Glass model of the radiolarian Heliosphaera actinota
Made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka
9 months ago
August 20, 2012
reblogged via 
Ocular Revision (Paul Vanouse)
The first images that I am creating with the circular DNA electrophoresis rigs are based upon hemispherical maps of the world.
These “Genetic Maps” could be interpreted as simplistic form-based puns in which the circle is a visual metaphor for a heavenly body like the earth. But at a deeper level they call attention to ingrained metaphors such as “genetic mapping”, which are problematic because “mapping” implies (distanced) simplification, abstraction, and exploitation (i.e. political, and economic maps of the world).
9 months ago
August 1, 2012
microbial community in the Western English Channel surface waters near Plymouth, UK (Gilbert et al, 2011)
Gilbert et al. (2011, 2010) show that even in bacterial communities, there are definite seasonal patterns and peaks in community diversity. Figuring out what causes these patterns is sometimes surprisingly easy – it looks like shifting day length accounts for 65% of the changes in bacterial diversity (I’m sure the authors’ jaws dropped when they saw this result…). Even more ridiculous (in a good way), the specific bacterial assemblage—the ‘fingerprint’ of species present in the community—could predict the month with 100% accuracy. And no surprise, only 2% of the 100 most abundant taxa they observed could be identified down to species level. (Previously undiscovered diversity is so old hat these days. But still cool).
via Deep Sea News
1 year ago
September 12, 2011
Tropical Island Infinite Photo
Click on the yellow rectangle and dive into a mosaic of hundreds of pictures of marine and terrestrial species found on the South Pacific island of Mo‘orea.
Double-click on an image to see more information about it. Keep clicking to move deeper into the Infinite Photograph.
Photographs courtesy the Biocode Project and National Geographic contributing photographer David Liittschwager.
Loopy!
2 years ago
April 4, 2011
reblogged via 
x-ray of Heliotrygon gomesi, one of two new stingray species found in the Amazon (Ken Jones)
2 years ago
March 31, 2011
2 years ago
February 1, 2011
Proteus - a documentary about Ernst Haeckel, his work with radiolarians and his influence on art and science
The radiolarian are like an alphabet of possibilities, as if the ancient sea were dreaming in its depths all the future permutations of organic and invented forms, from backbones to bridges and from the Earth to the stars.
via Brain Pickings
2 years ago
January 17, 2011
2 years ago
December 30, 2010
2 years ago
December 2, 2010
Thinking like an octopus
If you were an octopus, would you view the world from eight different points of view? Nine?
The answer may depend on how many brains an octopus has, or, to say it another way, whether the robust bunches of neurons in its coiling, writhing, incredibly handy arms bestow on each of them something akin to a brain. Is an octopus a creature ruled by a single consciousness centered in its large brain, or, by dint of its nerve-infused legs, a collaborative, cooperative, but distributed mind?
[…]
Octopuses have large nervous systems, centered around relatively large brains. But more than half of their 500 million neurons are found in the arms themselves, Godfrey-Smith said. This raises the question of whether the arms have something like minds of their own. Though the question is controversial, there is some observational evidence indicating that it could be so, he said. When an octopus is in an unfamiliar tank with food in the middle, some arms seem to crowd into the corner seeking safety while others seem to pull the animal toward the food, Godfrey-Smith explained, as if the creature is literally of two minds about the situation.
via Harvard Gazette
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