Courtesy of Sheyne Tuffery, whose art I’ve recently discovered (and love), heads-up that the University of Cambridge Museum of Anthropology & Archaeology is holding an exhibition called Pasifika Styles from May, with artists, craftspeople, performing artists, and displays of the Museums collections. I may have to revise my assertion that Oceanic cultural events are few … Read more
The UPenn Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology has a set of online exhibitions at World Cultures: Ancient and Modern. The celebrities choosing a favourite artifact was a bit gimmicky, but I really enjoyed: Sailing the ocean without map or compass: Traditional navigation in the western Pacific. Navigation training and technique in the Caroline Islands. I’d … Read more
At the risk of being domestic, the recipe for Paraoa.
The Beeb continues to report on the condition of the six young men who participated in a drug trial and are in intensive care. There’s an accompanying article interviewing a bloke who was due to take part, where he speaks about the motivations and incentives that are behind why men take part in these trials. … Read more
Garr Reynolds, at Presentation Zen (a moment for fangirling, please), has a post linking to resources for scientific presentations. Often presentation advice is geared towards commercial or creative models, and while it’s helpful to extract what works/what sucks from those sorts of domains, a Zen-approach to scientific/academic presentation couldn’t come soon enough. From the editorial … Read more
Grrlscientist links to Yellow Ibis, which have the coolest science t-shirts. The Darwin phylogeny sketch ones are my favourite, but I’m also fond of “this is what a scientist looks like”. Inside HigherEd offer columns and articles, including Academic AWOL by Mary McKinney, which I found to be a good kick-in-the-pants about Just Getting On … Read more
The Cuming Museum in Southwark is holding an exhibition entitled Mana: Ornament and Adornment From the Pacific. Polynesian decorative arts like tattooing and jewellery, which is like the confluence of all the things I love. Today is Commonwealth Day, and I’m off to Westminster Abbey to partake of the observance in the presence of Chuck … Read more
(I’m sure there’s a pun in there) Didn’t get a ticket to the Dawkins event next week at LSE (The Selfish Gene: Thirty Years On) as it appears all of London was keen to go also. There’s a video hook-up, so I’ll queue for that if it doesn’t look too arduous. Melvin Bragg (who’s chairing … Read more
That the brain grows new cells, how it does it, and in what circumstances–that’s the topic of this piece at Seed Magazine, surveying the work of a number of neuroscientists. I found it really positive to read something so utterly focussed on the science, yet engaging and enthusiastic. I really loathe the mainstream journalistic need … Read more
It may possibly be an indictment of my happy geekitude that I get as excited about a new “Annual Review” as other people get about, say, swimsuit issues of magazines. Annual Review of Ecology & Systematics 2005 has papers on: Fluctuating asymmetry, the evolution of polyandry, model selection in phylogenetics, the evolution of cooperation, and … Read more