Colorz

This time drawing Sabino Canyon trees with watercolor pastels ...

Kind of fun, but pretty hard to control ...

Hiking Shoes

Sometimes you have to take your hiking shoes off to wade through the snow runoff in the Catalina mountains.  The water is really cold and slightly numbs the feet, but once you're out and back in your shoes and socks the feet feel like warm, freshly baked buns.  It's a pleasant thing, all around.

This is a little sketch of Mr. Green preparing to take the plunge ...

Sabino Canyon

One of my absolute favorite places in the entire world.

 So many amazing colors!

 The lighting today was just so otherwordly ... it was so pretty it kind of hurt a bit?

 I mean, the light got stuck in these leaves!

 Love it here.  Love. It.

Catalina Mountains, Inverted

My latest drawing of the mountains here in Tucson ... INVERTED.  Oh photoshop, I <3 u so.

Solstice sunset ... ding dong merrily on holy shit that's prettty ....

Today in Tucson

 Hobby shop times!  (And my toe thumb.)

 University of Arizona campus ... the new optics building.

Our feets!

 Some nice tree shadows.

Ah the B cafe.  Beer and salad, oh yes.

Yes

Fermi's Paradox: If extraterrestrial intelligence is common, why haven't we met any smart aliens?

"I suggest a different, even darker solution to [Fermi's] Paradox. Basically, I think the aliens don’t blow themselves up; they just get addicted to computer games. They forget to send radio signals or colonize space because they’re too busy with runaway consumerism and virtual-reality narcissism. They don’t need Sentinels to enslave them in a Matrix; they do it to themselves, just as we are doing today. Once they turn inwards to chase their shiny pennies of pleasure, they lose the cosmic plot. They become like a self-stimulating rat, pressing a bar to deliver electricity to its brain’s ventral tegmental area, which stimulates its nucleus accumbens to release dopamine, which feels…ever so good."

Source

Thanks dear friend Joe!

Open wide!

I've been drawing animals lately. And playing with photoshop.  Inverted drawingzzz!!!

 This one looks so much cooler inverted than in its actual configuration ... meeeow!!

Here's this hippo dude in his natural state (i.e. uninverted).  What are all those teeth for??

Some pictures from Arizona ...

... because it is really warm and gorgeous here!

Mr. Green and I went shopping for a little while, and I really liked this store called "Tucson Herbs."  Wow it was pretty in there and it smelled great.

 We also went on a brief hike near the Catalina mountains, which are rather nice.

 The winter solstice light was super rad.  And the saguaros always look surprising.  I think they are nature's exclamation points.

Christmas is hard sometimes ...

... but I watched a fun documentary called "what would Jesus buy" about Rev. Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping.  Quite entertaining, and I doodled throughout:

I was just writing down random things that Billy said -- not nec. my own opinions scribbled down on this sheet, she disclaims.

I also got a ton of magazines in the mail, tempting me to join the Shopocalypse all tooth and nail and credit card:

Would Jesus give something materialistic?

While Mr. Green and I were on our way to Tucson, I happened to see this lovely poster in the Las Vegas airport:

Super classy.

We were hiking today and heard some gun shots in the distance. Mr Green asked me if I wanted a gun for Christmas.  I said yes, but only if it was pink and shot rainbows and bubbles instead of bullets.  Because I hate guns.  But I love rainbows.  And bubbles. 

Intelligence is a myth perpetuated by the system

I have always really hated IQ tests and other measures of "intelligence."  How can one possibly measure what is so difficult to define?  Part of this is personal. (But doesn't everything come down to something personal?) When I was in elementary school I was put in the "gifted" program, and then promptly kicked out again when I did poorly on an IQ test.  I have this distinct memory of the test, looking over these questions and thinking, "what is this?," and then filling in answers randomly. Not the way to get a good IQ score.

When I was in college I got interested in the evolution of "intelligence" or "higher cognitive abilities" in humans.  I read "The Mismeasure of Man," by Steven Jay Gould, which discussed problems with measurements of intelligence, including IQ tests and phrenology (i.e. measuring how intelligent you are based on the circumference of your head, or what kind of lumps you have in your skull). I also took a class on "quantitative methods in archaeology," which took a very critical look at the ways numbers both help and obscure archaeological conclusions. These were both very influential, as before I had never really questioned numbers. Statistics in the news, a graph in a scientific article ... if there's a number associated with it, it's right, right? Now I'm almost more skeptical of a number than blatant speculation (which is usually pretty fun), as I need to know where that number came from in order for it to mean anything, and usually I don't.

I also read, years past, an excellent science book, "Principles of Brain Evolution," by Georg Striedter. In it he briefly discussed measurements of intelligence.  From what I recall, apparently researchers thought that most reptiles were pretty "unintelligent" because they were unable to perform simple behavioral tasks that many mammals (even mice, those dumb cuties) can complete easily. It turns out that they were just rewarding the reptiles wrong ... mammals love food, and a titillating sugary or succulent meaty treat is a wonderful incentive for them to learn the task.  Reptiles, on the other hand, love heat, and once researchers learned to reward them with a little puff of warmth the reptiles performed very well. So all those people who think that mammals are so superior in terms of intelligence?  Design your experiments right!  They just don't think like you do!

Anyway, what got me all riled up about this was an article on the Scientific American blog about autism.  Apparently many autistic people are thought to be mentally retarded.  I remember when I was angry with my older, autistic brother I would scream at him that he was "a retard," and he would get sad and upset.  I used that epithet because it was the only thing that actually got to him emotionally.  According to the researchers cited in this article, however, the tests used to measure "intelligence" in children are flawed especially when it comes to autistic people.  Here's a direct quote from the article:

"... testing for intelligence in autistic people is hard. The average person can sit down and take a verbally administered, timed test without too many problems. But for an autistic person with limited language capability, who might be easily distracted by sensory information, this task is very hard. The most commonly administered intelligence test, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) almost seems designed to flunk an autistic person: it is a completely verbal, timed test that relies heavily on cultural and social knowledge. It asks things like "What is the thing to do if you find an envelope in the street that is sealed, addressed and has a new stamp on it?" and "What is the thing to do when you cut your finger?"" (Rose Eveleth, SA blog)

Wow hell yeah that would be hard for an autistic person.  Asking them questions about social knowledge?  My brother would just say "NO" and then talk about all the food he isn't allowed to eat (he has gluten and other food allergies).  So autistic people score waaaay lower than average on this test, but if you test them with the Raven's Progressive Matrices or the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI), which are intelligence tests based on completing patterns and designs with mostly non-verbal instructions, they do so so so much better.  And it's both high and low functioning autistic kids that do so much better.  The idea here is that maybe autistic people are not "mentally retarded" but just see the world in a completely different way.

The birds win today

Today, as I was walking across campus to lab, I saw three crows consuming one dead rat. One crow was just chillin' nearby, keeping an eye on things. The second crow had made a hole through the skin and was enjoying some red stuff. The third crow grabbed the rat by the tail and gave it a little yank. I'll admit, I chuckled at the sight.

This morning in lab I will be playing "Kitchens of India," a CD I found while tidying one of my kitchen cupboards, which I believe came with some foodstuffs I bought sometime in the past. I have no recollection of obtaining this CD, but it must have happened.  I am sure it will rock.  Bring on the flutes!

What's in your flask?

What's in your flask?  Is it a psychedelic octopus?  Because that's what's in mine.  THAT IS RIGHT.

Although, truth be told, this is a sketch from 2008, so who knows what's in my flask nowadays.

COMPUTER ON MY EYEBALL ... WHAT??

Science fiction technology is becoming a reality! University of Washington associate engineering professor Babak Parviz and his colleages are working on generating computerized contact lenses that contain tiny LED-based augmented reality displays. They have recently reported (in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering) that they developed a contact lens that can be worn safely and can display a single pixel to the wearer. To do this, Parviz and his team overcame two issues. First, making the lenses necessitates toxic materials and high temperatures. Yay toxic crap in my eye! They addressed this by building the circuits with a minimum of materials, including metal sheets that are only a few nanometers thick. This is supposedly safe (according to the rabbits they tested them on). The second issue is that the human eye is normally unable to focus on anything closer than 15 centimeters, so Parviz and his team incorporated a tiny Fresnel lens which converges the LED light onto the retina, which, as Parviz said, “tricks the eye into thinking that the image is farther away so it can focus on it.” The ultimate goal of this technology is to be able to use contact lenses as miniature computer screens, where with the blink of the eye you can surf the Internet or, for example, superimpose a navigational map over your immediate surroundings.

I think I would rather have my computer in a beautiful necklace where I can project the "screen" onto a wall wherever I am.  Although then maybe people would fight for wall space in the streets.  Hmmm.

source

Science's Dark Lord

A shocking report late in October revealed that one of the Netherlands’ leading social psychologists, Diederik Stapel, fabricated data that was published in dozens of scientific articles.  His latest (and last, I imagine) publication was in the high profile journal, Science, and focused on the influence of a messy environment (i.e. litter or a broken-up sidewalk) on prejudice. Even more mind blowing, at least from the perspective of a graduate student such as myself, is that 14 of the 21 PhD theses he supervised were also tainted with data that Stapel made up.

What’s particularly interesting is that none of his students were aware of the fraud due, in part, to Stapel’s ingenuity. He would plan out elaborate studies with his students, including questionnaires and details such as what kind of candies they’ll reward their subjects with, and these materials would often even be put in the trunk of Stapel’s car, never to be used. He also had imaginary ‘research assistants’ that he claimed collected the data ‘on site,’ and informed his students that their time was better spent by analyzing data and writing. He was so clever that many of his students and collaborators were unaware of these fraudulent activities, which went on for almost a decade.

Throughout this scientific scandal, Stapel has been referred to as the “lord of the data.”  Thankfully, however, this dark lord has fallen: on Halloween Stapel issued a statement apologizing for his behavior, saying that he ‘failed as a scientist.’

Source

Love song to the fragile post-mitotic individual

Sometimes, while reading older scientific articles, I come across wonderful passages like this one:

"In writing the history of a cell, or a person, the customary and usually best (although seldom most interesting) place to start is at birth. The birth of a neuron, as a new post-mitotic individual in an exploding population, is an event of logical beginning for the narrative of its subsequent life, which may extend for many years and indeed, for some vertebrates, nearly a century or more. The chapters of the history are numerous and must be examined comprehensively. They include the embryonic site of origin of a particular neuroblast; its specification as to anatomical address at some time prior or subsequent to that event; its route and rate of migration through a substrate and past other cells at early and critical stages of development; its differentiation into a mature neuron with a characteristic arrangement of organelles and a distinctive pattern of dendritic and axonal processes; its receipt of afferent endings and attainment of efferent terminals; its acquisition of special environmental relationships with glial elements, myelin, and blood vessels; its morphological and/or chemical modification resulting from adaptation to continued function; and finally its degeneration and ultimate death in old age. Alternatively, the history may end with death of the cell during early development." (Jay B. Angevine, Jr., J Comp Neurol, 1970)

To me, this reads like a love song to a neuron. It's just so romantically written, and makes the life of a cell seem so vibrant and tragic. Scientific articles aren't written like this anymore -- they are so exact and sterile with no room for imaginative speculation or poetic metaphors. I think it's a shame.

Although, I have to say, my PI would put a huge red "X" through the "and/or".

Old Man Style

I live in a very academic neighborhood, and for some reason there's a surplus of old men who ride bicycles around without any regard to the rules of the road. This is a pretty normal behavior for all age groups, but these amazing old men take it to the extreme. For example, they often ride extremely slowly in the middle of the street (and in the wrong lane). It's a gorgeous vignette: the clunky bicycle, the disregard for personal safety, the worn down clothing, the gleam of joy in their eyes, the snail-like pace. I love those crazy old men on bikes. It's given rise to a descriptive term that I sometimes use, "old man style." For example, if I see something I particularly approve of I might say, "wow, totally kickin' it old man style." With this drawing I attempted to capture this feeling:

Impaired Motor Skills

I drank some beer and I tried to draw some friends playing chess ... I spent about 2 minutes on each version.

It's kind of interesting what the brain spits out.

Forgotten Sketches

I opened a sketchbook I haven't opened in a long time, and I found some paintings that I actually really quite like. One is of a mutant cactus from Tucson:

The other is of Matt. This is based on a picture I took of him when we were watching the 2008 presidential election in Hutch (there was free pizza). Sometimes he doesn't want to get his picture taken ...

These paintings were kind of "speed paintings," as they were done in one sitting, which is my favorite way to paint. I love pigment!

Plasticity

You know, I used to really love drawing and I found out this summer that I still do. I'm kind of curious to see if I improve, although I haven't been as consistent as I would like! Here are some sketches from this fall.

I kind of always have loved chickens. I know they are pretty dumb, and they peck at each other and poop everywhere, but for some reason they are still oddly charming. Now I study embryonic chickens, so it seems fitting to draw them as well. Art and science, closely linked.

I saw these mushrooms growing in northern Michigan. They were really vibrant and had a lovely shape. I did not eat them.

I really love the next generation. And I also really love this blog, which is where I found this still. Undoubtedly Geordi is sad because a girl he really likes doesn't like him, and Data just doesn't get it.

I like this image because I think it really captures the awesomeness of dogs. Because they are awesome. Perhaps not if their arse is so close to one's face, however ...

Yes, chickens. Yes yes yes. Bok bok bok bok bok to you sir.

"Dead"

A lab friend came by my desk yesterday to show me "Science Ink," an amazing book about gorgeous science themed tattoos by writer Carl Zimmer. The book is divided into scientific disciplines including neuroscience, astronomy, evolutionary biology (including a couple of "evo-devo" tattoos) and chemistry, but all the tattoos are pretty incredible. One tattoo covered the person's entire back and depicted the extinction of the dinosaurs in gruesome detail ... a little dark, yes, but totally rad. My boss wandered in the lab while we were looking at the "Schrodinger's cat" tattoo. He walked up to us and said, "dead." Then he grinned, wagged his eyebrows around, and again pronounced, "dead." Carl Zimmer is going to be on the Groks Science Radio Show next Wednesday on WHPK at 3pm Chicago time! I will be tuning in.

I use photoshop very often to put together figures. Especially lately. And today, when I felt like goofing off, what did I do? I opened photoshop. Kind of sad? Or kind of beautiful? Anyway here are two scenes from Canada: (1) This is a picture from a walkway I used to love in Mont Royal Park.

(2) "Pink Lake" is in the Gatineau Park, and for some reason I just really like how it looks in deep, deep pink. I am a simple person.

What the what? Is this real???? (Mind exploding)

I'm really thankful that I was thrown into "Music for young children" (MYC) classes at an early age. Look at this: now scientists have evidence that music training makes preschoolers smarter, at least in terms of a measure of "verbal intelligence". Oh you crazy scientists from Toronto, experimenting on preschoolers. Finally, science my mother (who is an MYC teacher) can get behind.

I read this today about BrdU birthdating: "one of the most misused techniques in neuroscience" (Taupin, Brain Research Reviews, 2007). Easy to say about pretty much any technique, but in this case I sort of agree. To celebrate I have written a poem:

Boundless cell labeling
Relentless quantification
Dosage dependent artifacts aplenty
Unendurable

Although there is kind of a lot of negativity in science, so I must counter myself with:

Bountiful germinal territories
Replicating cells spinning and grooving
Dancing out of the ventricular zone
Undetectable? Not for long!

So apparently male crickets are more chivalrous than you are. Can you deal with that?

The cortical area for embarrassment is the pregenual angular cingulate cortex (pACC), and it's shaped like a boomerang. Anyone want a lesion?