A preprint is now available of Living in a Material World, an essay written by PHE researcher Iddo Wernick that will appear in the Winter 2014 issue of Issues in Science and Technology.
Blog
Japanese cockroaches
Mark Stoeckle is interviewed by Erika Engelhaupt for January 2, 2014 Science News Blog about the recently published discovery of Japanese cockroaches (Periplaneta japonica) living in rodent traps on Manhattan’s High Line.
Aquarium of the Pacific interview
The Aquarium of the Pacific posted a 3-minute video interview about ocean exploration with Jesse Ausubel taped during his visit 5 December 2013.
Diamonds and Deep Gas
In 1981, geologist John Saul wrote what may be a classic paper on diamonds and deep gas, which we now post to our site. The full reference is: John M. Saul, The Origin of Diamonds and the Deep Gas Hypothesis, Proceedings of the XVIII International Gemmological Conference, Journal of the Gemmological Society of Japan, Vol.8, no1-4 (Dec. 1981) pp.79-85.
Breakout Essay
The current issue of GeneWatch includes an interesting array of reports on where DNA barcoding is and where it might go, including PHE-er Mark Stoeckle’s essay “DNA Barcoding Ready for Breakout“.
Sofia Kostyrko portrait
On 5 December 2013 the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach hosted Jesse to lecture on the Census of Marine Life. Artist Sofia Kostyrko also gave a tour of the marvelous collection of portraits of “oceanauts” that she has painted, including a portrait of Jesse, now on exhibit at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.
Deep Carbon Observatory discoveries
The Deep Carbon Observatory announced exciting discoveries about hard rock life and production of hydrogen to feed the life by cooking water, rock, and aluminum oxide together. Here are news stories about the discoveries by Reuters, The Independent newspaper, EFE (the Spanish news wire), and New Energy and Fuel. And in Chinese and Russian.
DNA Barcoding of botanical products
Stimulated by a new article by our Guelph colleagues, the New York Times Tuesday 5 November ran a long article article about application of DNA barcoding to botanical products, and found lots of inaccurate labeling, as we had with teas. Development of the plant barcode was supported by work sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan and Gordon and Betty More foundations. See https://phe.rockefeller.edu/archives/683
Polartide.org
Produced by PHE associate and acoustician Perrin Meyer, polartide.org is an interactive meditation on time, oil stocks, and sea levels for the Maldives Pavillion at the 55th Venice Biennale. polartide takes in data from two sources, sea water levels and oil stock quotes, and maps these numbers onto an interactive graph. Clicking the graph buttons, you hear a sonification of the data on your computer. Clicking on the buttons you also trigger those sounds to be played live at the Maldives Pavillion in Venice and at an exhibition in Berkeley, California as well. You are contributing, with your clicks, to the way the artwork sounds. More info at
https://polartide.org/help.html
Team: Greg Niemeyer (Data Artist); Chris Chafe (Composer); Perrin Meyer (Producer)); Rama Gottfried (Sound Artist)
Ocean exploration around the island of Montserrat
Jesse had the amazing experience of joining the science team aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus exploring life on sea floor volcanoes around the Caribbean island of Montserrat. A 19″ video chat with Jesse from 24 October is posted here. Visit www.Nautiluslive.org to learn where the vessel is exploring now.