I’ve just started reading the book Sway: The Irresistable Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman. They are two brothers who got into seemingly different fields of business and psychology, but found that there are really interesting ideas that tie the two together. I haven’t gotten that far in the book yetRead More
Category: Science
Swarming behavior of masses of living things
On May 18th, I went to a talk by Dr. Iain Couzin, hosted by the Secret Science Club at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Couzin’s lab at Princeton investigates collective animal behavior, some of which include fish schools, bird flocks, and locust swarms. This video shows predator and the prey swarms interacting. When the videoRead More
Defending wolves and worldviews
I like wolves. As a child, I loved the book “Julie of the Wolves” and as an adult I enjoyed the anime “Wolf’s Rain.” Wolves are some of the least understood of the predators that humans have pitted themselves against over the ages, others being sharks, bears, and large cats. One of the main reasonsRead More
Millennium Development Goals: global hunger and undernutrition
We may all be familiar with the face of hunger, but undernutrition may be more difficult to detect and treat. Last Tuesday, I attended a lecture by Dr. Jessica Fanzo of the Earth Institute’s Center for Global Health and Economic Development. She spoke about “Global Progress in Ending Hunger and Undernutrition.” Some symptoms of undernutritionRead More
Flourescent coral makes for really cool living scientific art
If I were ever to have a video as a desktop background, one of these would probably be it! (But I probably never would because it would use up too much electricity to keep it going.) Take a look: ‘Preener’ from MORPHOLOGIC on Vimeo. ‘Corynactis viridis’ from MORPHOLOGIC on Vimeo. These videos are from Morphologic,Read More
What could the Apple iPad do for science?
Last night, on the eve of what might be the most exciting Apple announcement this year, I wondered what a Mac slate or tablet could mean for scientists, researchers, and people in the field. Now with the iPad announced and the details of it released, here are some of my thoughts. The increased mobility ofRead More