drawing a comic

*I must leave more room for speech bubbles
*Possessing breasts doesn’t mean I can draw them
*Hiding the charactes hands behind things doesn’t make me a better artist
*My computer needs more RAM before it crashes under the pressure of 300dpi pics in pseudo-photoshop software…

Illustrating a comic isn’t all its cracked up to be. Especially when you’re studying, you’re tired, the baby’s screaming and you’ve just drawn a cladogram in place of someone’s face. I haven’t done that yet, but I nearly started typing academic notes into a speech bubble, and I can see the first scenario, oh-so-clearly! I didn’t do Mind’s Eye for nothing.

horizon’s synthetic biology

I clicked over halfway through Horizon: Playing God on BBC2. There was less of the playing God, and more of the streetwise science/kitchen science/bucket science, whatever you want to call it.

A few minutes after being introduced to Synthetic Biology we’re into pop-up labs and biohackers. Man! What I wouldn’t have given for that when I was in school! When I started on the science-path; it was all degrees and PhDs; something I’ve lurked around the edges of and finally shied away from. I’m finishing my degree purely to punch through that pain barrier and prove to myself that even this dumbass can handle it.

The whole show takes me back to the days I only read of when scienctists turn author and tell their anecdotes of the nights in the school lab, building kit-cars and having a garage filled with bits and pieces that they hack together, turning childhood curiousity into scientific discovery and invention.

I wish I’d been born fifty years earlier or twenty years late. Although it seems, from what I read, that biohacking isn’t really all that new…

You can read more here:

http://biocurious.org/
Bedroom Biotech
Genome at Home
Dawn of the BioHackers

Whilst exciting there are risks and concerns that we’re moving too fast. However, the microchip revolution moved quickly, there are always conerns, naysayers and worrywarts and yet, its rarely allowed to significantly delay the next bit revolution. So is synthetic biology playing the role of a god? Or is it simply another tool that humanity can use for any purpose it sets its mind to?

tying up the loose ends

I made a promise several months ago, before I had a baby, drove a car, moved house… that kind of thing. I’ve already declared my intent to resign from my current job (the travel is unsustainable) and now I have a shelf full of notes, clippings, experiments, tips and tricks from my work as school tech for the past eight years.

nanowrimo 2011 part-2

Raw, straight to the new-post page, here’s the second instalment. By the way, typing one-handed sucks, so forgive any errors in the spirit of getting as many words to the paper as possible. This is nanowrimo, its all about the quantity.

Rainar glanced back one last time at the infirmary before padding into the woods beyond the compound, leaving the shabby collection of buildings behind. The moonless night made for bad footing, but Rainar’s step was sure as he lengthened his stride, taking advantage of the footpaths that snaked through the trees to pick up speed. His stamina was incredible, able to carry him for miles at a time over rough and smooth. He could run for hours, and at times he did; only at night and always within the confines of the sanctuary.

frozen planet

Unlike a lot of my tv, where I multi-task and do something else as well as listening/watching the program, Attenborough always demands my full attention. Richly deserved, I might add, especially with his latest offering ‘Frozen Planet‘.

The first episode was captivating, and the image of a tunnel, deep into the ice, with a waterfall cascading into it, is stuck with me. I suspect it may well float in front of my eyes when I’m old, grey and nuts. Either way I will subject my grandchildren to it, over and over and over again.

If you’d like to take a peek, its on BBC iplayer here.

nanowrimo 2011 part-1

The windswept road stretched away into darkness in both directions; but at no extraordinary point along the way, a small island of light, created by headlights and torches, shone in the night. Cars parked with blinking hazard lights and, on the west-running lane, a small crowd of people huddled together in a state of curiosity and excitement.

NaNoWriMo 2011

I’ve started this blog and wiped it clean so many times, i should be a firm believer in reincarnation by now. If my blog were a piece of paper, and the DEL key an eraser, I would have rubbed both into oblivion by now.

Try, try, try, try, try, try again, and so on,pretty much forever in my case. So I thought I’d kickstart with another attempt at NaNoWriMo 2011.