http://www.jaschahoffman.com/ Writer, editor, musician. en Copyright 2011 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:19:44 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss As the new director of the Media Lab at MIT, Joichi Ito brings his knowledge of Internet start-ups — including Flickr, Twitter and Creative Commons — to the lab that developed the ideas behind the game Guitar Hero and Amazon Kindle's E-Ink technology. Ito talks about the value of playfulness and freedom in scientific discovery... [pdf] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/10/internet_visionary.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/10/internet_visionary.html Nature Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:19:44 +0000 Novelist Margaret Atwood’s essay collection In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination is a companion piece to her dystopian fictional world of global warming and engineered plagues. The Canadian author discusses where she gets her science, and her concerns for the future. [pdf] [link] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/10/postcards_from_dystopia_3.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/10/postcards_from_dystopia_3.html Nature Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:03:39 +0000 As he releases a 3D documentary about the prehistoric paintings in Chauvet Cave in southern France, Werner Herzog — the German director of Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man — talks about cave art and the hostility of nature. [pdf] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/werner_herzog_on_cave_painting.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/werner_herzog_on_cave_painting.html Nature Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:45:03 +0000 [pdf] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/the_space_man.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/the_space_man.html Nature Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:57:16 +0000 [pdf] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/monkey_dont.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/monkey_dont.html Nature Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:53:45 +0000 Dutch artist Christiaan Zwanikken makes computer-controlled mechanical sculptures, many of which use animal skeletons he has found. He discusses the relationships between humans, animals and machines. [pdf] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/the_machinist.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/the_machinist.html Nature Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:49:56 +0000 Isabella Rossellini, star of films including Blue Velvet and Big Night, has made a series of short films on the mating rituals of insects and sea creatures. As her latest humorous biopic debuts in the United States, Rossellini explains why she is fascinated by animals [pdf]]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/isabella_rossellini_on_animal.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/isabella_rossellini_on_animal.html Nature Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:39:09 +0000 [pdf] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/steakhouse_science.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/08/steakhouse_science.html Nature Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:34:59 +0000 Roman Kaiser gathers the scents of rare and endangered plants and recreates them in his laboratory. For this interview in Nature, the Swiss chemist explains how he preserves the fragrances of disappearing flora...[pdf] [paid link]]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/02/the_scent_collector.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/02/the_scent_collector.html Nature Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:10:31 +0000 This year at the Sundance Film Festival, a number of films explore the subtleties of human and animal behavior, the impact of new technologies, and the personal lives of scientists... [pdf] [paid text] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/01/science_at_sundance_1.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2011/01/science_at_sundance_1.html Nature Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:22:12 +0000 A post-mortem romance from a noted Albanian novelist, a collection of early stories from a Spanish master of suspense, a flawed first novel by a Belgian literary phenomenon, and a brilliant novel of ideas set in volatile Argentina. [text]]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/new_fiction_in_translation_1.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/new_fiction_in_translation_1.html New York Times Book Review Wed, 22 Dec 2010 05:51:37 +0000 As he publishes his collected works — six volumes comprising more than 5,000 pages — mathematical physicist Roger Penrose muses on 50 years of groundbreaking research in general relativity, quantum mechanics, cosmology, geometry and consciousness... [pdf] [paid text] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/roger_penrose.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/roger_penrose.html Nature Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:37:26 +0000 Drawing on the opinions of thousands of people who have been paid to evaluate the emotional charge of various phrases, ToneCheck offers typists a chance to reconsider their words. The program may eventually allow companies to prevent employees from sending e-mails that violate their “tone policy”... [video and text] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/emotional_spellcheck.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/emotional_spellcheck.html New York Times Magazine Sun, 19 Dec 2010 06:29:39 +0000 Late last year, the mathematician Simon Blackburn devised a simple formula for “perfect parking.” When a Louisiana math teacher found the formula unrealistic, he set out to improve the model... [text] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/perfect_parallel_parking.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/perfect_parallel_parking.html New York Times Magazine Sun, 19 Dec 2010 06:20:33 +0000 Harvard engineer David Edwards has built a growing empire of labs, galleries and non-profit organizations that stretches from Paris to Cape Town. His latest book, The Lab, calls for a new breed of small, flexible institutions to support researchers who blur the lines between science, business and art... [paid text] [free pdf] ]]> http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/the_idea_lab.html http://www.jaschahoffman.com/2010/12/the_idea_lab.html Nature Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:21:24 +0000