Tags
brain, gender, Genetics, glaciers, Good Men Project, gut bacteria, lego, memory, mental illness, parasite, photography, science, science and society, Science in Society, sexism, stars, stem cell, virus
I was hoping to spend lots of time writing during the winter holidays, but instead I’ve been enjoying the opportunity to spend time with my family. I’ve got a few promising posts in the works for early in the new year, but until then here’s another collection of odds and ends from around the web to keep you going. As always, feel free to add more links in the comments. I hope you’ve all enjoyed the winter/summer solstice and associated holidays.
Science
- Doctors at Toronto Western Hospital have used stem-cell treatment to help a man recover his sight.
- Do springtails parasitize humans? Neuroskeptic writes about how the only evidence for that is likely to be fraudulent.
- The Allen Brain Atlas is another great free tool for visualizing the data we have, this time about the brain. You can also read the paper about it in PLoS Biology.
- Renowned science writer Carl Zimmer writes about our gut bacteria and what happens to it when you take antibiotics.
- Piotr Naskrecki asks whether some snakes might have evolved to mimic insects.
Science and society
- These “science fact” billboard ads by Science World magazine are a fun & innovative way to get people interested in science and a much better use of our public space.
- Natasha Harrington writes about how media portrayals warp our perception of the mentally ill.
Sex, sexism and gender
- In keeping with the “Year in Review / Best of 2012” theme prevalent around this time of year, the New Statesman presents 2012: The year in sexism.
- Over at The Good Men Project, Vironika Tugaleva describes gender as a uniform you can’t remove.
Visual arts
- Alex Wild’s best pictures from 2012 are definitely worth checking out. He’s also asking readers to submit their own “best of” galleries.
- Visit National Geographic’s Small, Small World gallery to see pictures of microbes, including some of our gut bacteria and even phage.
- Alexander Sofanov has a beautiful collection of underwater photos from South Africa (though in all honesty, I would prefer a somewhat less processed look).
- Thierry Cohen combined photos from different locations at the same latitude to create hist Darkened Cities series of images showing how our cities would look without the lights.
- Jan Erik Waider is a photographer who takes stunning photos of glacial landscapes in the far North.
Other
- I’ve signed up as a freelance writer on Elance. 2013 should see my PhD come to an end, so I’m exploring my options — how far can I really take this writing gig? If you enjoy my writing and need something written (or know someone who does), get in touch!
- I recently came across Memrise, a very useful (and free!) tool for memorizing facts and learning how to memorize more efficiently.
- Take part in a project out of Belgium to build a massive word association network of English. It won’t take long and it’s fun & useful! You can also check out the Dutch word association network put together by the same group.
Just for fun
- Wordpress prepared a fun “year in review” annual report for this blog. If you’d like to see some facts about how Inspiring Science did in its first 11 months (pretty well, I think), have a look!
- James Mollison put together a photo essay of kids bedrooms from around the world — some of which aren’t even a room.
- An amazing discovery made in a basement in Portland, Oregon.
- And lastly, a story from USA Today about the investment value of Lego bricks.
That’s all from me! Happy New Year, everyone!
Inspiring Science 
As usual, lots of good stuff to peruse, sedeer. This was my first year blogging. I love all the blogging friends I’ve met and look forward to another year of fun and inspiration in the blogoshpere.
Thank you for the great list. Happy New Year.
I read the article on the possibility of insects evolving to mimic snakes, which is an interesting hypothesis. It would seem possible that a species which shared the same predators as another species, which happened to have an established defense mechanism such as emitting a noxious spray when bothered, could evolve to look like the one avoided by those predators.
Happy New Year Sedeer, and congratulations on having such a great year blogging! It’s nice to know that so many people are interesting in quality science stories, and it’s a testament to your excellent articles! It’s obvious you really put a lot of work into them, and it’s nice to know you are getting such great results.
My favorite of the links is the National Geographic micro photos. They are stunningly beautiful! How interesting it must be to create such images. Really cool stuff! Thanks!
Thanks, Denise! I have worked hard on the blog, so it’s really wonderful to see it so well-received. It’s also very encouraging and feeds my aspirations to move from practicing science to writing about it. 🙂
Thanks for finding me and mentioning me in your foraging 🙂
You have an amazing site here! Keep up the great work.
Thanks for the list… Good luck in your PhD defense!!!
That’s still many months away, but thanks!