MeFi Projects

After five years, the NIH-funded ENCODE Project has unveiled its detailed study of the biochemical context of the human genome. Nature has a special web portal linking together 24 publications in Nature, a special issue of Genome Research, and Genome Biology (all open access). There's also an iPad app to help you navigate through the papers and results. You can look at an enormous poster of results, but it contains only a tiny fraction of the 15 TB of data from the project's >1,600 experiments. Perhaps aerial dance is a better way of portraying what we have learned about genome biology. [more inside]
posted by grouse on Sep 5, 2012 - 4 comments

A lot of people think Larry Summers was forced to resign from Harvard for saying women can't do math. That is BS. When the Teresa Sullivan was abruptly fired from the presidency of the University of Virginia earlier this summer, the explanations offered up by the media were no less ridiculous: it was because Sullivan lacked "strategic dynamism" which was possibly code for "she's too fat to run a school Newsweek had named hottest college for fitness, or maybe the Board was still sore over that Lady Gaga class. But when students and professors returned from summer sabbaticals to protest the ouster on a campus more generally associated with Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs and killer lacrosse players, I knew something bigger and more existential was at stake. Specifically, I wondered if the ouster had anything to do with climate science and the state attorney general Kevin Cuccinelli's two year jihad against former UVA climate scientist Michael Mann of "hockey stick" fame. Well, it sure looks like the Board had a bigger beef with climate science than Lady Gaga studies! But now that I've amassed a pretty damning amount of evidence suggesting my instincts were correct, I can only assume the traditional media is persisting with its ridiculous 'Mean Girls' narrative of the clash because it has been intimidated by the over-the-top tantrums and libel lawsuit promises of the coup's conspirators. But while the papers speculate that Sullivan was the victim of "plus sized bullying" from the Board's svelte Rector Helen Dragas, the evidence suggests that UVA has mostly been bullied by its former extension campus—and hotbed of climate science denial—George Mason University. I have no personal stake in UVA's reputation—I rejected it at 17 on grounds it was "too fratty" and was immediately hoisted on my own petard by my first choice University of Pennsylvania—but I do believe it would be a profound loss to my home state if Thomas Jefferson's University went the way of its highly corporatized cousins, so I've been reporting on the saga pro bono at my personal site Das Krapital, dedicated loosely to the mission of unmasking (and mocking) corporate propaganda wherever I can still muster the outrage to do so.
posted by evabraunstein on Aug 25, 2012 - 0 comments

Science crowdfunding on the web is exploding with sites like Microryza, Petridish, and Cancer Research UK (which regularly brings in tens of thousands of pounds for projects). Now #SciFund, the largest science crowdfunding derby on the web is back, baby, for round 2. #SciFund is unique in that its purpose isn't just to crowdfund research, but to change academic culture and create better ties between scientists and the world around them. Indeed, after round 1, we did a number of fancy-pants analyses showing how scientists doing outreach work were going to be better able to use crowdfunding. Or just get the gestalt message from this post on Dr. Zen trying to become the Amanda Palmer of Science. But the real fun and joy of #SciFund is to see the videos these passionate scientists have made about their work... [more inside]
posted by redbeard on May 3, 2012 - 0 comments

A MLKSHK "shake" devoted to artistic representations of prehistoric life.
posted by brundlefly on Apr 3, 2012 - 2 comments

BEDOPS is a suite of tools to address common questions raised in genomic studies, mostly with regard to overlap and proximity relationships between data sets. BEDOPS aims to be scalable, flexible and performant, facilitating the efficient and accurate analysis and management of large-scale genomic data.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Mar 27, 2012 - 2 comments

I also hope people are interested in the accompanying facebook group.
posted by leibniz on Mar 20, 2012 - 4 comments

A new, highly collaborative book on the relationship between science and cuisine. With recipes, new takes on old dishes, science, technology, history, and deliciousness. I am one of many authors and very excited to be keeping company with them. You may have heard of Molecular Gastronomy, Experimental Cuisine, Modernist Cuisine - here is some of the thinking and thinkers behind understanding food with science and science with food. First chapter for free here [more inside]
posted by zingiberene on Feb 7, 2012 - 2 comments

I like science. I like magic. This is my attempt to bring the two together. The Science of Magic is a series of easy to do magic tricks made available for the purpose of teaching students how to apply the scientific method in, what I hope will be, a fun and informative way. [more inside]
posted by Mister_Sleight_of_Hand on Jan 13, 2012 - 3 comments

This incredible room at the Hall of Science in Queens was originally built for the 1964 World's Fair to give visitors the feeling of being in deep space. Really beautiful, unearthly design.
posted by nycscout on Nov 7, 2011 - 1 comment

The #SciFund Challenge is a new project for scientists interested in coupling science and society through funding. There are a ton of cool projects - from studies of zombie fish to vaccine distribution in the developing world to some mefite yahoo working in kelp forests. And, of course, duck penises (nsfw?). The passion of the researchers is huge. And ways they're reaching out to a public audience is fascinating. The whole thing has the potential to change the often mysterious science funding process for the better and reshape the science ecosystem, even if just a little. Will it work? Who knows! It's an experiment!
posted by redbeard on Nov 1, 2011 - 0 comments

This is a project that I'm working on with some members of my local hackerspace. The project invites teams from around the world to compete in the design and assembly of a weather balloon equipped with cameras to take photos of the Earth from near space. We also are trying to promote this type of activity in schools by attempting to get balloon kits into science classrooms.
posted by achmorrison on Sep 28, 2011 - 0 comments

In commemoration of the opening of my Soho art show Hidden Spaces I am posting my new website. My art is comprised of graphite and monochrome color pencil works transcribed and augmented from microscopic organic forms. For further elaboration see my artist statement on my site.
posted by Lex Tangible on Sep 15, 2011 - 6 comments

If want to live in a world where being a scientist is considered bad ass, and philosophers are worshiped like rock stars, so my newest lineup of t-shirts parodies famous band logos by re-purposing them to celebrate some of the world's most influential minds. Hope you enjoy them.
posted by Jezztek on Aug 31, 2011 - 14 comments

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Connectivity Database cross-indexes all 199 experiments (inclusive of the KTMA years and the movie) and their 3707 actors, sorted by strength of connectivity within the MST3k canon. At last, the common relational path from Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell to Lassie: The Painted Hills can be traced! Witness the inescapable Isle of Kaiju! Quake at the Old-Fashioned Nightmare Fuel of the Mexican Archipelago! Most of all, Keep Traversing the Nodes.
posted by lx on Aug 29, 2011 - 7 comments

“Singular Source” is a hard science fiction short story contest. We are looking for stories on the theme of future computer programming and technology, with particular attention to programmers working with vast archives of source code. The deadline is November 30, 2011. Visit our web site for more details. You can support the contest by donating money for prizes and honorariums for judges. [more inside]
posted by mausburger on Aug 21, 2011 - 0 comments

I have a big honkin' encyclopedic book of science from 1902, and I blog one excerpt from it every day. [more inside]
posted by mismatched on Aug 15, 2011 - 1 comment

Rather than dwell on the eventual sinking of the International Space Station, let's instead celebrate ISS with my 800x2500 jpeg construction timeline.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Jul 28, 2011 - 1 comment

A Tumbleblog in which I scour the web for what seem to me to be transmissions from our very near future.
posted by Astro Zombie on Jul 13, 2011 - 4 comments

It occurred to me that some of the best conversations I’ve had lately revolve around the question - why are you a librarian? I thought it would be fun to collect these stories in a central place so that we’d have a snapshot of all the different reasons people join the information science profession but more importantly, why we’ve stayed in libraries. I’m collecting anecdotes from Twitter (tweet with hash tag #ilibcause), via email (ilibcause@gmail.com) and via a submission form on the website ilibcause.com/submit. More information available at ilibcause.com/about. [more inside]
posted by ginagina on Apr 21, 2011 - 1 comment

We have finally launched! WSFtv is the video platform for Brian Greene's World Science Festival. (Built on Expression Engine 2, Dreamhost's VPS and Amazon's S3 and CloudFront services, i'm just now realizing that this is my first all-virtually hosted project.)
posted by crickets on Feb 22, 2011 - 2 comments

The second quarterly issue of our CC-licensed digital magazine AE – The Canadian Science Fiction Review debuts today, featuring the first ever English translation of French author Jacques Barbéri's 1985 piece "La promenade du garçon boucher" ("The Butcher Boy"). Also, if you want to check the original fiction we published in our first issue, it's all there in the new Issue #1 Podcast. [more inside]
posted by 256 on Jan 2, 2011 - 1 comment

Dear Astronomer lets readers submit their questions about Astronomy and Science. Topical posts include: Answering reader questions, NASA press releases, Breaking Space/Science news, Product reviews, editorial posts/opinions and science humor. The site is a spinoff from a Facebook page that was used to "beta-test" the site concept.
posted by Dearastronomer on Dec 1, 2010 - 6 comments

AE - The Canadian Science Fiction Review is a new professional market for science fiction of which I happen to be the editor. The site updates with new content every Monday. All content is released under a Creative Commons NC-BY-ND license.
posted by 256 on Oct 31, 2010 - 2 comments

Who has time to read entire articles? Scientific research shows that scientific research is best summarized in limerick form. I hope this site will be a growing collection of such user-generated poetry, linked to the original source by DOI, PubMed ID, or ISBN. [more inside]
posted by bergeycm on Oct 29, 2010 - 3 comments

New Scientist have run a column called the Last Word for past fifteen years, featuring questions like Do upside down bats get dizzy?, What's the capacity of the human brain in gigabytes? and Why can't elephants jump?. We worked with the editors at New Scientist to take 120 of the best questions and turn them into a quiz called The Last Word Challenge - and you can adapt them into your own quizzes as well! [more inside]
posted by adrianhon on Sep 24, 2010 - 4 comments

The subject of my previous two projects (1, 2) has finally reached completion; the special issue of Polygraph on "Ecology and Ideology" is out and ready for order. The Polygraph website has PDFs of the introduction, a lengthy interview with Kim Stanley Robinson, and two book reviews. Other contributors to the issue include contributors to the issue include Slavoj Žižek, Michael Hardt, John Bellamy Foster, Timothy Morton, Joachim Radkau, Imre Szeman, Kathy Rudy, and Ariel Salleh; more of the articles will show up there following the usual delay.
posted by gerryblog on Sep 12, 2010 - 2 comments

A little tumblelog about astrophotography, both professional (e.g., the Hubble and other space- and ground-based observatories) and amateur, with a certain amount of geeking out about the equipment and the science. I set this up to prevent my personal blog from being completely taken over by look-at-the-pretty-space-pictures posts, which I'm now doing here with reckless abandon.
posted by mcwetboy on May 25, 2010 - 3 comments

Post-Apocalypse Dead Letter Office is a speculative/experimental novel in epistolary form written by yours truly and physically realized by dozens of creative Mefi Mail Art group members, Metafilter members and other collaborators. (RSS feed). [more inside]
posted by cog_nate on Oct 23, 2009 - 9 comments