Scale
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Rethinking Growth
April 26, 2011
Herman Daly applies a biophysical lens to the economy and finds that bigger isn’t necessarily better.
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Calling All Mapmakers
January 13, 2011
complexity, data, geography, information, scale, visualization
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Seed Salon: Paola Antonelli + Benoit Mandelbrot
October 18, 2010
In 2008, the late mathematician and founder of fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot, met MoMA's senior design curator, Paola Antonelli for a conversation about geometry, architecture, and nature. Here are excerpts from their discussion.
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Taming Carbon’s Wild Side
August 19, 2010
Highly reactive molecules known as carbenes have gone from unstable intermediates with nanosecond lifetimes to powerful tools in synthetic chemistry.
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The Body Politic
July 15, 2010
The deep symbiosis between bacteria and their human hosts is forcing scientists to ask: Are we organisms or living ecosystems?
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Slippery Cellularities
June 21, 2010
Synthetic biology can mean reconstructing organisms, redesigning biology, or recreating life—and each of these uses has different implications.
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Pandora’s Seed
June 07, 2010
From obesity to chronique fatigue syndrome, jihadism to urban ennui, the costs of civilization are becoming ever more apparent. Spencer Wells explores adapting to a world where accelerating change is the new status quo.
agriculture, diplomacy, evolution, health, innovation, scale
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Butterfly Nets for Ghosts
April 15, 2010
Researchers bury thousands of devices miles deep into the ice at the bottom of the Earth—all in an attempt to catch the universe’s most elusive particle.
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Magnifying the Quantum World
April 07, 2010
New experiments eliciting quantum behavior in objects large enough to be visible to the naked eye reveal the reality of the quantum world.
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Risk and Opportunity
April 06, 2010
Andrew Maynard, expert in nanotechnology policy and a former research scientist, on cultivating ingenuity—and humility—in an increasingly complex world.
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The Ancient, Distant, and Dead
March 04, 2010
Inspired by scientific research, Katie Paterson creates art based on data from faraway melting glaciers, long-dead stars, and the initial moments of the universe.
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The Ends of Earth, and Beyond
March 02, 2010
To answer the most pressing questions about the origins of the universe, scientists must retreat to isolated pinnacles in the Andes or the South Pole. Anil Ananthaswamy follows in their footsteps in his new book.
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The Pre-Electric Slide
February 25, 2010
In the mid-1800s, hobbyists’ microscopes and slides took up a place beside the piano in the parlor. Explore a selection of antique slides of remarkable precision and beauty.
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Life Imitating Life
January 28, 2010
Life, as the expression goes, isn’t always pretty. But with a few tricks of the lab, life in its simplest, single-celled forms can be manipulated into a thing of preternatural beauty.
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The Dog Particle
January 12, 2010
Chad Orzel has spent much of his teaching career explaining quantum mechanics. In his book, How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, he takes on a new breed of student.
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Portfolio: Red Sky at Night
December 22, 2009
The galactic center is brought to life by telescopes scanning across the electromagnetic spectrum, exposing star nurseries unseen via visible or UV light.
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What a Water-Full World
December 18, 2009
The discovery of an ocean-covered planet prompts reflections on the purpose, cost, and value of our forays into the great unknown of outer space.
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The Question of Quantum Chaos
December 14, 2009
Chaos is everywhere in the natural world, present in the coiling of smoke rings, the fronds of ferns, and the beating of our hearts. But at the level of quantum physics, chaos as we now define it is unquantifiable.
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Intergalactic Controversy
December 02, 2009
New observations of galactic clusters have revealed a controversial phenomenon called “dark flow,” which could be a sign of parallel universes.
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Taming Carbon’s Wild Side
November 30, 2009
Highly reactive molecules known as carbenes have gone from unstable intermediates with nanosecond lifetimes to powerful tools in synthetic chemistry.
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Rethinking Light and Sound
November 23, 2009
The director of the Census of Marine Life on broadening the scope of global change to include illumination and noise.
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Let There Be Light
November 17, 2009
Astronomers will soon find scores of Earth-sized exoplanets, but imaging them may be decades away. That is, unless NASA decides to build a starshade.
funding, pace, scale, space, technology
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A Miniature Miscellany
November 05, 2009
In their newest collaboration, Felice Frankel and George Whitesides explore the nanoscale world, from molecules to quantum dots.
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Portfolio: Flight Patterns
September 07, 2009
Richard Barnes's photographs of birds’ flight patterns above a Rome suburb highlight the tension between the individual and the collective.
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Mapping the Brain’s Highways
August 11, 2009
Neuroscientists are mapping out a complete atlas of connectivity in the human brain, but what’s emerging is a battle of scales.
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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Ideas
I Tried Almost Everything Else
John Rinn, snowboarder, skateboarder, and “genomic origamist,” on why we should dumpster-dive in our genomes and the inspiration of a middle-distance runner.
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Ideas
Going, Going, Gone
The second most common element in the universe is increasingly rare on Earth—except, for now, in America.
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Ideas
Earth-like Planets Aren’t Rare
Renowned planetary scientist James Kasting on the odds of finding another Earth-like planet and the power of science fiction.
