Many cephalopods are master camouflagers. They can change their color to blend into the environment and hide from predators, communicate with each other, and even express happiness. Learn more about how cuttlefish create camouflage in this video: Don’t worry, my chromatophore-less friend. Like the flamboyant cuttlefish or the mimic octopus, you, too, can work on […]
Perhaps you’ve walked beside one of the giant, gently curving steel plates that make up a Richard Serra sculpture. Or maybe you’ve spent time gazing at one of Mark di Suvero’s angular, pick-up-stick arrangements of steel beams. Which of these artworks do you immediately prefer? Ed Connor, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, […]
The movie prop shop Jadis, in Santa Monica, California, is packed with ancient, long-forgotten technology: an Edison dictaphone, a typewriter-like counting machine, and quack medical devices like the 'Hemodimagnometer.' But you might recognize some of these oddities—they've appeared in movies such as The Mystery Men, The X-Files, and The Prestige. Parke Meek, an industrial designer who […]
Stars, bullet rosettes, dendrites, plates, needles, columns, and clusters—there’s scarcely a shape that a snowflake hasn’t formed. When they pack together into tall snowdrifts, it’s hard to imagine that each crystal is distinct, never to be seen again. But it’s true: No two snowflakes are alike, as the adage goes. The man who coined the […]
The following is an excerpt from Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science Is Redefining Contemporary Art, by Arthur I. Miller. Listen to SciFri on Friday, November 28, to hear Miller talk more about the book. In early 1960, an unlikely-looking pair of men were to be seen driving a Chevrolet convertible around the New Jersey […]
If you look through the telescope that photographer Alan Friedman used to take the image above, you’ll see only a hint of violet—if you see anything at all. Equipped with a calcium potassium filter, the telescope lets in radiation right on the edge of ultraviolet, which the eye can have a hard time distinguishing. Luckily, […]