Your Opinion Matters

The idea of peer review is typically associated with science. My brother feared a mythological villain known as “The Third Reviewer” more than any childhood bogeyman. The food world is no stranger to reviews either. Frankly, science you have it easy.

Not the best I've ever had

In the food world, true peer review, where chefs are reviewing the work of other chefs, is usually reserved for culinary competitions and reality shows. Instead, we have professional reviewers. These are food journalists, akin to science journalists. They are professionals at reviewing and can vary widely in ability. They may or may not have expertise in the actual creation of restaurant food. They generally have spent a lot of time in and around restaurants. They are not exactly peers, but we try to be very nice to them lest you wind up in Guy Fieri’s shoes.

What scientists generally don’t have is the “everyone else that sits down and orders a plate of food” review. If you are like me, you do a little review in your head every time you sit down at a restaurant to eat. That internalized review might even get shared with your friends and family; but the advent of sites like Yelp have made it possible to broadcast those little reviews to the world.

Peer review of articles and grants can make or break a scientific career. Professional restaurant reviews can make or break a restaurant. So can those amateur, Internet reviews. Continue reading “Your Opinion Matters”

Life on Film

Memoto CEO Martin Kallstrom with the Memoto camera. Photo by Johan Lange
Memoto CEO Martin Kallstrom with the Memoto camera. Photo by Johan Lange

Do you ever get to the end of a whirlwind trip and wish you could actually remember what you did? I’m guessing many of you who attended ScienceOnline2013 have forgotten as much awesome as you remember about the conference. What if there was a way to record your days for nostalgia’s sake or to monitor your lifestyle? You are in luck! This week at South-by-Southwest (SXSW) a Swedish start-up is pitching their tiny wearable camera called Memoto.

Memoto takes two geotagged photos each minute from its position on your collar, on a belt loop, wherever you decide to clip the tiny weather-proof camera. The camera’s battery can last several days and it recharges when you plug the camera into your computer to download all of the pictures taken since the last sync. Now you can record all the moments of the day that you might not think to whip out your smartphone to record. The camera isn’t automatically linked to social media platforms yet, but that functionality is on the horizon.

I think this particular functionality could really test the limits of personal privacy.  I personally don’t want two photos per minute of me posted to facebook while I have a conversation with someone. It can also be a huge infringement on patient privacy should someone wear this camera into a hospital and end up imaging someone’s private health information and potentially posting it to the web or even storing it on a server somewhere. Are medical practices even aware that this sort of thing exists?

Another issue linked with the type of data volume (120 photos per hour!) this camera would generate is storage. Memoto offers a remote server storage program for all of your images but it isn’t clear how secure your data will be. Memoto has several blog posts about data security but no firm policy in place yet. Would you be willing to risk having the images of your life exposed to anyone with the gumption to hack into those servers?

The idea of self-tracking is really intriguing but,I think I might be depressed to know how many photos a day are of my computer screen.

Crowdfunding the 3D Nile Crocodile – Outside & In

When you say 3D digital model, people think of something like a molded plastic toy, just on your computer. When artist Mieke Roth does a 3D model of an animal, she means the whole animal. She models it inside and out.

Crocodile Dissected - Mieke Roth

Artist Mieke Roth created a 3D model of an octopus and its internal organs. Now she is working on a 3D model of a Nile crocodile with the assistance of researcher John Hutchinson. To help fund the project, Mieke has an IndieGoGo fundraiser running through the end of tomorrow (15 March 2013, 11:59PM PT).

It’s like being in an episode of Inside Nature’s Giants, but without all the mess and smell (for us, it’s pretty messy & smelly for Mieke).

Meet the Ping-pong Tree Sponge

789a987a5a5c5e3d_mbari_chondrocladia_72The aptly named Ping-pong tree sponge (Chondrocladia lampadiglobus) is a carnivorous sponge. At first glance, you may think “I want that mid-century modern lamp” or “that sponge is adorable”, but the Ping-pong tree sponge is a stone-cold carnivorous killer. Those ping-pong ball looking things are covered in tiny spicules which the sponge uses to catch tiny crustaceans.

Check out another sponge in the same genus-the harp sponge (Chondrocladia lyra).

“Meet the…” is a collaboration between The Finch & Pea and Nature Afield to bring Nature’s amazing creatures into your home.

Today is NOT “Pi Day”

pidayIt may officially be Pi Day, but that doesn’t make it right1. The 14th of March is perhaps the least educational date we could pick for Pi Day. True, π=3.14; and, true, today’s date is 3-14 (using nonsensical American notation). That tells us what π is, approximately, it does not teach us what π means. Continue reading “Today is NOT “Pi Day””