Jascha Hoffmantag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2010://12010-07-15T01:14:23ZWriter and editor.Movable Type 3.33The Future of Operatag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2010://1.1122010-07-15T00:45:50Z2010-07-15T01:14:23Z
The inventor and composer Tod Machover, whose group at MIT's Media Lab developed the technology behind Guitar Hero, has built instruments for musicians from Prince to Yo-Yo Ma. As Machover prepares for the world premiere of his robotic opera Death and the Powers in Monaco in September, he explains how his interactive performance techniques might lead to personalized therapies... [text] [pdf]
Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com
The inventor and composer Tod Machover, whose group at MIT's Media Lab developed the technology behind Guitar Hero, has built instruments for musicians from Prince to Yo-Yo Ma. As Machover prepares for the world premiere of his robotic opera Death and the Powers in Monaco in September, he explains how his interactive performance techniques might lead to personalized therapies... [text][pdf]
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Icarus at the Edge of Timetag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2010://1.1112010-05-26T00:16:32Z2010-06-18T22:53:48ZBrian Greene, author of best-selling books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, is a theoretical physicist at Columbia University. As an orchestral work based on his 2008 children's book, Icarus at the Edge of Time, premieres at the World Science Festival in New York City, Greene discusses black holes and how music might portray the physics of warped space-time... [text] [pdf]
Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.comBrian Greene, author of best-selling books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, is a theoretical physicist at Columbia University. As an orchestral work based on his 2008 children's book, Icarus at the Edge of Time, premieres at the World Science Festival in New York City, Greene discusses black holes and how music might portray the physics of warped space-time... [text][pdf]
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Sylvia Earle on Oceanstag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2010://1.1102010-05-12T23:58:05Z2010-06-05T00:14:04ZOceanographer and underwater explorer Sylvia Earle advised on Disney's recent cut of the documentary film Oceans. In anticipation of the release of the Census of Marine Life this fall, Earle explains why films are important for raising awareness of the state of our seas. [text] [pdf]
Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.comOceanographer and underwater explorer Sylvia Earle advised on Disney's recent cut of the documentary film Oceans. In anticipation of the release of the Census of Marine Life this fall, Earle explains why films are important for raising awareness of the state of our seas. [text][pdf]
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The Omnipresent Hubbubtag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2010://1.1092010-05-01T00:20:14Z2010-05-01T00:31:47ZNoise is hard to define, but we know it when we hear it. In The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want, writer Garret Keizer exposes the history of noise, its opponents and apologists, and recent efforts to measure and curb it. The result is a scattered mosaic that uses the conceit of human clamour to reveal the paradoxes of post-industrial life...[pdf] [text]Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com
Noise is hard to define, but we know it when we hear it. In The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want, writer Garret Keizer exposes the history of noise, its opponents and apologists, and recent efforts to measure and curb it. The result is a scattered mosaic that uses the conceit of human clamour to reveal the paradoxes of post-industrial life...[pdf][text]]]>
Robert Pound, Physicisttag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2010://1.1082010-04-20T09:47:06Z2010-04-20T10:03:51Z Robert Pound, a Harvard physicist whose experiments confirmed general relativity and paved the way for magnetic resonance imaging, died on April 12 in Belmont, Mass. He was a tinkerer at heart. One student recalls finding him in the machine shop, turning a piece of metal on the lathe in his bow tie and tweeds... [text]Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com Robert Pound, a Harvard physicist whose experiments confirmed general relativity and paved the way for magnetic resonance imaging, died on April 12 in Belmont, Mass. He was a tinkerer at heart. One student recalls finding him in the machine shop, turning a piece of metal on the lathe in his bow tie and tweeds... [text]]]>
Beyond the Tragic Geniustag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2010://1.1072010-04-15T04:41:05Z2010-04-15T05:18:26ZA lonely man flirts with madness to recover truth—or so it goes in films from Pi to Proof. But where did the figure of the tragic mathematician originate? In Duel at Dawn, historian Amir Alexander pierces the haze that has gathered around great mathematical lives to reveal gloriously complicated men... [pdf] [text]Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.comA lonely man flirts with madness to recover truth—or so it goes in films from Pi to Proof. But where did the figure of the tragic mathematician originate? In Duel at Dawn, historian Amir Alexander pierces the haze that has gathered around great mathematical lives to reveal gloriously complicated men... [pdf][text]]]>
Math-Art on the Bowerytag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2010://1.1062010-04-15T04:29:50Z2010-04-15T05:34:01ZWhile pursuing his doctorate in dynamical systems, John Sims was drawn to explore the connections between mathematics and art. Now curating a year-long series of math–art shows at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, the conceptual artist explains his work...[pdf] [text]
Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.comWhile pursuing his doctorate in dynamical systems, John Sims was drawn to explore the connections between mathematics and art. Now curating a year-long series of math–art shows at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, the conceptual artist explains his work...[pdf][text]
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Sundance 2010tag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2010://1.1052010-01-21T22:02:15Z2010-01-21T23:31:37Z At this year's Sundance Film Festival, many of the science-related films are concerned with disaster scenarios, both real and imagined. There are documentaries about nuclear proliferation, climate-change refugees and invasive Australian toads, not to mention fiction films about vicious human-animal hybrids, post-apocalyptic Kenyan botany, and an encyclopedia of obsolete things that may eventually include the human race... [pdf] [text]Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com At this year's Sundance Film Festival, many of the science-related films are concerned with disaster scenarios, both real and imagined. There are documentaries about nuclear proliferation, climate-change refugees and invasive Australian toads, not to mention fiction films about vicious human-animal hybrids, post-apocalyptic Kenyan botany, and an encyclopedia of obsolete things that may eventually include the human race... [pdf] [text]]]>
Mental Snapshotstag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2009://1.1042009-12-22T07:30:24Z2009-12-22T08:18:10Z Frustrated by the lack of attention to everyday experiences in the field of psychology, Russell T. Hurlburt has devised an unconventional method to investigate the mental lives of his subjects. In Describing Inner Experience?, he presents the case of Melanie, a young woman who was fitted with a beeper that randomly prompted her to record everything in her awareness several times a day... [text]Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com Frustrated by the lack of attention to everyday experiences in the field of psychology, Russell T. Hurlburt has devised an unconventional method to investigate the mental lives of his subjects. In Describing Inner Experience?, he presents the case of Melanie, a young woman who was fitted with a beeper that randomly prompted her to record everything in her awareness several times a day... [text]]]>
Perfect Rigortag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2009://1.1022009-12-13T07:46:02Z2009-12-13T08:00:33Z In 2002, a Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman solved the Poincaré conjecture, a problem that had resisted proof for a century. But soon after he gave up mathematics and retreated to his mother's apartment in St. Petersburg. Why did Perelman turn his back on the world? This question haunts Masha Gessen’s “Perfect Rigor,” a dogged portrait of an elusive man... [text] Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com In 2002, a Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman solved the Poincaré conjecture, a problem that had resisted proof for a century. But soon after he gave up mathematics and retreated to his mother's apartment in St. Petersburg. Why did Perelman turn his back on the world? This question haunts Masha Gessen’s “Perfect Rigor,” a dogged portrait of an elusive man... [text] ]]>
Killer Earthtag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2009://1.1032009-12-12T05:10:30Z2009-12-13T08:45:05Z The Gaia hypothesis states that life preserves the conditions for its own survival. But Peter Ward, a paleontologist who specializes in mass extinctions, takes a dimmer view of life on earth. Seeing a tangle of organisms that have evolved to starve their competitors and pollute their surroundings, he argues that for billions of years the biosphere has been its own worst enemy... [text]Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com The Gaia hypothesis states that life preserves the conditions for its own survival. But Peter Ward, a paleontologist who specializes in mass extinctions, takes a dimmer view of life on earth. Seeing a tangle of organisms that have evolved to starve their competitors and pollute their surroundings, he argues that for billions of years the biosphere has been its own worst enemy... [text]]]>
The Space Entrepreneurtag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2009://1.1012009-10-15T02:47:13Z2009-12-13T08:50:58Z As his animated feature Quantum Quest — made with real footage from the Cassini spacecraft — is previewed at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York, space exploration consultant Harry Kloor shares his thoughts on manned space flight and the use of prizes to motivate adventurous science... [text] [pdf]
Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com As his animated feature Quantum Quest — made with real footage from the Cassini spacecraft — is previewed at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York, space exploration consultant Harry Kloor shares his thoughts on manned space flight and the use of prizes to motivate adventurous science... [text][pdf]
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An Ear for the Pasttag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2009://1.1002009-09-17T13:55:34Z2009-10-15T03:34:12Z
Engineer Duncan Miller has spent decades reviving the lost art of acoustic recording to wax cylinders, a technique pioneered by Thomas Edison. His Vulcan Cylinder Record Company has combined sleuthing and modern chemistry to craft a new repertoire for the hand-cranked phonograph... [pdf] [text]Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com
Engineer Duncan Miller has spent decades reviving the lost art of acoustic recording to wax cylinders, a technique pioneered by Thomas Edison. His Vulcan Cylinder Record Company has combined sleuthing and modern chemistry to craft a new repertoire for the hand-cranked phonograph... [pdf][text]]]>
The Philosophical Babytag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2009://1.982009-08-27T08:38:09Z2009-08-27T08:49:54Z In her provocative new book, developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik argues that babies are in some ways “actually smarter, more imaginative, more caring, and even more conscious than adults are.” [full text]Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com In her provocative new book, developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik argues that babies are in some ways “actually smarter, more imaginative, more caring, and even more conscious than adults are.” [full text]]]>
On the Rockstag:www.jaschahoffman.com,2009://1.972009-08-06T18:28:18Z2009-09-06T05:51:39Z It would be easy to mistake Guillermo Rosales' The Halfway House for a novel about the plight of Cuban immigrants struggling to adapt to life in America, or a novel about the inhumanity of mental institutions. But the book does not fit easily into either category... [text]Jaschahttp://jaschahoffman.com It would be easy to mistake Guillermo Rosales' The Halfway House for a novel about the plight of Cuban immigrants struggling to adapt to life in America, or a novel about the inhumanity of mental institutions. But the book does not fit easily into either category... [text]]]>
The inventor and composer Tod Machover, whose group at MIT's Media Lab developed the technology behind Guitar Hero, has built instruments for musicians from Prince to Yo-Yo Ma. As Machover prepares for the world premiere of his robotic opera Death and the Powers in Monaco in September, he explains how his interactive performance techniques might lead to personalized therapies... [text] [pdf]
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Brian Greene, author of best-selling books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, is a theoretical physicist at Columbia University. As an orchestral work based on his 2008 children's book, Icarus at the Edge of Time, premieres at the World Science Festival in New York City, Greene discusses black holes and how music might portray the physics of warped space-time... [text] [pdf]
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Oceanographer and underwater explorer Sylvia Earle advised on Disney's recent cut of the documentary film Oceans. In anticipation of the release of the Census of Marine Life this fall, Earle explains why films are important for raising awareness of the state of our seas. [text] [pdf]
]]>
Robert Pound, a Harvard physicist whose experiments confirmed general relativity and paved the way for magnetic resonance imaging, died on April 12 in Belmont, Mass. He was a tinkerer at heart. One student recalls finding him in the machine shop, turning a piece of metal on the lathe in his bow tie and tweeds... [text]]]>
A lonely man flirts with madness to recover truth—or so it goes in films from Pi to Proof. But where did the figure of the tragic mathematician originate? In Duel at Dawn, historian Amir Alexander pierces the haze that has gathered around great mathematical lives to reveal gloriously complicated men... [pdf] [text]]]>
While pursuing his doctorate in dynamical systems, John Sims was drawn to explore the connections between mathematics and art. Now curating a year-long series of math–art shows at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, the conceptual artist explains his work...[pdf] [text]
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At this year's Sundance Film Festival, many of the science-related films are concerned with disaster scenarios, both real and imagined. There are documentaries about nuclear proliferation, climate-change refugees and invasive Australian toads, not to mention fiction films about vicious human-animal hybrids, post-apocalyptic Kenyan botany, and an encyclopedia of obsolete things that may eventually include the human race... [pdf] [text]]]>
Frustrated by the lack of attention to everyday experiences in the field of psychology, Russell T. Hurlburt has devised an unconventional method to investigate the mental lives of his subjects. In Describing Inner Experience?, he presents the case of Melanie, a young woman who was fitted with a beeper that randomly prompted her to record everything in her awareness several times a day... [text]]]>
In 2002, a Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman solved the Poincaré conjecture, a problem that had resisted proof for a century. But soon after he gave up mathematics and retreated to his mother's apartment in St. Petersburg. Why did Perelman turn his back on the world? This question haunts Masha Gessen’s “Perfect Rigor,” a dogged portrait of an elusive man... [text] ]]>
The Gaia hypothesis states that life preserves the conditions for its own survival. But Peter Ward, a paleontologist who specializes in mass extinctions, takes a dimmer view of life on earth. Seeing a tangle of organisms that have evolved to starve their competitors and pollute their surroundings, he argues that for billions of years the biosphere has been its own worst enemy... [text]]]>
As his animated feature Quantum Quest — made with real footage from the Cassini spacecraft — is previewed at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York, space exploration consultant Harry Kloor shares his thoughts on manned space flight and the use of prizes to motivate adventurous science... [text] [pdf]
]]>
Engineer Duncan Miller has spent decades reviving the lost art of acoustic recording to wax cylinders, a technique pioneered by Thomas Edison. His Vulcan Cylinder Record Company has combined sleuthing and modern chemistry to craft a new repertoire for the hand-cranked phonograph... [pdf] [text]]]>
In her provocative new book, developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik argues that babies are in some ways “actually smarter, more imaginative, more caring, and even more conscious than adults are.” [full text]]]>
It would be easy to mistake Guillermo Rosales' The Halfway House for a novel about the plight of Cuban immigrants struggling to adapt to life in America, or a novel about the inhumanity of mental institutions. But the book does not fit easily into either category... [text]]]>