Monthly Archives: January 2008

Sentient Life Discovered On Mars!

January 23, 2008UncategorizedCosmosGreg Laden

Careful scanning of recent Mars rover imagery shows a sentient being. The best explanation for this is that the sentient being or beings have been following around the Spirit Rover for some time, always ducking behind a rock when the cameras swung their way. But this photograph shows a sentient being caught in the act: Continue reading Sentient Life Discovered On Mars! →

Theo Jansen: The art of creating creatures

January 22, 2008UncategorizedRobotsGreg Laden

Dutch artist Theo Jansen demonstrates his amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures, built from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His “Strandbeests” (Beach Creatures) are built to move and even survive on their own.

Continue reading Theo Jansen: The art of creating creatures →

Tierney Thys: Swim with giant sunfish in the open ocean

January 22, 2008UncategorizedEvolutionary BiologyGreg Laden

Marine biologist Tierney Thys asks the audience to step into the open ocean, for a visit to the world of the Mola mola, or giant ocean sunfish. Basking, eating jellyfish, and getting massages, this behemoth offers clues to life in the open ocean — which accounts for 90 percent of the living space on this planet — and also shows how climate change may be affecting all life.

Continue reading Tierney Thys: Swim with giant sunfish in the open ocean →

Pilobolus: A performance merging dance and biology

January 22, 2008UncategorizedAnatomyGreg Laden

Pilobolus dance company members Otis Cook and Jennifer Macavinta perform the sensuous duet “Symbiosis.” Does it trace the birth of a human relationship, or the co-evolution of a pair of symbiotic species? That’s left for you to decide. Gorgeous, organic choreography blurs the boundaries between the two performers, who use the body’s own geometry to lift, move and combine. The music, recorded by the Kronos Quartet on Nonesuch Records, is a compilation of works: “God Music” from Black Angels by George Crumb, “Fratres” by Arvo PÃ¤rt, and “Morango … Almost a Tango” by Thomas Oboe Lee.

Continue reading Pilobolus: A performance merging dance and biology →

Look Around You – 6 – Music

January 22, 2008UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

Look Around You – Computer Games

January 22, 2008UncategorizedUncategorizedGreg Laden

The Beagle Project: Endorsed by a pantheon of Science Bloggers…

January 22, 2008UncategorizedDarwin, Evolution, HomeschoolingGreg Laden

You are going to be hearing a lot more about Darwin in the month of February, which is Darwin Month here on The Internet. (It is also Creationist Home Schooling Science Fair month, so hang on to your mice and keyboards!!!!) I have a Darwin plan of my own that you will be learning of soon enough.

In the mean time, I wanted to remind you of the Beagle Project:

We aim to celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday by building a sailing replica of HMS Beagle and recreating the Voyage of the Beagle with an international crew of researchers, aspiring scientists and science communicators. The voyage will apply the techniques of 21st century science to Darwin’s journey, inspiring a new generation of scientists and promoting the public understanding of evolution and wider science.

Please go visit their site, help them out!

Especially, have a look at this post latest item indicating top referral sources to the Beagle Project site.

Ant Nest Excavation

January 22, 2008UncategorizedEvolutionary BiologyGreg Laden

The narration is annoying, but it is a good example of fieldwork (with ants)

The Robots Lie!

January 21, 2008UncategorizedTechnologyGreg Laden

Holy crap! The Age of The Machines is nigh: a bunch of scientists in Switzerland have created learning robots that can lie to each other. Okay, so they don’t swill beer or put bends in girders–they just communicate to each other with benign flashing lights, thank goodness, instead of using lasers to destroy humans:The team at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Federal Institute of Technology created the little experimental learning devices to work in groups and hunt for “food” targets nearby while avoiding “poison.” Imagine their surprise when one generation of robots learned to signal lies about the poison, sending opponents to their doom.

Read the rest here.