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Thursday, February 04, 2010

SEED: WHERE SCIENCE MEETS CULTURE

seedmag 

SEED is an extremely rich site and publication, absolutely stuffed with front-end provocative thinking on a whole range of topics to do with science and culture. The editorial and design thinking behind it is impressive. The whole site combines style and authority and offers a treasure trove of new ideas and concepts, new thinking on old concepts, insightful interviews and discussions, stunning graphics and mind-blowing information. This is the material I have sampled and found interesting - a fraction of a very large whole.

Before getting into the print section I would recommend clicking on the yellow Studio button on the top bar at the far left of the screen. This gives you access to photographic portfolios and video material.

wehtje1_small

Electra Water Lilly, 2006, by Jim Wehtje. From 'Images from Science 2: An Exhibition of Scientific Photography' Organized by RIT School of Photographic Arts and Sciences

There's an amazing Portfolio of scientific photography, an excellent set of video interviews on the 5oth anniversary of C.P. Snow's  Two Cultures, and an even more extensive set of one-to-one conversations in The Seed Salon -  with the like of Tom Wolfe, Will Self and David Byrne alongside Michel Gondry, Noam Chomsky, Benoit Mandelbrot and Thomas E. Lovejoy. Great stuff.

A linked site from the same stable is Research Blogging - and equally wonderful digest of latest material from scientific research papers. Good intro piece to the thinking behind the site is A Year of Research Blogging  by Dave Munger (January 6, 2010):

ResearchBlogging.org’s content editors on how they select the best blog posts, the value of research blogging, and their predictions for the coming year.

These are some of the interesting things I read:

Pay to Play by Evan Lerner / January 22, 2010

With the New York Times announcing that it will start charging for its website, an examination of why scientific and journalistic publishing seem to be headed in opposite directions.

Loggerheads at Bloggingheads by Evan Lerner / September 4, 2009

A falling out over creationism at a popular videoblogging site and muddled reactions to a report on geoengineering illustrate what’s at stake in the “framing wars"

Trust in the Twitterverse by Evan Lerner / January 15, 2010

With the world scrambling to cover the recent devastating Haitian earthquake, journalists, neuroscientists, and everyone in between are testing the frontiers of social media

A Writing Revolution Analysis / by Denis G. Pelli & Charles Bigelow / October 20, 2009

Nearly universal literacy is a defining characteristic of today’s modern civilization; nearly universal authorship will shape tomorrow's.

Lo and Behold: the Internet Benchmarks / by Michael Belfiore / October 29, 2009

On the 40th anniversary of the first internet connection, a look back on how a flash of insight and a 20-minute meeting got it all started.

dymaxion-car

Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Car [Source: Bohemian Hellhole]

The Dymaxion Tomorrow Events / by Elizabeth Cline / May 7, 2009

A city-wide vehicle sharing program, a latrine block that treats sewage on-site, and bicycles that double as ambulances take top honors in the Buckminster Fuller Design Challenge

Books to Read Now Seed Picks January 5, 2010

January releases paint a portrait of an early fossil hunter; probe the nature of time; and reveal that the vast majority of your brain cells are not neurons

Under the Green Canopy Bibliologue / by Cristina Luiggi / December 17, 2009

In The Life & Love of Trees, vivid photography from around the world coupled with author Lewis Blackwell’s lucid prose explores the virtues of our leafy cousins.

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