Art
Study: Mice Prefer Kandinsky to Mondrian
A recent study shows that mice can indeed have preferences to paintings, given the proper morphine reinforcement.
Science
Opinion
What Happens When You Cross Banking with Physics
If you were to apply the principles of quantum physics to banking, could you generate billions of dollars and fix the world's economy? That's the premise of a new project by artist Jonathon Keats called the Quantum Bank. It opened by way of a prototype quantum ATM installed at the Engineer's Office
Art
Museums Turn to Crowdsourcing to Unlock Secrets of their Collections
Bugs number in the billions in natural history museums worldwide, but the information embedded in their label text that could indicate changes in climate, species, and geographic distribution has yet to be digitized and so remains inaccessible. Now a project called Calbug has teamed up with Notes fr
Books
The Hidden Beauty of Disease Under Our Skin
Beneath our sheath of skin is an internal world both vast and complex. While most of us rarely get to see it, these workings of our systems and organs are the daily viewing of pathologists, particularly when it comes to disease. A new book of photography takes us into our own interiors, and shows th
News
Coming Soon: A Place for Science and Art to Play Together
It's possible that scientists and artists may have one side of their brain more dominant than the other, with the broadly opposite characteristics of logic and creativity, but the best innovations in both fields tend to come from using the whole mind. In an attempt to instigate such mental dialogues
Art
Early Anatomical Specimens Model the Macabre
Long before Body Worlds shocked people with its theatrically preserved people or Damien Hirst even thought to dunk a dead shark in a tank of formaldehyde, scientists were erring into the realm of art with their attempts at preserving life for anatomical study. The specimens in particular that emerge
Art
New Research Suggests Lack of Brain Filter May Increase Creativity
Quick, think of a new use for a baseball bat. If you thought of something that doesn't involve a swinging action (e.g., smashing things), such as using it as a rolling pin, congratulations, you're a person with excellent creativity. However, you may also have less of a brain "filter" than most.
Art
The Relationship Between Science and Art, Explored Through Laboratory Architecture
BRIGHTON, UK — Tucked behind an aging mews of terraced houses in the historic city of Cambridge is a hidden modernist science facility. Negotiating tight security and an immaculate grey gravel drive, expectations climb as you approach an understated entrance in a warm yet sleek façade. The straight
Art
Documenta 13’s Art Laboratory
There’s been much talk in the art world during the past decade about the rise of the curator as artist, a figure who in her or his most overweening moments seeks to render artist and artwork secondary to the vision — or, at worst, predetermined program — for a particular exhibition. MFAs in curatori
Opinion
Self-Healing Material
Mimicking how our body responds to cuts, scientists work to create self-healing materials.
Art
Are Artists the Best Curators?
The most galvanizing room, hands down, in the current Whitney Biennial is the Forrest Bess micro-retrospective put together by sculptor Robert Gober. And on Tuesday, in what could be a trend, another museum-quality exhibition opened, organized by another sculptor — Matthew Day Jackson’s “Science on
Opinion
Want to be More Creative? Science Suggests Stop Fretting Over Mistakes
LOS ANGELES — What's going on in artists' brains when they create? I've done a few posts recently that suggest answers. But one of the most intriguing issues is the actual act of creation in the moment, i.e., how artists come up with incredible creativity in the moment.