Consider microstock giant iStockphoto’s perception of scientists: What is singularly disturbing about this result is that iStockphoto’s top search results aren’t determined by the company. Like any good search engine, iStockphoto’s ranking algorithm is a dynamic, organic process driven by statistics drawn from past interest in the content. The Scientist-as-Mad-Scientist,  and the lab-coat-and-blue-liquid cliché, are [...]

Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500. [HP color laser jet 2840 = $350] Today’s image comes to us from aspiring macro photographer Maxim Piessen, who explains: A friend and I need to make a paper for school because we are in the last year of high school. Our subject: ‘how [...]

In January, landscape photographer John Mueller sparked a lengthy debate about the economics of art with a simple observation: It cost me $6,612 to take this photo. $12 in gas to go from work to this spot and then home. The camera I took this with cost $2500. The lens was another $1600. The Singh Ray [...]

Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500. [Apple iPhone 4s - $300] Light bends as it passes through liquids, and the amount it bends depends on the molecular properties of the medium. I wanted to demonstrate this effect in a single image by contrasting the refractive qualities of oil and water [...]

…consider this: You might think, on reading this story, that myrmecologists had made a significant new discovery. But you’d be wrong. That’s because this isn’t a news story. There is no breaking research paper, or even a press release. Rather, this is a YouTube clip extracted from an 8-year old nature documentary called Ants: Nature’s Secret [...]

For being mildly arachnophobic I’ve been on a real spider binge lately. Here’s a wonderful Smithsonian-produced video highlighting the role of photography in spider science: (h/t Bug Girl)

Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500. [Apple iPhone 4s - $300] Working at the microscope yesterday I suddenly remembered Thrifty Thursday. I needed a photo! So I stuck my iPhone behind the carpenter ant I was examining and took this self-portrait. The insect arrived at my desk via the citizen-science [...]

A few days ago, NASA released this lovely composite image of our home planet: It’s a spectacular image. Click to view in full resolution! But the projection is slightly…unusual. Can you pick why this isn’t what the earth would look like if you were viewing it from, say, the moon?

Imagine, for a moment, the horror if we humans were stalked by a common predator that hid itself in the open by looking…just like us. A humanoid patrolling the streets like a bloodthirsty mannequin, picking off pedestrians that venture too close. Fortunately for us, this sobering thought is only a grim fantasy. Australian weaver ants, [...]

As the science media today is carrying news of how spiders use defocus to judge distance, I thought it an opportune moment to share the portfolio of a master of spider portraiture. Oklahoma artist Thomas Shahan may scarcely be out of college, but he is recognized worldwide for his startling portrayals of jumping spiders. If [...]