Stories by Kalliopi Monoyios

So much good scienceart on display… where to begin!? EXHIBITS: NORTHEAST REGION LIFE: Magnified June – November 2014 Gateway Gallery Between Concourse C and the AeroTrain C-Gates station Washington Dulles International Airport Washington, D.C.

Source: from “Middle Schoolers Develop App to Help Visually Impaired,” by Mónica I. Feliú-Mójer’s on Voices Credit: Image courtesy of Maggie Bolado From the Department of Inspiring Teenagers, meet the all-female team of six that invented an app to help visually impaired students navigate their schools.

Nobody goes around saying they want to look like Barbie when they grow up, at least not anymore. But with Halloween fast approaching, I dare you to find a class of kindergarteners that does not have at least half the girls planning to be princesses of some sort or another.

For three years now we have been celebrating science artists here on Symbiartic. Every September we have stepped it up a notch to feature a different science artist each day in our September SciArt Blitz.

One of the great wonders of life is watching the leaves change colors in the fall. When temperatures get cool, chlorophyll begins to break down revealing the underlying pigments in the plants’ sap.

According to science comic, xkcd, the answer is no: For the past 25 days, we have been showing off a different artist each day who is working at the intersection of science and art.

With cold and flu season upon us and cooler weather increasingly pushing us indoors, it’s time to remind ourselves how to stay healthy.

Japanese artist Aki Inomata created a series of 3D-printed hermit crab homes after learning that the land under the French Embassy in Tokyo changed from being French to being Japanese in 2009 and would subsequently change back in 2059.

As I write this, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens is preparing an exhibit showcasing the work of Dick Rauh, a botanical illustrator who has distinguished himself as a master of botanical illustration since he picked up a pen and paper in his retirement.

I initially contacted Bryan Christie to request permission to feature his spectacular cheetah illustration in this year’s blitz. He agreed, and so here it is, in all its glory: But he also tipped me off to his fine art work that is equally worthy of note: How could two such disparate styles emanate from the [...]

When tallying up a list of materials to use in assembling delicate fairy sculptures, bug parts might not be first on your average list. But for sculptor Cedric Laquieze, who is fascinated with organic materials and a natural aesthetic, they are the perfect choice.

Paper cutting as an art form is almost as old as paper itself. Traditionally, though, paper cuts are 2-dimensional, almost cartoonish depictions of scenes because of the nature of the process: either the paper is there, or it is cut away, leaving the artist with two tones to work with.

I’ve heard it said that if you removed everything from the forest except for fungi you would still be able to discern outlines of trees and leaves because of the vast fungal networks of pervading everything.

Mineo Mizuno is a sculptor whose fascination with water as a central part of our existence took him on a journey resulting in this stunning series of large-scale moss-covered ceramic discs.

Have you ever wondered who illustrates the murals at our beloved museums, zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens? Marjorie Leggitt is one such person.

If we could walk through each others’ thoughts, what would they look like? Tangled gardens overgrown with living, growing ideas, each competing for space as they reach for the sun?

It would be easy enough to photoshop a geometric pattern onto an image of a waterfall, and if that was how this image had been created I would still have nodded in appreciation of the originality and execution.

The inside scoop on the best science art exhibitions around the country: EXHIBITS: NORTHEAST REGION LIFE: Magnified June – November 2014 Gateway Gallery Between Concourse C and the AeroTrain C-Gates station Washington Dulles International Airport Washington, D.C.

Image: 1936 Joy Oil gas station blueprints (top); sequence from human chromosome 1 (bottom). Source: from A Monkey’s Blueprint by Martin Krzywinski on SA Visual When artist Martin Krzywinski was challenged to come up with a graphic that quickly and concisely shows how the human genome is more similar to chimpanzee and bonobo genomes than [...]

Think of the last time you were in the presence of something really old. Was it a cherished possession of one of your family members? Was it a used book or antique that spoke to you from a dusty hole-in-the-wall shop?

The Ebola outbreak in Western Africa continues to make the news as more cases are reported and casualties rise. A common thread in reporting is the difficulty in communicating accurate information to combat the spread of the virus when communities are gripped with fear and misinformation spreads as quickly as the virus itself.

Image Credit: Ghareeb et al. (2013), Journal of Hospital Infection Source: Fist Bumps for Germophobes by Christina Agapakis on Oscillator The thought of outlawing handshakes and making fist bumps mandatory for hospital employees might strike you as rather amusing.

Understanding copyright law is essential for visual artists. At the Guild of Natural Science Illustrator’s conference last week in Boulder, CO Viva Moffat ran a workshop on contracts and copyright which was packed to the gills.

Credit: China News Service/Zhong Xin Source: Bec Crew’s Largest aquatic insect in the world found in China on Running Ponies Remember the Guinness Book of World Records?