ScienceOnline09

Saturday Dinner

2009-11-11T22:28:57-05:00

Dinner at the Radisson

The dinner on Saturday, after the entire day of sessions, will be at the Radisson Hotel across the street from Sigma Xi, where many of the guests are staying.

We have negotiated with the hotel for a nice buffet menu for $34, taxes and gratuity included. Limit is 200 people (so keep adding the numbers as you add your names). The menu can be found in this post at Abel’s.

Bar will have to be a cash bar but we’ll get good, inexpensive wine from our local experts the Wine Authorities.

Anton Zuiker
Bora Zivkovic
David Kroll
Janet Stemwedel
Erin Davis
Cathy Davies
Björn Brembs
Diana Pauly
Evelyn Lynge
James Hrynyshyn
Jennifer Williams
gg
Suzanne Franks
Katherine Haxton
Eva Amsen
Samia Ansari
Alex Lee
Bob O’Hara
Grrlscientist (??)
Elissa Hoffman
Sciencewoman
acmegirl
Anne-Marie
Corie Lok
Bill Hooker
John Dupuis
Sam Dupuis
Sol Lederman
Tom Levenson
Jason Robertshaw
Kevin Zelnio
Victor Henning
Megan Scudellari
Melissa Anley-Mills
Miriam Goldstein
Martin Fenner
Kevin Emamy
Christina Pikas
Andrew Su
Deepak Singh
~~Peggy Kolm~~
Peter Lipson
Jonathan Gitlin
Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
Matt Ford
Risha Zuckerman
Glendon Mellow
Carlos Hotta
Paula Signorini
Carol Winkelman
Chris Rowan
Michael Nielsen
Brian Switek
Tracey Switek
Betul Kacar
Stephanie Zvan
Ben Zvan
Lenore Ramm
Jonathan E. Tarr
Greg Laden
Andrea Novicki
Apryl Bailey
Arikia Millikan
Erin Johnson
Blake Stacey
Lou Shackleton
Cameron Neylon
~~Clark Boyd~~
Dave Munger
Greta Munger
Neeru Paharia
Vanessa Woods
Sheril Kirshenbaum
Christopher Perrien
Mike Bergin
Daniel Cressey
Salman Hameed
Peter Binfield
Alice Pawley
Nancy Shepherd
Mark Powell
Karen James
Joanne Manaster

Blog and Media Coverage

2009-03-11T01:33:38-05:00

Blog and Media Coverage

Monday, January 19th, and beyond:

Coverage of the anthology – Open Laboratory 2008:

A Blog Around The Clock
Living the Scientific Life
Neurotopia
Science After Sunclipse
White Coat Underground
The Beagle Project Blog
Marmorkrebs
Confessions of a Science Librarian
PodBlack Cat
The Digital Cuttlefish
Bad Astronomy
The OpenHelix Blog
Laelaps
Aardvarchaeology
Observations of a Nerd
The Oyster’s Garter
Space Cadet Girl
TalkingScience
The Flying Trilobite
Bayblab
Greg Laden
The Mr Science Show
Uncertain Principles
Skepchick
Pro-science
Life Sciences Info @ Imperial College London Library
remote central
Books, Inq. — The Epilogue
Tom Paine’s Ghost
Catalogue of Organisms
Page 3.14
Sciencewomen
Hope for Pandora
Michael Nielsen
Mind the Gap
.
Sunday, January 18th, 2009:

The Logical Operator: Not-so-live blogging Science Online ‘09
The Logical Operator: Science Fiction on Science Blogs – Science Online ‘09, Day 1
The End Of The Pier Show: Lines Written At 1.20 am ET Sunday 18 January
The End Of The Pier Show: Prevarication, 7.30 am ET, Sunday 18 January
Highly Allochthonous: ScienceOnline Day 1: generalised ramblings
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted): Nature Blogging 101
White Coat Underground: Carolina dreamin’
Makroskop, laboratorium przyszłości: Science Online ‘09
The Flying Trilobite: ScienceOnline09 – my bouncing brain
The Flying Trilobite: ScienceOnline09 – Art & Science afterword
Deep Thoughts and Silliness: Semi-live Blogging Scienceonline09: Day 2
Gobbledygook: ScienceOnline09: Providing public health and medical information to all
business|bytes|genes|molecules: Rethinking Wikipedia
FairerScience Weblog: Gender, Race and Oversized Postcards
Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets: Science Online 09: In Praise Of Connections
Open Reading Frame: Another wonderful conference
Southern Fried Science: Thoughts on ScienceOnline’09
Rastro de Carbono: Filosofando sobre divulgação e jornalismo científico
Brontossauros em meu jardim: Importante! Boas e más notícias!
A Blog Around The Clock: ScienceOnline09 – Thursday and Friday
A Blog Around The Clock: ScienceOnline’09 – Saturday blogging
A Blog Around The Clock: ScienceOnline’09 – Sunday blogging
A Blog Around The Clock: ScienceOnline’09 – How was it for you?
Raio-X: Lablogatórios no ScienceOnline’09
The Real Paul Jones: Science Online 09, The Opposite(s) of Property, Steam Power and Carrboro Obama Fest
Expression Patterns: I’m asleep right now
business|bytes|genes|molecules: ScienceOnline’09: The return journey
Neurotopia 2.0: ScienceOnline ’09 and some Housekeeping
Biochemicalsoul: ScienceOnline09 – Warm, Fuzzy Feelings
Mistersugar: ScienceOnline’09 is pau hana
Bioephemera: Art vs. Science, Part One: Semiconductor

Saturday, January 17th, 2009:

Sciencewomen: Overwhelmed at ScienceOnline 2009
Sciencewomen: Open Access publishing at ScienceOnline 2009
Sciencewomen: Alice’s gender and science session: How can we be allies?
Sciencewomen: ScienceOnline09: The day wends on
Highly Allochthonous: Liveblogging from ScienceOnline…
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted): What Happened to Tangled Bank?
Adventures in Ethics and Science: ScienceOnline’09: Managing your online persona through transitions.
Culture Dish: Documents for my ScienceOnline 09 Getting Published Talk
The End Of The Pier Show: Lines on Coffee-Cupping at Counter Culture Coffee, Durham, NC
Thoughts from Kansas: Synchronicity
The Intersection: Weekend At ScienceOnline’09
Endless Possibilities v2.0: ScienceOnline’09
Charles Darwin’s blog: A glass of sherry in the direction of those
The End Of The Pier Show: Lines on the First Morning of ScienceOnline09
Deep Thoughts and Silliness: Semi-live Blogging Scienceonline09: Day 1
10000birds: Talking Blog Carnivals at ScienceOnline09
bjoern.brembs.net: ScienceOnline09: Open Notebook Science
bjoern.brembs.net: ScienceOnline09: Midway in the first day
bjoern.brembs.net: ScienceOnline09: Social Networks for Scientists
Crowded Head, Cozy Bed: Science Online Notes
Pondering Pikaia: ScienceOnline09 Conference Update
Physics for girls?: ScienceOnline ’09
HASTAC blogs: Liveblogging ScienceOnline ’09: Coffee Cupping Event
HASTAC blogs: Liveblogging ScienceOnline ’09: Race in Science Online and Offline
HASTAC blogs: Liveblogging ScienceOnline ’09: Anonymity and Pseudonymity – Building Reputation Online
HASTAC blogs: Liveblogging Science Online ’09: Social networks for scientists
UDreamOfJanie: Lounging About

Friday, January 16th, 2009:

Etherized: ScienceOnline09 Conference in Raleigh, NC
Adventures in Ethics and Science: ScienceOnline’09: Liveblogging Coffee Cupping at Counter Culture Coffee
Gobbledygook: ScienceOnline09: Providing public health and medical information to all
Greg Laden: Live Blogging the NC ScienceOnline 09 Conference
The End Of The Pier Show: Lines Written Over Breakfast, Friday 16 January
Greg Laden: Janie Belle has Entered the Building
Laelaps: Made it!
Expression Patterns: Friday Fermentable Liveblog
Deep Thoughts and Silliness: ScienceOnline09: live-blogging the wine tasting
Bioephemera: ScienceOnline09!
Adventures in Ethics and Science: ScienceOnline’09: Liveblogging Coffee Cupping at Counter Culture Coffee.
Adventures in Ethics and Science: ScienceOnline’09: Liveblogging a Friday Fermentable wine-tasting.
Sciencewomen: Friday Night at ScienceOnline
Pharyngula: Heat wave!
Science After Sunclipse: ScienceOnline’09: The Conference That Rhymes
Thesis – with Children: ScienceOnline’09
Urban Science Adventures!: ScienceOnline09 Conference Begins
Thesis – with Children: Liveblogging – with Wine
Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets: Science Online 09: The Limitations Of Iconography
bjoern.brembs.blog: ScienceOnline09: FridayFermentable liveblogging wine tasting
bjoern.brembs.blog: ScienceOnline09: WiSE Rebecca Skloot lecture
The Flying Trilobite: Arrival at ScienceOnline ’09
FairerScience Weblog: Waiting for the wine tasting
Mistersugar: ScienceOnline’09 is on
Pondering Pikaia: In Which I Venture North for Blog Fun
Endless Forms: In Which I Venture North for Blog Fun
Urban Science Adventures!: Discussing Diversity in Science – online and offline
A Blog Around The Clock: ScienceOnline09 – Thursday and Friday
Lecturer Notes: Between a Lemur and a bottle of wine
Lecturer Notes: The Friday Fermentable…
Christina’s LIS Rant: Science Online ’09: Friday Night
The path forward: leigh is a busy, busy bee!
AlexLey.com: SO’09: Rebecca Skloot & Henrietta Lacks

Thursday, January 15th, 2009:

Thoughts from Kansas: Deep ScienceOnline ’09 Thoughts
Laelaps: Almost time for Science Online ’09!
Deep Sea News: Out of the Depths, We are Reborn! (again)
Adventures in Ethics and Science: On my way to ScienceOnline’09
The Beagle Project Blog: ScienceOnline09 on my mind
Biology in Science Fiction: I’m Sorry I’ll Be Missing ScienceOnline09
The Oyster’s Garter: Off to Science Online 2009
Urban Science Adventures!: ScienceOnline09 Conference Begins
Lecturer Notes: SO’09 I’ve Arrived
Greg Laden: Live Blogging the NC ScienceOnline 09 Conference
Deep Thoughts and Silliness: Arrived in NC
Cephalopodcast: The Invertebrate Wars Redux
Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets: Science Online 09: A Field Guide
Highly Allochthonous: Coming to America
Skulls in the Stars: Off to ScienceOnline ‘09!

.
Additional coverage can be found on FriendFeed on Twitter and (pictures) on Flickr. –

======================

Before the Conference:

History of Science

2009-01-27T15:55:26-05:00

Web and the History of Science

This session is moderated by GG, Brian Switek and Scicurious:

Why is History of Science important for scientists? How to blog about it. How does Open Access and the Web in general (Google Books in particular, for example) help/hinder the work of professional historians of science?

Discuss:

Hi folks, gg here! I thought I’d open the discussion of the history of science by polling our panel the following questions:

1. How did you get interested in blogging about the history of science?
2. How do you find the historical articles that you write about?
3. What do you personally find important about studying science history?

Now, to answer my own questions…

gg(skullsinthestars):
1. How did you get interested in blogging about the history of science? My thesis advisor has always been very interested in scientific history, and his enthusiasm spread to me. When I started blogging, I decided to write a post about the history of measuring the speed of light, and in the process I realized that Fizeau’s original paper was not readily available online. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I found the paper, translated it, and learned a lot of fascinating detail about an experiment that is usually described in passing in a paragraph in physics books. I was also a little in awe: here I was, reading about a groundbreaking scientific measurements from the original source. I decided to challenge others to do their own history of science blogging and the rest, as they say, is history.

2. How do you find the historical articles that you write about? A lot of the time I find articles through my other blogging interest: classic pulp fantasy/horror blogging! Weird fiction of the late 1800s/early 1900s often references the scientific work of the time, and I’ve come across lots of fascinating, obscure articles just by tracking down the references!

3. What do you personally find important about studying science history? In science classes, we often learn what a scientist has discovered, but not why they discovered it in that form. This additional context is important for understanding; for instance, the Bohr model of the atom is usually introduced as the first ‘quantum’ model of the atom, but it is immediately dismissed as incorrect and inaccurate. Why do we teach it, then? Looking at the attempts to determine atomic structure of the era, one sees that Bohr’s ‘intermediate’ model was a necessary intellectual step in the process of developing quantum mechanics.

What do the rest of you think?

scicurious
1) How did you get interested in blogging about the history of science?
I first got involved in history of science blogging when gg posted his history of science blogging challenge! I immediately thought of two or three things that I would really love to blog about. But it wasn’t just a one-time thing. I’m really interested in making complicated science easy to understand, and the history of science contains the best material. The science we do today is based on all the science that went before it, and some of the stuff we talk about is so old we’ve stopped citing it. But people outside of science don’t know the “basic” stuff that we talk about like it’s gospel. When I blog old scientific papers, I can take this old stuff and show people how it relates to the medicine and science they see around them every day, how a few key experiments founded entire fields studied by thousands, even millions, of people. And besides, there’s not a lot that’s more inspiring to future scientists than seeing the amazing things that people did back when science wasn’t a profession, but a hobby.

2) How do you find the historical articles that you write about?
A couple of places have really good aggregations of historical science in neuroscience and psychology. I’m a big fan of the historical archive on the Society for Neuroscience website, as well as Classics in the History of Psychology. And sometimes I’ll just Pubmed a keyword I’m interested in, find the oldest thing availible, and go from there.

3) What do you personally find important about studying science history?
I think it’s really important to know your roots, to know how we found out the things that we now think of as so incredibly basic. Knowing the real basis for your field puts the whole thing in context, and makes you keep the big picture in mind, which is something that can get lost in your lab work. And it’s really inspiring to think of those guys, doing science in their off-time because curiosity just wouldn’t let them quit.

Hey everyone, Brian here…

I think at some point we should do a little “demonstration” of how to look for history of science stuff on the web via resources like Google Books, archive. org, etc. Nothing major, but just something to show people useful resources and how easy it is to copy/paste illustrations and bits of text to posts. It also might be worthwhile to mention things like the “Turning the Pages Project” that are pretty neat. (http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2008/11/awww_yeah.php) In general, I think we should spend at least some time talking about digitization projects.

Maybe we should come up with a little demonstration on “How to blog the history of science” or something similar. We definitely shouldn’t just be chatting with each other for the whole time. Maybe we should pick out a few really good posts to show “how its done”, mention The Giant’s Shoulders, and show people a few practical things in addition to commenting on why history of science blogging is important.

As for the questions, here are my answers;

1. How did you get interested in blogging about the history of science?

The essays of Stephen Jay Gould inspired me to start reading more books on the history of science by authors like Adrian Desmond and Michael Rudwick. What I read about largely dictates what I write about on my blog, and so it was a natural sort of transition.

2. How do you find the historical articles that you write about?

I don’t often write about historical articles as much as I write about ideas, people, or particular events. In fact, I think I spend more time talking about public perception of science and historical science pop culture than the history of scientific ideas. Usually I just pop in some search terms (like “Pithecanthropus”, “devolution”, “chimpanzee”, etc.) into Google Books and tell it to return full-view only documents. I browse through what is returned until something interests me, at which point I look for more information on that particular topic. Other times I already have an idea (like my vague recollection about a pygmy kept at the Bronx Zoo) and I try to track down that information.

3. What do you personally find important about studying science history?

So much of what I had been taught about the history of science was wrong. It is far more interesting and complex than I ever imagined, but people today have a tendency to put their heroes on pedestal and demonize their enemies. By looking at science in a historical context, though, we can trace the development and interconnection of different ideas and gain a better appreciation for what was, at one time or another, cutting-edge science. It also teaches the lesson that even though we have come a long way, science is not a dispassionate process carried about by 100% objective robots. People have biases and are influenced by factors outside the small community of science, and who knows what future historians might write about us!

Note by gg: I wrote up some of my thoughts about the session at my blog here. The (very skeletal) slide presentation I used at the talk can be found there, as well.

Apryl Bailey: SciVee.tv

2009-01-24T21:32:01-05:00

Description:
SciVee or http://www.scivee.tv is a science video sharing website where researchers can upload, view and share science video clips and connect them to scientific literature, posters and slide presentations.

Feel free to contact Apryl with any questions regarding SciVee or post your questions and comments here.

Possible Discussion Ideas:
1) Statement: The research community is ripe for a revolution in scientific communication and the current generation of scientists will be the one to push it forward. These scientists, generally graduate students and new post-docs, have grown up with cyberinfrastructure as a part of their daily lives, not just a specialized aspect of their profession. They have a natural ability to do science in an electronic environment without the need for printed publications or static documents and, in fact, can feel quite limited by the traditional format of a publication. Perhaps most importantly, they appreciate that the sheer amount of data and the number of publications is prohibitive to the traditional methods of keeping current with the literature.

Question: Do science bloggers today believe this is true and if so, how do science bloggers see the progression happening in good and/or bad ways on science video sites like SciVee?

2) Statement: Peer-reviewed publications have long been the currency of scientific research as they are the fundamental unit through which scientists communicate and evaluate each other. However, in striking contrast to the data they describe, publications have yet to benefit from the opportunities offered by cyberinfrastructure and Web 2.0 applications. Publishers have done well using cyberinfrastructure to distribute publications, but have not fully explored the range of possibilities. Fortunately, with the growing movement of open access literature, we now have new ways in which to disseminate scientific publications.

Question: How could science video sites like SciVee better support scientific blogging and communication in general?

3) Statement: At scientific conferences, poster sessions are a popular venue where current scientific research endeavors and results are presented for often the first time. The researchers who stand alongside their paper poster and explain their work in short verbal presentations answer any questions posed by interested conference attendees. This transient information that is shared live, or “in the moment” is often left undocumented. The poster frequently ends up hanging on the hallway wall at the presenter office or university. Current research shared via poster presentations at conferences could be better retained in digital form for broader audiences online.

How are some of the first strides received? Could sharing poster presentations online provoke more world wide collaboration? What issues would scientists face with sharing their new research ideas prior to publication?

Slides from the panel discussion presentation

Science blogging without the blog

2009-01-23T03:51:50-05:00

Science blogging without the blog?

This session is moderated by Matt Ford and Jonathan Gitlin:

How to run a blog for your science organization. Or write blog-like pieces in a different platform. This would be about the possibilities involved in blog-like writing for commercial ventures – what do you give up compared to a blog, what do you gain?

Discuss:

This session will focus on methods of getting both scientific results to members of the public, as well as getting the public interested in science through means other than the conventional blog.

New communication channels—under the moniker of Web 2.0— have the potential to open a new wide range of ways to bring science into the public sphere. We will look at five different examples of organizations, and delivery methods by means other than a traditional blog.

Some examples we have in mind are:

NASA JPL’s use of Twitter during the Mars rover mission
Nature Publishing Group’s video archive
APS Physics News Ticker for other bloggers/journalists
Using YouTube and online video for promoting ideas and results
Reporting science on a news site as opposed to a blog

While we have a few topics in mind for discussion, we welcome all participants to bring their own ideas, and have an open conversation on non-traditional, and non-blog methods of getting science to the public via the internet.

Here are some of the links that various people suggested (as well as links for the topics we highlighted):
http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix
http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/
http://www.apsphysicsnewsticker.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM (LHC Rap video)
http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars (our science column)
http://arstechnica.com

Suggestions made by participants:
http://friendfeed.com/
http://www.seaturtle.org/
http://www.amazon.com/Marantz-PMD620-Handheld-MP3-Recorder/dp/B000Z8CUX2 (Marantz 620 voice recorder that was discussed)
http://www.zemanta.com/
http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php
http://mrtweet.net/
http://www.crayonphysics.com/

Thanks to all who attended and participated, it was a great session.

Live Coverage

2009-01-22T20:29:25-05:00

Live Coverage of Science Online ’09

Video live-stream came from Cameron Neylon via Mogulus

Art and science

2009-01-22T11:09:13-05:00

Art and science — online and offline

This session is moderated by Glendon Mellow:

Art is not just illustration. And it is not the opposite of science (“Two Cultures”). How can the two work together and help each other?
Discuss:
Post-Conference Updates Below! Most recent update: 22 Jan 2009
Check out Jessica Palmer’s thought-provoking post about science-art and the responsibility of authenticity!

This topic has also been reproduced here on my blog. Many excellent responses can be found.

5 types of science-related art
Here are some rough categories of science-related art for use as starting points. (My bias is showing: many are biology and painting related.)

1. Scientific Illustration – Examples:
Carl Buell – visualizing extinct mammals, including ancestors to whales,
Jacqueline Rae- clarification of complex anatomy,
Carel Brest Van Kempen – intimate portraits of the natural world,
Michael Skrepnick – in this example, how many of us think of sci illustration, as depicting dinosaurs for popular education,
Emily Damstra – diagram of a life cycle to educate,
Albrecht Durer – an early appreciation of form for its own sake,
many artists’ work at the Guild of Natural Scientific Illustrators.

2. Science Fine Art & Design – Examples:
Felice Frankel- design of images for communication,
Wim Delvoye – particularly the Cloaca an installation which consumes, digests and expels,
Marc Quinn – a self-portrait made from the artist’s own frozen blood, Self.

3. Art inspired by scientific subjects – Examples:
Dali’s Crucifixion,
Leopard Frog by Tanja Sova,
Aposematism by Jessica Palmer,
Haldane’s Precambrian Puzzle by Glendon Mellow,
Yellow by Jacqueline Rae,
portraits by Archimboldo.

4. Art inspired by scientific technique – Examples:
D.N.A. portraits by Lynn Fellman,
the field of op art,
the practice of Trompe l’oeil (fooling the eye),
solarization photography of Man Ray,
warped perspective of a skull in the vanitas portrait The Ambassadors, by Holbein

5. Speculative science art & science fiction – Examples:
Snaiad world by Nemo Ramjet,
Dinotopia by James Gurney,
Speculative Dinosaur Project,
art in many Dougal Dixon books, such as Man After Man,
Expedition by Wayne Barlowe.

Discussion questions:

-Is art parasitic on science? Does art ever inspire science or lead science to new areas of inquiry?

-Can art about science ever have a paradigm-shaking impact on culture, science and the world? Could there be the artsy equivalent of The Origin of Species?

-Is art about science beneficial to the public or confusing issues in science?

-Art is often based on allegory and symbols, by their nature inaccurate; science often strives for accuracy and precision. Is it possible to make wholly accurate art?

-Should it be possible to inject more skepticism into the often ‘New Agey’ art world of artistic subjects? Technique often relies on innovative technologies, media and materials; should this be a starting point?

-How much scientific content is there in your local art gallery? Is science obviously intended as villain, savior, or inspiration?

Diverging Complexity? *
The local apothecary was once a place to purchase medicinal ingredients as well as painter’s pigments, (and both share the same patron Saint as a result, Saint Luke the Apostle). In the Renaissance, the techniques of medicine and science and the techniques of artists were increasing in complexity.

Today, it can be suggested* that fine art has largely decreased in technical complexity, while science and medicine continue to specialize and gain complexity. For example,
fine art today can include whole animals in formaldehyde or casts of packaging, whereas in science and technology, we can manipulate cells or visualize planets orbiting another star.

Is the modern divide in technical complexity real?
If so, is it primarily responsible for the common notion of art and science as “two cultures”?

*Thanks to Eva Amsen for bringing up the diverging complexity topic.

Please feel free to log in and respond below, or at The Flying Trilobite, or by email, theflyingtrilobite at gmail ~~dot~~ com.

Art & Science Afterword

(Thanks to Jason Robertshaw of Cephalopodcast, we had images on the screen! I was totally flummoxed by the projections, which is always an inspiring way to stand in front of a crowd. Jason let my mouth and brain work and kept my hands from messing with the keyboard. Thanks, man.)

After glancing through some of the examples and attempting to throw some definitions on-screen, the discussions in this unconference began. Some points (and further questions to explore!) that stood out:

-Movies such as Jurassic Park have done a lot to inspire science down specific paths (could a T-Rex catch that jeep?)

-Despite the success of movies, visual (static) art inspiring areas of research remains elusive. The example by Andy of The Open Source Paleontologist notwithstanding, the question remains: can art inspire new areas of research? With any sort of regularity?

-The question of whether art and science are separate cultures about to come back or not is one that we were reminded happens over and over, perhaps every twenty years or so. I wonder then, is the relationship between art and science something that stands out against the backdrop of history better than standing inside one’s own culture?

-How much of nano-imaging, for example, could be taken seriously by the fine art world? Could it be taken seriously?

-When scientists choose how to image data captured about objects in space, algal blooms and so on, they must have some knowledge of colour theory and make artistic decisions.

-When I inquired as to how many people working in science in the room ever sketched out a visual, back-of-the-napkin sort of thing, many people raised their hands. Anyone willing or able to share? I’d love to post a few examples at [url=“http://glendonmellow.blogspot.com” ]The Flying Trilobite

-Many people knew of terrific examples of art and scientists co-mingling in provocative ways! Please send me links in the comments or by email, and I’ll publish them here.

- We left with an open suggestion: how could each person in the room involved art or an artist in their area of research? Please email me, days, months or years from now if you follow through!

Thanks to the excellent group that coalesced in room C, and thanks to the people who cornered me variously at the conference and dinner afterward to discuss the issues further. Please feel free to add any links below that were mentioned at the session!

Links:
Art Vs. Science, Part One at Bioephemera – the veneer of scientific authenticity clashes with artistic tension with its subject matter. And the loopedy-loop ‘magnetic’ lines are wicked-awesome.

“The Plight of the Pleistocene Poet”[/url] on Laelaps. Cavepainting & poetry.

How to search scientific literature

2009-01-21T03:50:15-05:00

How to search scientific literature

This session is moderated by Christina Pikas and John Dupuis:

There are so many nifty tricks and strategies for searching the literature that an average scientist is not aware of. So: Ask the experts – the science librarians!

Please feel free to tell us what you want to know or if you just want to be amazed and astounded by our cool finds.

Discuss:

Think it would be great if you would cover the roll of RSS feeds and aggregation of such (e.g. http://www.medworm.com/, or http://alltop.com/) from the perspective of utility to the end user and frequency of use by non-scientists. Posted by: nshepherd

I’m not sure whether you will be covering how Chemists can search the literature by chemical structure and substructure but if you are interested in some input on that feel free to contact me. Posted By: ChemSpiderman

~~~~

Sorry for the lack of a projector!
The slides apparently can’t be embedded here, but you can see them at this link.

paint your own blog

2009-01-21T03:35:58-05:00

How to paint your own blog images

This how-to session is led by Tatjana Jovanovic-Grove and Glendon Mellow:

Tatjana and Glendon would like to thank everyone for an interesting session! Post-conference notes below!

Take this workshop by a couple of professional artists and get started on illustrating your blog with your own art. Bring questions! Bring images! Bring tips!
(Thanks to Jessica Palmer for many of the notes below and her help with the direction of this workshop! We miss you!)

Discuss:

Visuals in any media are important, and can enhance a blog and hook the reader. We invite attendees to bring artwork or photo jpeg files we can work with, and questions about images online!

You don’t have to be a professionally trained artist to generate clear, information-rich images on a science blog. For example, take a look at the excellent, lucid illustrations done by two science bloggers who have never had formal artistic training at When Pigs Fly Returns and The Disillusioned Taxonomist. Dive in! Find a medium you are comfortable in, and make your blog pop.

Illustrating, painting or adding photos to a blog or website also doesn’t have to be a heavy investment in computer software and equipment. Before purchasing an amazing program like Adobe Photoshop (Glendon goes on and on), why not get your feet wet? Many free imaging resources exist online, such as Gimp, Fast Stone and Easy Graphic Converter.

We’d like to focus on how to best display art on your blog or website. Points may include:

Generating digital art
-scan actual artwork (dealing with large size, texture, etc)
-fix minor defects (in Photoshop, etc.)
-edit (in Photoshop, etc.)
-add text (in Photoshop, etc)
-use layers to merge images (in Photoshop, etc) – useful for watermarks, signatures, etc.
-tweak contrast, color
-resize to web-appropriate size (the importance of pixels)
-save for web, the most important tool you can use, at least in Glendon’s opinion!

Blogger-specific issues
-how do you work images into your blog – sidebar, header?
-structure a post around an image/how to let your image anchor your post
-using images to hook a reader – the importance of surprise and humor!
-Creative Commons Licences – what are they for?
-deal with copyright and rights; cite images you are using, and what constitutes fair use?

Working with scientific data
-designing an artwork to convey an idea vs. designing a straight up table or graph
-how to enhance your data visually – without crapifying it with extraneous garbage
-being smart about fonts/labels/legends – size, readability, pixellation, color, design elements
-giving your data a visual context so people can understand it
-etc. (think Edward Tufte type points)

Turning scientific data into images or figures palatable for the nonspecialist, with a dash of creativity!

Post-Conference Notes

Thanks everyone!

We’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to email Glendon questions at theflyingtrilobite (@) gmail (dot) com. Keep an eye on The Flying Trilobite for more tips post-conference. (Safe-for-work tips.)

Kevin Emamy: CiteULike

2009-01-20T01:46:57-05:00

CiteULike

Discuss:

Kevin~
Do you have a small bookmark icon/code that we can use to add to all the video pages on SciVee? I know you mentioned this, and I looked on your site but the one I found was a larger icon that will not fit. We need one of the mini icons like the ones we have available on the general tab of all video pages.
~Apryl