Man, doesn't that look *exactly* like it was built by that SF cover artist from ...um ... the fifties? Did a big chunk of those non-realistic covers with the geometric shapes?
Gad, this would be a much more insightful comment if I could just remember his (or her) *name*. #art
@bluehinter: Yeah. Genius-boy couldn't figure out that Brak and his buds with the bulgy head creases were a little "odd," but he gets to boogaloo in the old freezy tubes with Faith Domergue. Life is just not fair. #art
@gorehound: I think being on MST3K automatically disqualifies you for ever being remade, (though remaking old Ed Wood movies seems to have suddenly become popular) #art
Thank you, Bauhaus, for continuing to give the world beautiful objects for beautiful purposes, long after you had to close your doors. If I could, I would apologize for the dilution of the many concepts nurtured within your walls and summarily employed as bastardized absolutes for design which in turn led to the revolting child's tantrum that is post-modernism. But as a product of all that came after you, I can't. #art
at first i was thinking, 'that cool blazey sun thing would look ultra hip as say, a 4x5 foot printed canvas on the wall...' than i read what it was... and than i knew that if i did it, people would ask what it was...than i would tell them... than she would ask if i was a scientist, i would say no, and she would look at me like a creepy date rapest, and leave....
if you like this kind of stuff (esp the journey from the making of a sperm or egg to a baby) you need to check out Lennart Nilsson's work. Not news, but certainly worth mentioning. A Swedish photographer who has produced so many gorgeous pictures, with microscopy as well as regular cameras. The anatomy ones are just stunning.
Careful, Charlie Jane Anders, you don't want some folks to start a 1000-post discussion on whether or not life begins at the moment the sperm enters the egg. Some of them would rather wait for "life" to begin a good trimester or so after that, others only after birth. (I personally think the egg and sperm themselves are a form of human life, but that's just me.) #scienceart
@RenRen: I don't think there's anything in the text that would imply an opinion either way. Hopefully that's enough to stave off the wolves. Bark #scienceart
@RenRen: you seem to have discounted the possiblity that someone both feels life begins at conception AND is perfectly ok with a first, second, or even a third trimester abortion. #scienceart
@RenRen: I think the whole question of whether "life" begins is rather irrelevant, just because, as you point out, sperm and egg cells are their own form of life, just like every cell in the human body is - but not necessarily "alive" in the way a baby is. "Life" is one of those things for which if you ask 10 people, you'll get 10 different answers, and thus it's misleading and disingenuous to draw a specific line (no matter where you draw it) between what constitutes "living" and "nonliving." People only try to do so because it's politically expedient for them; I don't bother because I think that's not really what these issues (abortion, birth control etc.) are about, anyway. #scienceart
@RenRen: Well, I know that spermatazoa and eggs are living cells before they combine into zygotes and I'm perfectly okay with abortion in the first, second, and third trimester....mostly because I know that only 1/4 of the eggs that are fertilized will implant in the uterus and become a pregnancy and of those that do implant in a woman's uterus 50% will wind up being miscarried in the first 6 weeks of the first trimester. Not all embryos were meant to be fetuses, not all fetuses were meant to become babies, and sadly not all babies grow up to be adults. Whether the termination of a pregnancy was the choice of an omnipotent super-being or the the choice of the woman, sometimes it's just not meant to be. I am a Jezebel and therefore have discussed conception, pregnancy, birth, and abortion whilst being civilized and rational many, many times. I'm sure the folks on I09 can do the same. #scienceart
@cadrina: I'm no biologistician, but in my understanding once the egg accepts one of the sperm, it changes the make-up of its membrane to make it impermeable to other sperm cells through some sort of enzyme reaction. #scienceart
@cadrina: Let's see what I can remember from developmental biology: I believe it's the cortical reaction that prevents polyspermy. It occurs when the sperm comes in contact with the egg's plasma membrane. The result of the reaction is that an extracellular layer of the egg is into modified into a fertilization membrane which lifts away any other sperm trying to enter the egg and prevents all other from entering. That's the slow block to polyspermy (there's a lot more details to it then that, but that's a basic outline). If polyspermy ever does occur it's instant death for the egg. #scienceart
@RandomFrequentFlierDent: Wait, I thought that's how fraternal twins happen... when two sperms somehow were able to enter at the same time and are both accepted by the egg.
Hmm...this must be the reason I'm an IT engineer and not a doctor. :-P #scienceart
@RandomFrequentFlierDent: In college I spent a semester working in a biochem research lab investigating the role of calcium in all that. I can't tell you much about it, though, because I was basically just a glorified dish washer. Although I did have to make some trips to a slaughterhouse to pick up "research materials." Fertility research? I'll leave it to your imagination what the materials were. #scienceart
@reekon: Fraternal twins happen when two separate eggs are released during ovulation. Identical twins are when one fertilized egg (fertilized by one sperm) splits into two. #scienceart
@CSX321: I have an idea of what you went through - I spent a summer working at a salmon research station which dealt with reproduction. Although I dealt mostly with building an enclosure to video tape the salmon reproductive process (yes, it was fish porn). #scienceart
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Its just a fancy light fitting? #art
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Gad, this would be a much more insightful comment if I could just remember his (or her) *name*. #art
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No, no, no! You put it together wrong. It's supposed to look like this! #art
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This makes me very angry, very angry indeed. #art
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...i'm doing it anyway.... #scienceart
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[www.lennartnilsson.com]
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@crashedpc - unrein: No, it was the title. #scienceart
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Hmm...this must be the reason I'm an IT engineer and not a doctor. :-P #scienceart
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