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I’ve learned about several kinds of DNA — non-coding DNA, junk DNA, satellite DNA, selfish DNA, triple-stranded DNA and so forth — but I’ve never heard about sleep DNA before. Until today: Clue: I’ve been surfing around to find a new mattress for my aching back (bad REM sleep = bad blog posts) and found this ad by […]

The Museum Boerhaave in Leiden is organising a conference on ‘Lessons in anatomy made easy: Anatomical models in scientific and cultural context’, 6-7 November 2008. Anatomical models nowadays are made of plastic and so common that simple ones are sold in the department stores everywhere. The origins of these models are to be seen in the permanent […]

What’s a ‘liquid image’ (or ‘the liquidity of the image’ for that sake)? The answer may be given at the Second International Conference on Image Science in the Göttweig Monastery near Vienna, 16-18 October. The conference — which is organized by the Department für Bildwissenschaften at Donau Universität Krems (with the witty German subtitle Wider […]

Apropos Fleur’s comment on the critical function of art — Royal College of Art student Revital Cohen‘s project ‘Life Support’ problematizes the possible future use of animals as medical devices: Assistance animals – from guide dogs to psychiatric service cats – unlike computerised machines, can establish a natural symbiosis with the patients who rely on them. Could […]

Under the heading “Journals under Threat: A Joint Response from HSTM Editors” ten editors of some of the leading international journals for history and philosophy of science and social studies of science have issued a joint declaration against the current attempts, initiated by the European Science Foundation, to establish a European rating system for humanities journals (ERIH):

The city of Kalmar on the southeast coast of Sweden has just been endowed with a fabulous new art museum: Kalmar Konstmuseum—a tall, black, wood-covered concrete building hidden among the high trees in the old city park. Something like a hybrid between a postmodern fire watch tower and the Royal Library building in Copenhagen (the […]

Inspired by Material World we thought we would like to know who our readers are. We know you are dispersed all over the world — from Korea to Chile, from Alaska to South Africa. Most of you come from Denmark, United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States, fewer reside in Colombia, Norway and Australia. Why do you read this blog […]

Veterinary history used to be one of these backward corners of the historical specialities occupied by happy amateurs (read: retired veterinarians). Not so much anymore. Younger professional generations are mobilising current historiographical tools to understand the history of domesticated animals and their health problems, including their relations with humans. And there’s of course also bioethical problems involved.   […]

I haven’t read Daniel Miller‘s recently published The Comfort of Things (Polity Press, 2008) yet, but his own presentation of the book in today’s Material World promises an extra-ordinary interesting reading experience for anyone interested in the use of ‘particulars’ (unique, anecdotal, idiosyncratic, singular, curious, etc. things) in museum practice. The Comfort of Things is composed […]

Cannot resist spreading this image from the Brazilian advertising agency NeogamaBBH, which is circulating in the blogosphere right now (e.g., Street Anatomy, Frame 2wenty 4our, etc.). For more, see here.      

The James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at the Saïd Business School , Universitry of Oxford, is announcing two research fellows in science and technology studies. The range of research topics includes (but is not limited to): biomedical innovation and society; cognitive enhancement; converging technologies; evidence and evidence-policy relations; governance of genetic technologies; science, technology and inequality; imaging […]

Together with some one hundred other hopeful Danish university academics, Søren and I spent three hours today listening to representatives of the Danish Council for Strategic Research instructing us how to write better applications for so called ‘strategic’ research projects in co-operation with Danish small and middle-sized corporations. It’s all about getting funding for projects that will promote long-term Danish economic interests; all us gathered in the room […]