mary shelley's moonlit window

"In August 2010, Professor Olson, two colleagues and two students went to Lake Geneva to discover when moonlight would have hit the windows, and penetrated the shutters, of Mary Shelley's bedroom." In this way, and by looking up their astro. tables, they aimed to date the birth of her famous tale, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) [The Guardian].

"It was a strong effort of the spirit of good; but it was ineffectual. Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction" – wrote the poor Doctor in Shelley's tale (chapt 2).

If Shelley had her way, perhaps there would be no field of Artificial Life. If we took her text to heart, should we all stop now? Perhaps, like nuclear physics, the potential to make a mess of things is too great? And yet, here we are, pushing onwards in an effort to create life. Ahhh... what would a girl in her late teenage years know about the future of the world anyway?

insect mating

It is autumn in Melbourne. The days are getting shorter, the mornings frostier, but the weather has been glorious for cycling. It is also Preying Mantis mating season. I narrowly avoided one on the road this morning, bright green against the bitumen. The second I saw this afternoon as I left work had not been so lucky. It was squashed flat by a bicycle tyre before my arrival. If it was a female it might not yet have mated or laid its eggs. If it was male, it could not yet have mated or it would already have lost its head! (It hadn't.) It was probably too big to have been a male anyway.

Funny how sometimes I really need to look hard to notice the insects on my daily activities. This is true even when they scream at me from the trees (summer cicadas) or the grass (autumn crickets). At other times they are hard to avoid... such as last spring when dozens of pairs of mating ants fell from the sky to copulate un-ceremoniously on our deck table whilst I read emails!

graffiti for butterflies - elliott malkin

BLDGBLOG has a link to Graffiti for Butterflies, a project that uses sunscreen and paint to post signs on walls for migrating Monarch butterflies. It's certainly out there! Why not just plant more Milkweed? Well, he did that too. I wonder if the signs painted in sunscreen are recognisable to a butterfly. It should be pretty easy to set up a controlled test to see their effect. I hope the butterflies don't come to a sticky end. At least they won't get sunburnt.

Signs that say "No Dogs on the Velodrome" in dog language would be really handy. Painting the city's statues with "No Pigeons" in pigeon-visible text would be another good application for this idea. Maybe we could protect Australia's borders from alien species in a similar way. OK, now I am being silly. The butterfly idea was cute and well-meaning. I should not be facetious. I have no idea though how you could present useful data to a butterfly or just about any other species. Route info.? This is beyond the comprehension of most taxi drivers.

a nest of camellias

This morning whilst I was eating my Weet-Bix a Grey Butcherbird was attempting to build a nest from pink Camellias outside our kitchen window. It would tear a flower from the tree, hop across and attempt to wedge it into a crook between two branches. Inevitably the Camellia would tumble to the ground. Unperturbed, the Butcherbird would grab another and try again. Sadly for us, and for it, the nest-construction was eventually aborted. A nest of Camellias would have been quite special! Imagine if we could all live in such a home: soft, pink, biodegradable and it requires only sunlight, water and nutrients to produce the building materials. I suspect the design might be flawed. After a few days the pinkness would be replaced with a rotten browness.

The bird could be heard singing nearby for a short time. Now it seems to have left. Oh well. Maybe an Australian native will work better. Wattle perhaps?

a photographic wunderkammer

Rosamond Purcell has worked with Stephen J. Gould to produce some slightly clichéd imagery, but also some lovely interpretations of museum specimens and found objects. A slideshow of some of her photographs is available online. Some of her photos also appear in this bizarre, slightly macabre online Zymoglyphic Museum.

Image credit: Rosamond Purcell, Mole Skins From the Collection of van Heurn. From Finders, Keepers: Eight Collectors, 1992.

As a fan of "traditional" natural history museums, rows of pinned insects and marvels of taxidermy displayed in dusty dioramas, any work that shows a similar fascination with historically significant museum collections is guaranteed to pique my interest. I am waiting for somebody to remark on the apparent contradiction between this fascination and my discomfort regarding Damien Hirst's acquisition of a fresh shark.

Cheetah Feet

Cheetah feet replacement for runners without lower limbs seem like they might give a runner an advantage over one with natural limbs. The carbon fibre limbs are passive springs with a greater return than human soft tissue. The study detailed on the ABC's Catalyst (Why don't we have more good science shows in Australia?) indicates however that since they lack calf muscles, the artificial limbs cannot generate the same propulsive force as a biological limb. Runners wearing them are therefore not at an advantage when compared to fully bio-limbed competitors.

I've raced against a cyclist with an artificial limb clipped to his pedal at what would have been the heel (i.e. the limb had no foot). I guess this allows him to press and raise the pedal with his thigh, gluteus and back which do the work even in bio-limbed riders. The calves of cyclists may look impressive but apparently they do not apply much driving force, they just stabilise the foot. Steve Hogg has gone so far as to slide the cleat on bio-limbed riders back towards the arch of the foot instead of under the ball. He claims it gives an increase in power whilst in the saddle, even if you lose agility out of the saddle. I.e. this position is for flat TTs rather than sprinting or climbing out of the saddle.

So, if an athlete with a prosthetic limb turned up to compete on a mechanically-actuated limb, could it be tuned to mimic biology and provide an equal playing field? How would this be determined? I suppose it is strange how men and women compete separately but short high jumpers are not given a special category in which to avoid needing to compete against taller athletes. Heavy-weight boxers do not compete against fly-weights. Weird! Who decided in some sports to have categories but not in others? What basis did they use for their decisions?