An eye on ENCODE

My job is pretty cool. After a month and a half of guessing what two of my workmates had been slaving away on – they weren’t allowed to talk about it – I was invited to a press launch.

It had a live dance routine.

That’s pretty cool.

The project was the launch of ENCODE, which happened at the Science Museum a few weeks ago. It is a major effort to investigate and explore the human genome, trying to go beyond reams and reams of base pairs to find actual function. You might have heard about it; this is an excellent overview.

Anyway, I got to sneak around taking a few pictures from the launch. It was impressive.

I genuinely didn’t expect to see something like this at a science press release.

The dance represented the physical bending and shaping of the genome by proteins and RNA.

At times, there was effortless grace and fluid motion; at others, awkward contortion and physical effort. A bit like any difficult endeavour!

I’m going to try to upload my last month or so of pictures soon… promise!

“See Something or Say Something”

This is a very cool idea. It’s a map of geographically tagged Twitter (blue) and Flickr (orange) items; examining whether people in a certain region prefer to share what they say, or what they see.

In many ways, I would prefer to be in the orange (flickr) areas – they’re more likely to be photogenic, wild and beautiful! What is interesting, however, is the substanial number of areas in developing countries where blue is more prevalent – people may place more importance on communicating words than images, or have less access to fancy digital cameras. Note, for example, the difference between Java and Bali. Where are the wealthy tourists with cameras?

The big one, and the only one in the set (linked to above via the image) to feature Australia is the world (warning: big file). It’s fascinating to navigate, though – where in the world have you been, and did you take photos while you were there?

Next up is another little internet gem: the Gold Whale…

The White Knight

Leading the charge!

One of the good things about my new job is the sheer broadness of the projects I’m helping with. This one is about sight and touch, and their relationship with aesthetics and making.

People are asked to sculpt with a bit of plasticine for 10 minutes, either with their eyes open, or eyes shut. We’ve collected about 50 each of the results so far, so there’s a table full of little bits and bobs in the space, waiting to be analysed. This one caught my eye – I think someone was cheating, because they’re only supposed to use white or black, not both!