Jean Balchin • Apr 05, 2018 •
Last week, the results of the Science Media Centre Video Competition was judged. It was an incredible competition, open to previous participants of the SMC’s science video workshops. There were eight entries, and the judges were incredibly impressed with the creativity and quality of the entries. I was fortunate enough to watch all eight entries and chat to a … Read More
Michelle Dickinson • Mar 16, 2018 •
Humans have marked their bodies with permanent tattoos for thousands of years to show off their social status, religious beliefs, declarations of love or just an appreciation of art. For years tattoos were thought to stay in the skin because a dye was injected deep into the dermal layer of the skin staining the skin cells or fibroblasts located there. … Read More
Guest Work • Jan 18, 2018 •
Henry Adams, Case Western Reserve University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Mathematics and art are generally viewed as very different disciplines – one devoted to abstract thought, the other to feeling. But sometimes the parallels between the two are uncanny. From Islamic tiling to the chaotic patterns of Jackson … Read More
Guest Work • Aug 17, 2017 •
By Craig Stevens and Gabby O’Connor When artists and scientists get together, creative sparks can fly. Collaborative sci-art projects are increasingly popular and one obvious benefit is the greater visibility of the research through the artist’s work. Our project explored scientific and artistic aspects of Antarctic ice crystals. But what’s in it for the … Read More
Jean Balchin • May 11, 2017 •
A pastel portrait of Gunner John Dyson by Henry Tonks in 1917, depicting the pioneering skill of Harold Gillies’s surgery. As an art history student, I am often asked to describe or praise artworks I’m not particularly fond of. This strangely captivating pastel portrait is not one of them. It reminds me of a softer Egon Schiele portrait, or deftly … Read More
Public Health Expert • Apr 12, 2017 •
Jenny Ombler, Dr Sarah Donovan (University of Otago, Wellington) Last month was the first time that the Public Health Summer School (University of Otago, Wellington) has considered art, and its relationship to public health. The Symposium featured artists, arts academics, an architect, and public health practitioners and academics. In this blog we consider some of the issues raised … Read More
Guest Work • Jan 01, 2017 •
French artist-provocateur Marcel Duchamp may have been on to something when he displayed a commercially-manufactured urinal signed by ‘R. Mutt’ as ‘art’ in his famous 1917 work ‘Fountain’, if a Dutch study published in September is anything to go by. The scientists say that just believing something is ‘art’ can completely change the way we perceive and respond … Read More
Guest Work • Dec 16, 2015 •
Harriet Hawkins, Royal Holloway Something needs to be done about climate change, that much at least 196 countries agree on. But as the next weeks, months and years see politicians, scientists and industry thrashing out what the “first comprehensive global treaty to combat climate change” means in practice, we collectively face some tough questions. The wrangling … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Aug 07, 2015 •
The first issue of Lateral Magazine is out. It features—what else—‘firsts’: “from childhood memories to the first world war, to breakthroughs in human genome editing to our first close look at Pluto, to the origins of science fiction cinema.” Categories include Art & Popular Culture, Life Science, Physical Science, Society & Education, and Philosophy … Read More
Aaron Schiff • Apr 08, 2015 •
The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index reflects health, education, and income levels for most countries of the world over time. As part of the Cartagena Data Festival, the UN is running a competition for visualisations of the HDI data. I decided to put together an entry, which you can play with here. The […] … Read More