Jay Silver is a researcher in the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. I first met Jay when I arrived in Bangalore about ten months ago. While he was there, he made all kinds of cool things that allowed us to interact in interesting and fun ways with our environment! His recent work has been looking at how to make touch, sensation, and interaction with the world around us astonishing, especially for kids! I made this video while discussing his work with him in the Media Lab.
`I should see the garden far better,’ said Alice to herself, `if I could get to the top of that hill: and here’s a path that leads straight to it — at least, no, it doesn’t do that — ‘ (after going a few yards along the path, and turning several sharp corners), `but I suppose it will at last. But how curiously it twists! It’s more like a corkscrew than a path! Well, this turn goes to the hill, I suppose — no, it doesn’t! This goes straight back to the house! Well then, I’ll try it the other way.’
And so she did: wandering up and down, and trying turn after turn, but always coming back to the house, do what she would. Indeed, once, when she turned a corner rather more quickly than usual, she ran against it before she could stop herself.
`It’s no use talking about it,” Alice said, looking up at the house and pretending it was arguing with her. `I’m not going in again yet. I know I should have to get through the Looking-glass again — back into the old room — and there’d be an end of all my adventures!’
So, resolutely turning back upon the house, she set out once more down the path, determined to keep straight on till she got to the hill. For a few minutes all went on well, and she was just saying, `I really shall do it this time — ‘ when the path gave a sudden twist and shook itself (as she described it afterwards), and the next moment she found herself actually walking in at the door.
‘Oh, it’s too bad!’ she cried. `I never saw such a house for getting in the way! Never!’
Pictured is a comparison of an infected (top) and uninfected (bottom) freshwater snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum. The parasite is called Microphallus, and can colonize the snail hen the snail passively ingests Microphallus eggs while feeding. The snail serves as an intermediate host for the parasite–meaning that the parasite needs the snail’s resources to develop and reach its next host. Often these final hosts are waterfowl, though in the lab mice are used for experimental purposes.
This images was made in the lab of Curt Lively at the Department of Biology at Indiana University, Bloomington.
The cover photograph demonstrates sexual dimporphism in a flowering plant, Silene latifolia. I made the image while working as a research assistant in Lynda Delph’s lab in the Department of Biology at Indiana University in Bloomington. The
Pictured are the female (left) and male (right) reproductive organs. Notice the extreme differences in size. There is enough genetic variation in many populations of Silene latifolia such one can reduce or expand the degree of dimorphism by artifically selecting on a physical trait such as calyx width or flower number.
Gender and Sexual Dimorphism in Flowering Plants. 1999. M.A. Geber, T.E. Dawson, and L.F. Delph, Eds. Springer, Berlin.
