I’m sure a lot of us are sitting on edge, waiting for those last minute gifts to arrive in the mail. Or, you haven’t even bought those last-minute presents yet.

Well, here’s one idea: organ donor dolls!

From Underwire: Seeking to inject a little whimsy into the deadly serious business of organ transplants, David Foox has created a line of Organ Donor Dolls garbed in hospital gowns and crowned with bulbous heads shaped like kidneys, hearts, livers and other internal organs.

The New York lawyer-turned-artist took his cue from Kidrobot Munnies and other hypercute dolls in designing the platoon of vinyl figures.

Foox became inspired to put a friendly face on the organ-donor process when he learned a family member needed a double lung transplant.

“Each of these pieces carries with it the notions of good fortune, good luck and opportunity,” he said.

Just a heads up I will not be posting over Thanksgiving weekend.

For now, a cool article from the BBC about the Neuroscience of an actor’s mind.

Excerpt:

For an actor, the performance conditions weren’t exactly ideal: flat on her back in a large machine, under strict instructions to lie as still as possible, speaking in short bursts interspersed with the shrill sound of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner.

But last week Fiona Shaw, one of Britain’s leading actresses – who has in her time played everything from the tragic heroine Medea to Shakespeare’s Richard II – volunteered in the cause of science to spend an hour having her brain scanned while “acting”.

Deadly tentacle of a Portuguese man-of-war stands out as a delicate pink ribbon containing toxin-filled beads. Alvaro Migotto

I thought I’d posted on this already, but there are SO MANY small photo competitions these days…sheesh! Small is big, or something:

10 Scientific American Magazine Bioscapes Photo Contest Winners Revealed: A gallery of images captured by light microscopy reveals the high art of the natural world

We are approaching the millennial anniversary of the first meaningful written description of how lenses and light could be used to magnify objects. It was in 1011 that Arab scientist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) began writing the Book of Optics, which described the properties of a magnifying glass, principles that later led to the invention of the microscope. The entrants in the 2009 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition provide fitting tribute to nearly 1,000 years of making the invisible visible.

Optical microscopy, energized by generation after generation of technological advance, continues to furnish dazzling proof that beyond the resolution of the human eye resides a sweepingly large world of small things, both around and within us. The artistic beauty of the microcosm can be witnessed in these photographs of the beadlike band of toxin-carrying compartments on the tentacle of the Portuguese man-of-war, the gemlike quality of row on row of single-celled algae and the red-and-yellow patterning of a Triceratops bone, reminiscent of a loud necktie. A selection of winning and honorable mention images that particularly appealed to us at Scientific American follows.

View Top Ten Winners Slideshow

From Wired:

It’s either the ultimate in couch comfort or a totally bizarre idea dreamed up by a pair of designers obsessed with neuroscience. Either way, the “Brainwave Sofa” is clearly a one-of-a-kind piece of furniture.

The couch’s lumpy, bumpy shape is a three-dimensional version of a brain scan, specifically a three-second recording of designer Lucas Maassen’s alpha brain waves as he closed his eyes and thought of the word “comfort.” Data from the electroencephalograph was processed by BioExplorer, a 3-D visualization program, and then fed directly into a milling machine that cut the shape out of soft foam.

The Brainwave Sofa is now on display at the Bits ‘n Pieces Exhibition in New York.

 By building thin, flexible silicon electronics on silk substrates, researchers have made electronics that almost completely dissolve inside the body. So far the research group has demonstrated arrays of transistors made on thin films of silk. While electronics must usually be encased to protect them from the body, these electronics don’t need protection, and the silk means the electronics conform to biological tissue. The silk melts away over time and the thin silicon circuits left behind don’t cause irritation because they are just nanometers thick.

“Current medical devices are very limited by the fact that the active electronics have to be ‘canned,’ or isolated from the body, and are on rigid silicon,” says Brian Litt, associate professor of neurology and bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Litt, who is working with the silk-silicon group to develop medical applications for the new devices, says they could interact with tissues in new ways. The group is developing silk-silicon LEDs that might act as photonic tattoos that can show blood-sugar readings, as well as arrays of conformable electrodes that might interface with the nervous system.

Last year, John Rogers, professor of materials science and engineering at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, developed flexible, stretchable silicon circuits whose performance matches that of their rigid counterparts. To make these devices biocompatible, Rogers’s lab collaborated with Fiorenzo Omenetto and David Kaplan, professors of bioengineering at Tufts University in Medford, MA, who last year reported making nanopatterned optical devices from silkworm-cocoon proteins.

To make the devices, silicon transistors about one millimeter long and 250 nanometers thick are collected on a stamp and then transferred to the surface of a thin film of silk. The silk holds each device in place, even after the array is implanted in an animal and wetted with saline, causing it to conform to the tissue surface. In a paper published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, the researchers report that these devices can be implanted in animals with no adverse effects. And the performance of the transistors on silk inside the body doesn’t suffer.

Albany, NY – The unique intersection of the worlds of art and science – including the impact of ever-evolving technologies on the emerging definition of humanity – will take center stage during the first-ever Biotech Performance Festival presented jointly by the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (“CNSE”) and UAlbany’s Department of Theatre.

The performances, to be held October 30 through November 7 at UAlbany’s Performing Arts Center, will transform the theatrical stage into a laboratory and the role of a playwright into that of a researcher, courtesy of a 90-minute evening of plays that explore how technology is redrawing what constitutes the living and the mechanical, the generated and the engineered, the synthetic and the natural.

The theatrical stage offers a unique opportunity to raise a community’s awareness and understanding of the issues that surround the cutting-edge research that defines the 21^st century technological revolution. Five plays to be offered at each performance provide an outlet for a theatrical response to a world in which our perceptions of nature and culture have been greatly affected by new technologies – and provide a platform to investigate the technological revolution in our classrooms and communities.

Featured playwrights at the festival include Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy, executive director of the New York State Writers Institute at UAlbany, and Jackie Roberts, assistant professor of theatre at UAlbany and curator of the Biotech Performance Festival.

University at Albany President George M. Philip said, “This cross-campus, interdisciplinary collaboration combines the groundbreaking education and research of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering with the distinctive artistic expression of the Department of Theatre.  I applaud this exciting partnership and look forward to a performance that will be equal parts enlightening, educational and entertaining.”

CNSE Senior Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Alain E. Kaloyeros said, “The UAlbany NanoCollege is delighted to partner with the Department of Theatre to present the first-ever Biotech Performance Festival, which offers an exciting opportunity to explore the educational, cultural and societal impacts of the scientific revolution being driven by nanotechnology. As the 21^st century is increasingly shaped by the emergence of new and transformative technologies, this pioneering effort will promote further understanding of the growing connection between modern-day innovation and our humanity.”

Roberts said, “We are thrilled to present the Biotech Performance Festival in partnership with the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, which truly exemplifies the exciting world of modern-day scientific discovery and exploration. The collision of science with the performing arts gives us a chance to raise issues, promote dialogue and offer a bold perspective on our world as it is shaped by the emergence of new technologies. It should prove to be a unique and wonderful experience.”

Kennedy said, “The technology that is abroad in the land these days, and which is shaping a new reality for everybody, is indeed a wonder to many.  But it is also a grand mystification for just as many.  The Biotech Performance Festival opens up windows on how a few of these disparities might collide, how some people cope with them (or don’t) and what we might learn from the collision.”

In his play In the System, Kennedy tells the story of two small-time gamblers who embrace technology to make a killing at the racetrack. Roberts’ A Tale for Children is a modern-day mermaid story with a genetic twist. Other featured plays include It’s a Small, Small World by Alice Kauffman, in which a 15-year-old boy teaches his mother about nanotechnology; Stained Glass by Lindsay Price, which recounts the first human trial of a breakthrough cancer treatment; and the apocalyptic tale spawned by a mad scientist in The Second Coming by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro.

Performances are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, October 30 and 31 at 8 pm; Sunday, November 1 at 2 pm; Wednesday-Friday, November 4-6 at 8 pm; and Saturday, November 7 at 2 pm. For more information, please visit http://www.albany.edu/theatre/biotechfestival.html.

From Brainbows to dyed cells, all the prettiest images created with the aid of the human body (or someone’s body).

different brainbows

Follow the link to see the slideshow from Discover Magazine

If you’re interested in these images from a more scientific standpoint, go check out some different Journals that specialize in biomedical imaging:

Journal of Biomedical Optics
BMC Medical Imaging
Journal of Radiology

What else? Leave more in the comments, and I’ll insert them into this post.

Genetically engineered e. coli bacteria traced this outline of filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock

Engineered E. coli bacteria can now trace the outline of an image on an agar plate in a feat that shows how manipulating small organisms could lead to synthetic biological devices useful to technology and medicine.

 ”It looks like a pen came in and traced the outline of the image,” said Jeff Tabor, a scientist at the University of California, San Francisco who helped genetically engineer the E. coli bacteria.

Tabor says getting bacteria to trace images was “significantly more complicated” than their original project, which was to create black and white photograph-like images with bacteria for the annual iGEM competition at MIT.

The complexity of this new task could pave the way to new, sophisticated chemical and environmental sensors.

Creating an image with bacteria is relatively simple. Genes that respond to the absence of light are injected into the E. coli. When they don’t detect light, they produce a black pigment. If the bacteria do sense light they remain translucent. The human eye detects light in a similar manner, responding not to the light itself, but to the absence of light.

Using this technique, Tabor and his colleagues at UCSF and the University of Texas, Austen created ghostly pictures of squid and people in 2005. The images were a very high resolution, with each bacteria representing one pixel.

More at Discovery News

This isn’t so much about the art behind imaging molecules (although it is kind of pretty) but more about the technology behind the camera that took the image. This is actually an older story, and I’ve been debating whether it’s Art of Science worthy, but frankly, it’s just amazing that we’re finally able to image something as small as a molecule, so it’s in based solely on coolness.

From BBC News:

The detailed chemical structure of a single molecule has been imaged for the first time, say researchers.

The physical shape of single carbon nanotubes has been outlined before, using similar techniques – but the new method even shows up chemical bonds.

Understanding structure on this scale could help in the design of many things on the molecular scale, particularly electronics or even drugs.

The IBM researchers reported their findings in the journal Science in August of this year.

It is the same group that in July reported the feat of measuring the charge on a single atom.

In both cases, a team from IBM Research Zurich used what is known as an atomic force microscope or AFM.

Their version of the device acts like a tiny tuning fork, with one of the prongs of the fork passing incredibly close to the sample and the other farther away.

When the fork is set vibrating, the prong nearest the sample will experience a minuscule shift in the frequency of its vibration, simply because it is getting close to the molecule.

Comparing the frequencies of the two prongs gives a measure of just how close the nearer prong is, effectively mapping out the molecule’s structure.

September 26th is Annual Museum Day, and lots of museums and parks are offering free admission in celebration. Read on for more:

On Sept. 26, as part of the fifth annual Museum Day program, Smithsonian magazine has convinced more than 1,200 other museums, zoos, and arts and cultural attractions across the country to also welcome visitors for free.

In California, you’ll can use your Museum Day admission card to visit the classic cars displayed at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento (regular adult admission: $8), in New York City you can use your pass at the South Street Seaport Museum (regular adult admission: $10), and in Dallas, your pass will get you into the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (regular admission: $13.50), which explores the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy. 

To see the full list of all the participating museums so you can plan your day, visit the Smithsonian’s Museum Day 2009 Web site and poke around. Be ready to be a bit overwhelmed.