misc.ience

Great sciencey watchables

Aimee Whitcroft — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:50:35 +0000

August looks set to be an absolute cracker for that segment of my readership who a) likes to watch science-related programming and b) has access to TVNZ 7 (hilariously, I don’t actually fit into the latter group). Still, even if you don’t, then guaranteed you’ll have a friend who does, and it’s a handy excuse to [...]

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Go forth! Make friends!

Aimee Whitcroft — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:41:08 +0000

Or, why having a social network is very good for you. Really. Yes, fine, I’m biased. I admit it. I see no harm in the burgeoning everywhereness of social media and stuff. And I think having friends is awesomely important. As far as I’m concerned, the more friends we have, and the more people to whom [...]

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All kinds of trippy goodness – food as scanned by MRI

Aimee Whitcroft — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:33:55 +0000

Hah! Still alive! (Possibly) A little bit of very intriguing strangeness today. And yes, a brief post too. Still, the amount of time spent watching this in fascination should hopefully make up for that. Some very interesting person took a bunch of different foods, and bunged them into an MRI scanner. For the fun of it. And [...]

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In which I make an excuse, but put out a suggestion

Aimee Whitcroft — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:05:21 +0000

Greetings, readers all Yes, I am alive. No, I have not forgotten my duty to you all to produce entertaining and informative content. However, I am at this point stupidly busy, and thus have fallen a little behind. Amusingly, the gravity well around my to-write-about list has now acquired the ability to levitate small objects around it. [...]

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In which I join the ‘hello readers!’ meme

Aimee Whitcroft — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:45:48 +0000

And it’s not just a cheerful greeting, either. Rather, it’s an encouragement for our blogs’ readers to step forward, say hi, and introduce themselves. Started, well, multiple times in various ways, the most recent instance thereof is superhero science blogger** Ed Yong resurrecting his own meme. ‘Cause you can do that when you’re kickass. Anyway, since then [...]

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Deep-sea critter madness: new species, new photos

Aimee Whitcroft — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:37:54 +0000

I love Wired.* I also love strange deep-sea critters, and brilliant photos of them. So this recent article in Wired is a quite a treat. Captured between 700 and 3,660 (or so) metres** deep along the mid-Atlantic ridge***, it showcases 10 new deepwater species which are intriguing scientists for a slew of different [...]

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Space geekiness: a lecture

Aimee Whitcroft — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:15:00 +0000

I really, really hate it when events don’t have an online presence. I like broadcasting things. Not to be able to do so easily, particularly when it’s something interesting, is upsetting. I have fitlets of pique thereover. As it were. Anyhoo, on to the point of this post: tomorrow, in Wellington, there’s going to be a lecture [...]

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Planck telescope’s first full-sky image of the universe

Aimee Whitcroft — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:19:23 +0000

A brief post, this, simply to alert everyone to this absolutely stunning image. The European Space Agency has a telescope called Planck. This marvellous technological beastie was sent about a million miles into space in August last year and proceeded to take the next ten months or so scanning the sky. Why? [...]

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A seriously impressive tree of life

Aimee Whitcroft — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:44:36 +0000

There’s been some interesting commentary on Sciblogs recently about the tree of life. As my part of the discussion (albeit an extremely brief one), I present you all with some major taxonomic madness*. A very, very detailed tree of life**. It was made by looking at the RNA sequences of about 3,000 species, with the aim [...]

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Mindbullets goodness: The Avatar Wars

Aimee Whitcroft — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 01:25:15 +0000

Does anyone else out there read Mind Bullets? If not, I’d thoroughly recommend it. Or else wait for me to occasionally post on it (when it’s appropriate to this forum). The most recent post certainly is. Mind Bullets, for the uninitiated, is part of the FutureWorlds network. Basically, a bunch of really interesting people like to cast [...]

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When art meets science – Wireless in your World

Aimee Whitcroft — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:13:49 +0000

This is what happens when art and science get together and make very beautiful motion infographic babies. We’re used to the idea that we’re surrounded by wifi networks (well, I hope we are). Still, have you ever actually tried to visual them all, and how they surround you and overlap with each other? I’ve not, to be [...]

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Quantum memory improves (vastly)

Aimee Whitcroft — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:00:43 +0000

Let’s hope I manage to explain this properly :) Firstly, a shoutout to a local – a University of Otago researcher was actually involved in this. Hooray! It means I get, not only to geek out, but to have pride in doing so. Always a nice feeling. So, on with the post. [...]

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Brief interlude: spoon

Aimee Whitcroft — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:39:51 +0000

So, because I realise I have been remiss in posting over the last few days*. And also because I’m currently writing something somewhat more complex: I bring you sciencey spoon-related humour. A word of introduction. Some time ago, in a country fairly far away, the BBC decided to implement a terrestrial version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to [...]

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Sciencey goodness Pt I

Aimee Whitcroft — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:40:57 +0000

Sometimes I am able to write posts on Friday. Sometimes not. At least part of the reason for this is that I spend my Thursday afternoons and Fridays (or at least parts thereof) research for and writing the SMC weekly newsletter. Which is awesome. And you should sign up! Why? Because it’s well interesting, of course. Peter [...]

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Distorted internal body maps, anyone?

Aimee Whitcroft — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:26:14 +0000

Our brains’ internal representations of ourselves are not, it would appear, quite as accurate as one would have thought. That, at least, is the conclusion of paper which just came out in the dangerously-acronymed PNAS*. To introduce the subject, then, let’s agree that it’s important for the brain to know where all our various physical bits are. [...]

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