Gifts for Microbiologists

Sure it's a bit late for Christmas, but bookmark this for next year: Tales from the Microbial Laboratory's annual list of Gifts for that Special Microbiologist. The suggestions range from Winogradsky Column Kits to microbial jewelry to Agar Art. Something for everyone.

DNA Mini Portraits

DNA11 has the perfect gift for the biologist who has everything: a DNA gel mini portrait. You can use the DNA collection kit on yourself to give a very personal gift, or collect from your giftee* for a unique self-portrait. It comes nicely framed, and you can choose from 25 different colors for the image.

* I'm not sure that swabbing the inside of someone's cheek is possible without letting them in on it. If you try it, don't blame me if you lose the tip of your finger!

Holiday Gift Guide for Women in Science

The Women in Science blog has a roundup of great gifts for women scientists. 

There is also bookstore with fiction featuring women scientists, and biographies of women scientists. 

Shown: "This is what a scientist looks" like T-shirt from Yellow Ibis

Capacitor Folk Art by Obvious Front

OBVIoUS FRoNT takes our discarded computers, radios, televisions and other gadgets and refashions the bits and pieces into jewelry and art. You can find all kinds of fun creations at the Obvious Front shop at Etsy, including earrings, charms and colorful critters.

Image: "Dot Lipped Quartet" charms

The colored dots that sometime appear on a robot's lips are all natural. I like matching them up in pairs for a special look, as most of a robot's personality is in their lips.

This group consists of four Dot-Lipped charms, each one about 1.5" (4cm) tall. They're all built with cleaned electronic components salvaged from discarded TVs and VCRs using lead-free solder.

Each piece is individually bagged with a suction cup for hanging by your computer (helps prevent crashing). A 7mm jump-ring is included for use as a necklace from your chain (turns heads in the IT department). You'll also get four gift cards, making these robots great little surprises for you favorite computer geeks.

Space Art by Don Davis

Don Davis started out working at the US Geological Survey making Lunar maps. Since then he has become a frequent illustrator of space and planetscapes for television shows, magazines and NASA. You can buy his paintings and prints through Novaspace. My favorite is this framed print (detail shown) depicting the meteor hitting the Earth off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula that cause mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

Brush With Science: Biology, Myths and Art

Julie Newdoll is an artist who fuses biology, biochemistry and mythological images into unique works of art. Her pieces have appeared on the covers of a number of prestigious scientific journals, such as Cell, EMBO and Nature Reviews. Now you can purchase high quality prints of some of her pieces. The thumbnail at left is "Base Pair" part of her "Life Forms" series. Also check out "The Cell Cycle as told through a story from the Popol Vuh", "Spindles of Necessity", and "Inside Time".

Biology 101 Art

It must be my total biogeekiness that makes me love CraftyHedgehog's knitted dissected frogs and rats so much. It would be a perfect gift for someone like me - or maybe your Biology 101 instructor. Check out all CraftyHedgehog's dissections.

Carnivorous Plants Calendar

A Print a Day is sharing a pretty carnivorous plants calendar that you can download and print for yourself. The days of the month are blank, so it can be used for any year. All you need to do is enter the days, either by hand, or using an image-editing program like Photoshop.

(via the Craftzine.com blog)

Contamination Cups

Ceramicist Tamsin van Essen has a fantastic collection of cups that appear to have been infected by different bacteria. She has made deadly microbes into art. It doesn't appear that her work is available for purchase through her web site, but she is currently exhibiting at the Pragu Contemporary Art Festival.

Shown: Cholera, with the "infected" cup next to electron micrographs of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae

(via designklub via  CribCandy)

Acme Klein Bottle

A Klein Bottle is a geometrical wonder. It's beautifully shaped, but has no distinct "inside" or "outside".  It would be the perfect gift for anyone with a love of geometry - or pretty glassware. the primary purveyor of such objects is Acme Klein Bottle, owned and operated by  Clifford Stoll. As he describes it: 

At last, Acme has conquered topological and engineering frontiers to manufacture genuine glass Klein Bottles. These are the finest closed, non-orientable, boundary-free manifolds sold anywhere in our three spatial dimensions.

These elegant bottles make splendid gifts, outstanding classroom displays, and inferior mouse-traps. With its circle of singularities, an Acme Klein Bottle can be said to exist inside of itself -- especially handy during time-reversals.

I think they would make the perfect geeky wedding or housewarming gift.

Bright and Cheery Science Art

Tiffany Ard sells fabulous science-related art that is perfect for anyone who likes her brightly colored whimsical style.
• The I love love LOVE my microscope print (at left) is perfect for anyone who loves their microscope

• The "Ooooh cells!" poster is abstract enough to hang in your living room (or at least in my living room)

• The Nerd ABCs poster would look great in a baby's room or grown-up's lab

Check out her web site for more.

Genome Quilts

Artist Beverly St. Clair crafts fantastic quilts based on DNA sequences. The idea is quite simple: each nucleotide base is represented by a different type of square. Creating a quilt that represents the entire sequence of a gene results in stunning patterns:

"The human WIG-1 gene is involved in the p53 dependent growth regulatory pathway. [. . .] Part of the WIG-1 gene's DNA sequence is encoded in the triangle blocks, which are then quilted to show the molecular structure of DNA."

See more genome quilts.

(via BoingBoing)

The Genome As Art

Circos is a unique method of visualizing genomic alignment data that is both quite informative and artistic. If you have access to genome data, you can use the software to plot data yourself. However, if you just want some art for your wall, check out their selection of posters. 

Image: One of the more abstract posters, showing "A transformation of a Circos image of synteny between human chromosome 1 and the entire mouse genome."

Patron Saint of Astronomers: Saint Dominic de Guzman

Saint Dominic de Guzman - founder of the Dominican order of friars - didn't become the patron saint of astronomers and astronomy because of any scientific leanings of his own. Instead, at his baptism the Blessed Joan saw a star shining from his chest, which associated him with heavenly bodies thereafter. A plaque depicting St. Dominic with a star on his brow (pictured at left) is the perfect piece of art to watch over your astronomical endeavors. (Other St. Dominic items.)

VISUAL DNA art t-shirts

German artist Daniel Becker has converted the DNA sequence of various genes into works of art by representing each of the bases in the DNA code - A, C, G, T - graphically.  The project, which he calls VISUAL DNA, results in colorful graphic designs. The original art installation involved a series of test tubes that contained different DNA samples - tarantula, human, mold, etc. Each tube had a bar code, which, when scanned, caused the artwork based on its sequence to be projected. See, for example, the image at left which is based on goldfish DNA. 

While the original artwork isn't for sale, you can purchase t-shirts with the designs.

(via Neatorama)

Have you always wanted to be a scientist? Your Photo in a Chemistry Characature

My DaVinci takes ordinary photographs of people (and pets) and uses them to create original works of art. While you can choose serious artistic styles - oil painting, water colors, pencil sketches, or, of course, paintings in the style of DaVinci - you can also pick out the perfect caricature to show who you would like to be. While there are the obvious sports and musician and superhero styles, you can also get a cute caricature of you or your honey (or both of you) as flask-wielding chemists. Adorable!

Buy a caricature from my DaVinci.

Teddy Bear Fetal Development

Artist Stephanie Metz works in felt to create biological models of teddy bears. Shown at left is her series on teddy bear fetal development. The originals aren't for sale, but you can buy a poster.

(via Ziya Tong)

Science Tattoos

Carl Zimmer has created a web site showing people's cool science-related tattoos. From the elegant simplicity of the fourier transform, to the quantum weirdness of Schroedinger's equation, to a marine biologist's jellyfish and novel biochemicals, science tattoos grace the arms, legs and backs of women who display their love of science with pride. 

Now, of course tattoos aren't for everybody. I don't think that I could pick out one design that I'd want to wear forever. For indecisive people like me there is tattoo printer paper, which works with both inkjet and laser printers, and last up to a week.

Image: "A trilobite from Lea, a graduate student in ecology."

Insect Lab

Insect Lab creates art at the intersection of science and science fiction. Creations include real insects customized with antique watch parts and mechanical components mounted for display. They aren't cheap - most cost $500-$1000 - but they are very beautiful.

Pictured: Euchroma Gigantea (Jewel Beetle) with brass gears and parts

DNA Portraits

DNA 11 sells the ultimate personalized work of art: a portrait created from your very own DNA. All you do is order a DNA collection kit, swab your cheek, then send the sample to DNA 11. They amplify specific DNA sequences, separate the fragments on a gel, then photograph the results. Fabulous!

(via Eye on DNA)