More About Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers

The Economist just ran a short piece on the ivory-billed woodpecker, and whether it might not have gone extinct after all. I just love this story: as I have written before, it's like learning that the dodo might still exist somewhere on Earth.

Image is courtesy of Corbis / National Geographic

Euclid in the Rainforest -- Book Review

Euclid in the Rainforest: Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math by Joseph Mazur
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really, really wanted to like this book. The table of contents sounded so interesting: infinity! logic! how math pertains to reality! But, the further I got into the book, the more frustrated I became. Each section -- infinity, logic, and reality -- contains several chapters, but it's never clear to the reader how each chapter relates to the overarching theme. Moreover, each chapter itself seemed just like a collection of math-related stories, one after the other, with no obvious link. (I'm sure there *were* links, but I would have had to work to find them.) Also -- and this may seem like a nit-picking critique -- the weak topic sentences really got in the way of my understanding each paragraph. Topic sentences have to set up the rest of the sentences in a paragraph, giving the reader a kind of road map, but these didn't. Arrrrgh! In my opinion, the book should be rewritten under the watchful eye of a careful editor.

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Aren't Those Birds Extinct?

I read an article today in American Scientist about Peter Trusler, an artist who has been creating realistic images of extinct creatures for decades. His work is detailed in a The Artist and the Scientists, which looks just absolutely amazing.

NASA and Art

Did anyone else know that NASA had an art program? I sure didn't. And today, I learned that art from NASA's collection is being exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The artists featured in the show include Andy Warhol, Annie Leibovitz, and Norman Rockwell. Fascinating. You can learn more about the relationship between NASA and art here.

Image

Title: "Mission to Mars"
Oil on masonite painting by Ren Wicks. Wicks’ painting depicts Martian explorers conducting scientific observations, recording wind speed with an anemometer and planetary features with a hand-held camera. A dust storm is approaching the crater area near the landing site, but views of the moons Phobus and Deimos are available in the twilight sky. A Mars excursion vehicle in the background serves as crew quarters for the mission.

Using Games to Teach Science

I recently came across Spongelab, a company that creates games, animations, and graphics that help teachers teach science. I really like the idea of using interactive tools to communicate complicated ideas. Bravo to Spongelab!

The Beauty of Pendulums

My friend Frank let me know about this cool video showing pendulums oscillating in and out of sync with each other. Watching phenomena like this one shows how some of the simplest things in nature -- heavy weights swinging from a cord -- contain magic and wonder. And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Exploratorium has long had a similar device, called Pendulum Snake.

Beautiful Sand

Here's a cool story about sand, courtesy of Wired. I love articles that explore the wonder behind everyday things. Next, I would love to see a story on the magic of dirt. Wait: the Exploratorium already produced a dirt site. Good for them!

[Image courtesy of Martyn Gorman]