Archive for August, 2011

academic discussions

Monday, August 29th, 2011

This post is somewhat a brief follow-up post to the last post which mentioned a math conference/workshop. For those who are interested (sponsors, investors etc…. :) ) in the issue of academic jobs and mathematics: there is currently a discussion about math job opffers at the mathematics blog “n-category cafe”.

->related randform post

Oxford 2010

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

Some recycled pictures from Oxford, England where I was on a conference last year. Since I had not much time and only my little camera with me, they are a bit random and fuzzy. However they still give some impressions so I decided to post them here.

The image of the women’s room in the youth hostel (see below) may look more uncomfortable than it actually was. That is luckily all the six women in the room were attending the conference and all of them were very considerate people that is the partying teenager stayed out of the room and thus we all had more or less rather quiet nights.

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Holograms Reveal Brain’s Inner Workings

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011


“HirniKoppic”, Copic Markers on paper, by artist “nettwürg” on the occasion of the rumors about the possibility of closing the Medizinhistorisches Museum (Berlin Medical Historical Museum) of the Charité.

Using Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM) researchers of EPFL gathered quite some interesting images from inside the brain:

->Holograms Reveal Brain’s Inner Workings.

When do we get to see brain images from image imaginations? and when can others recognize these?

About Rügen

Sunday, August 14th, 2011

IMG_2549.JPG

Last week we did a short trip to the Island of Rügen in the baltic, which is amongst others famous for its stunningly beautiful Chalk Cliffs in the Jasmund National Park, including the Königstuhl (king’s chair). You may know the well-known picture Chalk Cliffs on Rügen by C.D. Friedrich.

update 15.08.11: Warning: especially after that recent rain the chalk cliffs can break. On Saturday evening there was an amount of ca. 30.000 cubic meters of chalk gliding. The Jasmund park authorities thus currently recommend not to stroll in their vicinity. According to the article the sea level has been rising by 28 cm in the last 200 ys. so that the hillside toe vanished. This leaves the chalk without any protection against the baltic.

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destructive sides of the power of science

Sunday, August 7th, 2011


Hiroshima nowadays

For commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki two links to recent comments, which I left on the blog Azimuth. One link is to a comment to the new scientist article article “The carbon cost of Germany’s nuclear ‘Nein danke!’ ” where I try to explain why the authors arguments that Germany’s renunciation of commercial nuclear power generation leads to more carbon output are flawed.

A second comment is related to the Manhattan project itself but also to the dangers of biotechnology.