Please support our graduate students! Their stipends are small but they still owe federal taxes, even if the source is from the federal govt. itself (didn’t back in my day). You will need a minute to set up a Whitehouse.gov account though. Thanks!
Originally shared by Kelli Wilson
NO FEDERAL TAXES FOR GRAD STUDENTS? YES PLEASE! Sign this petition now!
“Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?” M. C. Escher
Originally shared by Matthew Baggott
Animating the Mathematical Logic of M.C. Escher For his 1956 Prentententoonstelling (Print Gallery), M. C. Escher started with “the idea that it must…be possible to make an annular bulge,” “a cyclic expansion … without beginning or end.” He created a recursive drawing of a gallery displaying prints. One print in the gallery shows a seaport containing the original print gallery. He projected this image onto a cyclically expanding grid with curved lines folding inward.
A cool 2003 article in Notices of the AMS shows his original grid, an ‘unfolded’ version of the Escher drawing, and various permutations of the basic concept. As a companion to their 2003 article, B. de Smit and H. W. Lenstra have created a rad website and animations, one of which I have converted from AVi to GIF using VirtualDub for our viewing pleasure.
This picture-within-itself strange loop imagery is sometimes called mise en abyme or, more commonly, the Droste effect, after the recursive label on a brand of Dutch cocoa powder. Thanks to the mathematical exposition by de Smit and Lenstra, you can now find tutorials for creating your own images using programs like GIMP or Photoshop. A flickr group exists for such images.
article: http://www.ams.org/notices/200304/fea-escher.pdf
website: http://escherdroste.math.leidenuniv.nl/index.php?menu=intro
(h/t to Philip Smith for pointing me to the website)
BrainCloud A stunningly comprehensive catalog of gene expression in the human brain, ranging from prenatal to adult, across gender and ethnicity. Two publications in this week’s Nature from research at Yale and Johns Hopkins chart the specific turning off and on of genes during development. A wave of gene expression changes occur in the fetus, which is reversed after birth. 50 years later, a similar reversal occurs, mirroring ageing and neurodegeneration. Gender differences were found not only in which genes were on/off, but also in choice of exons (i.e., the gene products were different). Although there were millions of genetic differences between individuals and across races, the molecular architecture was basically the same. Remarkably, 86% of 17,565 genes surveyed were expressed at some time or place in our brains.
All this information will be freely available through BrainCloud, in a “biologist-friendly” format. http://www.niseweb.com/wordpress/
See also: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111028121759.htm
Circle Konstantin Makov if you enjoy unexpected juxtapositions of verse, GIFs and music. He is always creative!
Originally shared by Konstantin Lamanov
#CIRCLES | SMILE | ILLUSION | CASE | GOOD MUSIC |
Is there Anybody IN there ?
| Pink Floyd – Is There Anybody Out There? |
O < Jaime García
So ….adorable…
via Andrés Restrepo
Originally shared by ****
So… beautiful…
What does 7 billion look like? This captivating video by National Geographic perfectly captures the point that it is not the physical number of people (we could all fit shoulder to shoulder inside Los Angeles), but the consumption and unequal distribution of resources that is a problem.
World population reaches landmark 7 billion this week . Should this be our chief concern? Women have already defused the population bomb. Education and urbanization have lowered fertility rates to 2.5 children/woman and that number continues to fall. Aging, not population growth will be the major demographic boom of the 21st century. Rising consumption, not so much the rising head count, is the largest threat to our environment. It comes from countries where population is already under control and shrinking.
It’s time to defuse the consumption bomb that is threatening to consume our overburdened planet.
NPP Spacecraft Safely in Orbit The new generation of polar orbiting weather satellite went into orbit this morning. My husband works on the next generation GOES-R (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Series R) scheduled for 2015 launch.
Hard to believe this song is 40 years old . Astonishing.
Originally shared by Tom Lee
Ten Years After – I’d Love to Change the World
This is one of their hits I really like when running through my uncle’s vinyl collections.
After 40 years the world hasn’t changed much, or has it?
Ten Years After is an English blues-rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, Ten Years After scored eight Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart. In addition they have had twelve albums enter the US Billboard 200, and are best known for their tracks “I’m Going Home”, “Hear Me Calling”, “I’d Love To Change the World”.
Ten Years After – I’d Love to Change the World 1971.flv
OccupyBaltimore Congrats to my grad student Brandie Cross , for being featured in the Scientific American . Brandie works tirelessly at the medical tent downtown, while chasing down calcium dynamics in breast cancer cells in her day ‘job’ in my lab.
It is a sad fact that a Ph.D. in biomedical research does not guarantee a job..in fact, only 7% of postdoctoral fellows in my field end up in academia (which is often their first choice). For the record, I’m pretty sure that Brandie will get a job! As long as she continues to OccupyScience 🙂
#OWS #OccupyBaltimore
madame scientist's not-so-mad musings 