Ultraviolet light reveals how ancient Greek statues really looked
Ultraviolet light reveals how ancient Greek statues really looked. It’s always interesting when the latest technology and ancient history collide. It turns out many of those pristine white Greek statues were originally brightly painted, and the reason they’re not colored is that the paint’s just worn away over the years. In the link above, Gizmodo […]
How Big Are Historical Things, Really?
How Big Are Historical Things, Really? BBC has this fascinating website that allows you to overlay a whole bunch of things over any map you choose (based on your zip code of choice). That includes historical things like the Great Wall of China, as well as more contemporary things like the current Gulf Oil Spill. […]
An Enchanting Time-Lapse Look at the Greatest Show in Space
An Enchanting Time-Lapse Look at the Greatest Show in Space. Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo. Beautiful time-lapse video of the recent Perseid meteor shower. Pretty awe-inspiring. [Via Gizmodo]
Regulating genetic testing, understanding probabilities, and knowing the future
Should we regulate people’s access to their own genome data?. More on the issue of regulating personal genetic testing, by Ars Technica‘s John Timmer. The headline is a bit misleading, since the issue is more about whether the “Direct-to-Consumer” (DTC) genetic testing industry should be regulated like any other medical tests or not. Definitely worth […]
Bad Astronomy and some drawbacks to personal DNA testing
A few quick things that I’ve been meaning to write about for a while: I’ve added a link to the Bad Astronomy blog by one of my favorite astronomers/debunkers of pseudoscience. Always an enjoyable read, and another example of how to run a good blog. And today’s post mentioned the Amazing Randi, with some links […]
Virology institute working on curing cancer
More recent freelance work for the Institute of Human Virology (IHV). Interestingly, this time both articles were on cancer! What do viruses have to do with cancer? Well, as Dr. Robert Gallo, Head of the IHV mentioned, it wasn’t long ago that no one thought cancers had infectious causes, but now 20-25% of all cancers […]
Out of Elements
I worked on one of my favorite articles and infographics for the June 2010 issue of Popular Science, on the elements that we couldn’t do without. It brought back memories of high-school and college chemistry, and the infographic itself involves a periodic table. It was interesting to even think of the fact that we do […]
Another long hiatus – lots to catch up
Well, it’s been a while since I made time to blog (Should be able to get back to something approaching regularity from today). To get things up to speed, here’s a stunning picture by the Hubble Space Telescope; see below for more links sites celebrating 20 years of Hubble. Been busy, doing some more freelance […]
The Internet for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize?
Internet for Peace The fact that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize last year has apparently inspired the largest number of Nobel Peace Prize nominees this year, including…The Internet! From the Internet for Peace website, the Internet is “the biggest social interface ever known to humanity”, and has “laid the foundations for a new kind […]
See Paris from your Desktop
Come see Paris–in 26 gigapixels | The Digital Home – CNET News. Ok, it’s not quite the same as seeing all the sights and sounds of Paris in person, but it’s still pretty fun to see this extremely detailed digital version – in all its 26 Gigapixel glory. The site also allows users to focus […]