a custom-made casing for a flourescent tube light based on recording & graphing 1 second of the ambient ‘hum’ sound produced by the light. the resulting 3D volume consists of a frequency time graph of 50 sequential laser-cut acrylic layers, with each layer corresponding to 20ms of the sound recording
Research into Lou Gehrig’s disease has demonstrated that, at least in mice carrying the genetic mutation, it can spatially manifest itself as ‘very subtle’ but detectable behavioral patterns before the onset of symptoms.
Quoting at length a press release from the American Psychological Association:
Researchers led by Neri Kafkafi, PhD, of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, part of the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine, mathematically analyzed about 50,000 predetermined movement patterns that resulted when rats roamed freely, one by one, in a small arena. The software created an abstract space defined by combinations of behavior such as speed, acceleration and direction of movement. Mining the resulting behavioral data enabled researchers to test many more facets of behavior than they could analyze manually.
After videotaping the movement of two groups of rats – one type with the mutation that results in an ALS-type syndrome, the other type normal controls — the scientists used the computer to ‘pan’ for differences between groups and identified a unique motor pattern in mutant rats two months before disease onset (which would equate to roughly five to 10 years in humans).
Of the multitude of behavior patterns analyzed, the predefined ‘heavily braking while slightly turning away from the wall’ showed a group difference. In two independent data sets, rats with the ALS-type mutation were significantly less likely than controls to brake and turn from the arena wall as they approached.
The benefit of this study is that ‘by being able to predict more accurately which carriers may express the disease before they experience symptoms (the ‘premorbid’ state), researchers could test medicines that might prevent symptoms from emerging.’
One wonders whether this sort of research, somewhere down the line, will result in public places getting littered with CCTV cameras data mining for the tell-tale signs of genetic diseases affecting motor functions. Similarly when traffic cameras take a photo of your license plate when you go over the speed limit and then get your ticket in the mail a couple of days later, these outdoor medical scanners take a photo of your face, match it up to a database at the CDC and a couple of days later, you get a diagnosis in the mail.
There will be a specially outfitted plaza where those without health insurance can get their free check-ups. Those with no more sick days can simply walk pass through on their way to work or linger about during their lunch breaks. Hypochondriacs will come in droves and stay there, like skateboarders to a Brutalist plaza.
If there is a predictive behavioral pattern to a pedophile’s movements within the spatial confines of playgrounds and park (that is, if children still go outdoors anymore) as well as the streets bordering schools, you get a court order to receive some psychiatric counseling.
Do terrorists have a genetic mutation that not only affect their cognitive reasoning but also their motor functions, the pattern array of which is so perceptibly different with that of non-terrorists that you can ‘spot’ them?
a series of artistic data sculptures whose form and content is determined by information (artistic, historical, political, social) from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gallup Organization, the Bureau of Labor Statistics & many other dataset sources.
for instance, in data sculpture titled ‘Corpse 2′, the length of each of piece is divided into 90 equal parts, each one representing a year of age, from infancy (0-1 year) to the 90th year, moving from the thin end to the thick. the width of each section is determined by the average (1976 to 1998) number of non-gun homicides per year for people at that age. the vertical dimension is set by the number of gun homicides.
left: Blossfeldt Fractals (detail) - William Ngan & Right: Crystalpunk Automaton - Wilfried Hou Je Bek
Metaphorical brings to us a new work based on the photographs of Karl Blossfeldt and generated using a species of algorithm similar to L-Systems. Check out the dynamically generated Blossfeldt Fractals here, you can also read about the [...]
Tom sent in this letter to Physics Today, he used an atomic clocks to show his kids they’d get an extra 22 nanosecond from relativistic time dilation… I’m a little skeptical since the difference would be super tiny, but have a gander - it’s pretty neat -
I enjoyed Daniel Kleppner’s Reference Frame about the relativistic effects of elevation on precise clocks (PHYSICS TODAY, March 2006, page 10). He would be amused with an experiment I did with my kids last year.
The year 2005 was the widely publicized 100th anniversary of Einstein’s first paper on relativity and the lesser-known 50th anniversary of Louis Essen’s first cesium clock. To celebrate, I created Project GREAT (General Relativity Einstein/Essen Anniversary Test), perhaps the first “kitchen science” relativity experiment.
As a collector of vintage and modern atomic clocks, I discovered it was possible, using gear found at home, to convert our family minivan into a mobile high-precision time laboratory, complete with batteries, power converters, time interval counters, three children, and three cesium clocks (see photograph). We drove as high as we could up Mount Rainier, the volcano near Seattle, Washington, and parked there for two days. The trip was continuously logged with the global positioning system; the net altitude gain was +1340 meters.
in relative time-keeping - Physics Today March 2007 - [via] Link.
Related:
Project GREAT - General Relativity Einstein / Essen Anniversary Test - 3 kids, 3 cesium clocks, a family road trip to measure relativistic time dilation - Link.
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