We like network maps. We’ve done them before. Via Mun-Keat at the Wellcome Trust, I came across an intriguing map of scientific collaborations, created by Olivier H. Beauchesne, from lists of co-authors in Elsevier journals. Essentially, each time authors from different cities appear on the same paper, a line connecting those cities appears on the…
This probably wouldn’t work all that well as a lab timer, but it is a gorgeous piece of art: Every second runs round the dial This is a true mechanical clock. There’s a good description of the chronophage—visuals showing the levers of the escapement, and the vernier slit and lens system that actually displays the…
On your marks…get set…fertilize!
I’m a sucker for pretty pictures. But this is something else. The Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol runs an annual competition, The Art of Science, in which research scientists are challenged to look for “aesthetic beauty in their experimental work.” The winners of the 2010 competition were announced in…
You might remember I wrote about Nando Boero, who named a jellyfish after Frank Zappa. Turns out that there’s a freshwater fish named after Led Zeppelin, Lepidocephalichthys zeppelini.
We Brits tend to be a reserved lot. At least, that’s the reputation we have. But boy, we can talk. Just how much is shown by this analysis from researchers at MIT, Cornell University and University College London, with help from the BT Group in a little town you’ve probably never even heard of (Ipswich).…
The First Law of Thermodymamics: Heat is work and work is heat … The Second Law of Thermodymamics: Heat cannot of itself pass from one body to a hotter body Heat won’t pass from a cooler to a hotter You can try it if you like but you far better notter ‘Cos the cold in…
Where should we concentrate conservation efforts? Back in January, Kevin Gaston at the University of Sheffield argued in Science that conservation efforts should be directed towards common species as well as the ‘obvious’, rare and ‘threatened’ ones1. The argument is beguilingly simple. In the absence of a detailed understanding of what each species does in…
Next to a shiny new bike, the best Christmas present I could hope for when I was young was a box of LEGO bricks. We weren’t well off, so the LEGO was always more of a going proposition, and besides could be played with when it was raining. And we’re talking proper LEGO: not the…
I know, you’re all expecting me to talk about rockstars and GQ this week. Well, that’s been done to death all over the place, so here’s something else I stumbled across—the periodic table at a party: Yeah, there are few things wrong with that (potassium should really be ripping the arms off water, for example)…
