with a Ghost: A Musical Replication Study [Repost]

Editor’s Note: On Twitter today, there is a hashtag #twopaired making the rounds. Folks are posting favorite duets. That is not enough for us. This post has a duet of duets, featuring duo Tegan & Sara and duo The White Stripes both taking a run at Walking with a Ghost. Originally posted 22 October 2012.

Last week, I got on the topic of replication studies. Dan Mangan’s new EP got me thinking about how our human desire to be pleasantly surprised is one way of thinking about why readers, reviewers and editors often prioritize novel findings over careful verification. This week, I’m pleased to present what I think is my favourite musical example of a replication study. Continue reading “Walking with a Ghost: A Musical Replication Study [Repost]”

Sunday Science Poem: Reproduction will beat Armageddon

gassmiddlecLast Tuesday I made my way to Left Bank Books, a St. Louis favorite, to listen to William Gass read from his newest book, Middle C. As some readers may know, I am a fan, or maybe even a connoisseur of post-apocalyptic fiction; thus Gass really caught my attention when he read one of the most searing scenes of apocalypse survival I’ve ever encountered, something that makes most works in the post-apocalyptic genre seem exuberantly upbeat.

While this scene is not written as a poem, it is one long sentence written with the attention to cadence and sound that you expect of poetry, and so it qualifies for this week’s Sunday Poem. As for a possible science-related theme, aside from the association I see with my favorite subgenre of science fiction, this passage from Middle C describes the narrator’s speculation that the human species will somehow, despite losing Armageddon, squeak through with its fundamental biological drive to reproduce intact. Continue reading “Sunday Science Poem: Reproduction will beat Armageddon”

Science Caturday: Let’s Call Him Beaker

beaker

via Cheezburger.com

The Physics of Otters

This strip from Karl Kerschl’s The Abominable Charles Christopher sits at the intersection of art, science, and otters – a place I like to call “home”.

Anatomy of an Otter Slide - The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kerschl (All Rights Reserved, Used & Adapted with Permission)
Anatomy of an Otter Slide – The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kerschl (All Rights Reserved, Used & Adapted with Permission)

Neither Karl nor I vouch for the equations represented as being either perfectly accurate or the most relevant. Rather they serve as symbols representing the mechanics that go into making something as delightful as an otter sliding into the water. We do, however, provide a comment thread, if you would like to engage in a few rounds of cathartic pedantry (I know I do from time to time).

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