In the wake of the Russian meteorite over Chelyabinsk, Russia, Minouette compiled a fascinating look at how objects from space running into our fair planet have inspired art throughout of human history.
Ye Olde Meteoroid
Witten’s Rules of Astonishment
Recently, Mike and I have found ourselves discussing several research studies with supposedly “surprising” results. While the work involved appears solid and the details of the phenomena were certainly amazing, we struggled to understand why the general phenomenon was “surprising”. Amazing, yes. Unexpected, no. After years of such discussions, Mike has asked me to write down Witten’s Rules of Astonishment*. Continue reading “Witten’s Rules of Astonishment”
The Art of Science: A Portrait in Cells
In 2011, I was starting to plan for an exhibit at the Cafritz Arts Center in Maryland, based around the theme of cells. I knew that I didn’t want to just paint a bunch of various cells – I wanted to use them to express some thoughts about how humans relate to each other. Continue reading “The Art of Science: A Portrait in Cells”
Cultural relevance
In a post for Convergent Ed, John Romano makes a compelling case for being “with it” as an educator and communicator. He admits to watching TMZ – every night! Why? Because analogies and metaphors are only effective tools if the reference imagery is relevant to your audience.
On the front lines of education, there is no room for intellectual vanity.
Lake Vostok Bacteria & the Power of Social Media
Today, I had to explain to my 4-year-old that Daddy was a little later than usual (I was not “late”) picking her up from school because he was helping facilitate and curate a live tweeted translation/paraphrasing of a press release in Russian (by @PsiWavefunction) about the odd bacteria that may or may not have been discovered by a research program to drill into and investigate a gigantic sub-glacial lake that has been sealed off from the rest of the world for millions of years.
You can follow the translation by PsiWavefunction on the Storify I created as we went. The take home message from the press release was Russian scientists are not incompetent doofuses and:
My daughter’s response? “Antarctica is where penguins and King Cryolophosaurus live!”
The Finch and Pea 