ace arts curatorial project Grand Neue is raising funds for the Disaster Emergency Committee in support of their relief efforts in the Philippines, with an online auction of prints donated by leading contemporary illustrators and designers. Grand Kind features a few surreal and science-ish pieces already, with new art being posted daily, so be kind and get bidding!
sample of the week
extracted from hundreds or even thousands of metres of accumulated ice and snow, ice cores are a key tool for mapping the earth’s changing climate. the trapped air bubbles, much like the rings of a tree, can be studied to determine the historical atmospheric composition of the planet. the sample above was collected by Dutch scientists from the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research in Antarctica to assist with their continued research into concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide over the past 800,000 years
nova
just in time for Christmas, a new nova has appeared in the southern skies. Nova Centauri 2013 has already reached magnitude 5.5 for observers in the Southern Hemisphere (ie, not us) and may continue to brighten. if you’re down under, look for it west of Alpha and Beta Centauri
via Sky & Telescope
profile: Jessica Herrington
in the first in a new series of short profiles of people working along the border of science and creativity, we meet crystal cave-maker Jessica Herrington
Slump
Plaster, wire, fibreglass, enamel, glitter
Private Collection
LA
LA
Cat Stevens
C-type hand print
Edition of 20
527mm x 425mm
a shimmering subtropical landscape, from the series ‘Wrap Up Your Troubles in Dreams’
£250
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The Starry Messenger
The Starry Messenger
Bedwyr Williams
Gold block foiling on Windsor Berkley tissue lined rayon book cloth
42 X 29.7 cm
Edition of 50
produced with Åbäke and published to celebrate Williams’ exhibition at the 2013 Venice Biennale
£240
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Pop Rock Moon Shop®
The Arts Catalyst’s Republic of the Moon opens on London’s Southbank in January 2014, and to mark the occasion super/collider will be hosting a pop-up shop inside the exhibition, selling all manner of discerning lunar ephemera
if you’d like to nominate a product for inclusion, please email moonshop@super-collider.com
Elemental
A2 hand-pulled silkscreen
1-colour metallic silver ink, printed on 240gsm stock
limited edition of 100
hand-numbered and signed
a circular interpretation of the classic Periodic Table of the Elements by Joseph Perry. designed to be read from the centre outwards in a clockwise rotation, it preserves the full features and function of Mendeleev’s original beauty
£27
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science letter set
handmade by the über-crafty folks at Present&Correct, each of these one-of-a-kind envelopes is made using lovingly recycled 1960s science journals. each set contains six envelopes, blank notecards and address labels – ideal for invites, thank-yous and other essential correspondence of a scientific nature
£8
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Society for Scientific Inquiry of Paranormal Atmospheric and Cosmic Anomalies
created by LA-based designer Vanessa Lam, S.S.I.P.A.C.A. is an infographic zine devoted to the UFO phenomenon inspired by scientific journals and looney abductees alike. full of hard data and statistics, glitches, and conspiracies
sold out
details: 8″ x 10.5″, 48 pages, printed on newsprint
comet hunting
13 November 2013 | 5am
we’ll be getting up real early to look for not one, but four comets in the morning skies. as part of our ongoing PopUp Astronomy Club, we’ll be be trying to spot comets C/2012 S1 (ISON), C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy), C/2012 X1 (LINEAR) and 2P/Encke
latest update: the weather is looking perfect for an early-morning viewing session on Wednesday 13 November 2013. we’ll be meeting outside the Shacklewell Arms pub (71 Shacklewell Lane, Hackney, E8 2EB) at 5am sharp
besides this incredibly rare chance to see four comets in one morning, we’ll try to spot Mars and will definitely see Jupiter and its moons. if we’re lucky we may also see Mercury and the Orion Nebula
please RSVP if you’re planning to come along so we don’t forget you!
consciousness
is consciousness an illusion? or a mere epiphenomenon; a byproduct of brain activity? is it even generated by the brain, or is it part of some wider context ‘beyond the individual?’
whatever the answers, conscious awareness is incredibly empowering. the very ability to experience our own experiences creates a further stimulus, the stimulus of the self in the world for us to respond to. which is exactly what a team of panelists will do tomorrow evening, at a discussion tomorrow night organised by the Society for The Preservation of Wild Culture
Andromeon
Andromeon
Eight postcards by Alexander Tucker
148x105mm
a series of eight tripped out postcards created for Strange Attractor Press by artist and musician Alexander Tucker, in an edition of 500 copies
£8
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species of the week: greta oto
displaying a rare example of terrestrial translucency, the tissue between the veins of this stunning butterfly is almost clear, leading to its common English alias of ‘glasswing’ or the charming ‘epijiotos’ (little mirrors) in Spanish. native to the neotropical zones of South America and Southern Florida, the males are assumed to be toxic due to their diet of alkaloid-high nectar from flowers such as Asteraceae
cluster
this week the Andromeda Project launch Round 2 of their crowdsourced search for star clusters in our closest neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda (M31). last year saw an incredible 10,000 participants compile over one million classifications in just three weeks. with new data released into the project they’re looking for more citizen scientists to help build the most complete map of any spiral galaxy anywhere
it’s hoped that the data you collect could determine rare stages of stellar evolution, the structure and evolution of star formation and the way in which the Andromeda Galaxy has changed and evolved over billions of years – and all you need to get involved is an internet connection, a computer and a few minutes of your time read more
cloud
a surreal sight in space, this cloud of luminous debris was captured by astronaut Mike Hopkins as the space station crossed over Iran heading towards Mongolia. according to Universe Today, it was likely the trail of a Topol/SS-25 missile launched from Kazakhstan
corridor
until 16 October, the ever-awesome World Land Trust is focusing its efforts on protecting a key rainforest corridor along the Kinabatangan River in Malaysian Borneo. with each donation matched by wealthy backers, it’s a rare chance to link up fragmented forest habitats used by orang-utans, pigmy elephants and other endangered wildlife. super/collider will be making a contribution and we urge you to consider helping too
update: as of 5pm on the 16th over £636,054 has been raised, but the donations are still being counted. though the appeal is now over, it’s never too late to donate and help support the trust’s preservation work
colonisers
fashion designer Gareth Pugh’s SS14 collection arrived this week in a temporarily hot, tepid and chlorinated atmosphere created for the occasion inside Paris’ Palais de Tokyo – conditions reminiscent of what we’d find deep beneath Venus’ dense cloud cover. to mark the occasion, Dazed & Confused asked us for a scientific take on the proceedings
pause
with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releasing the first part of its fifth assessment report today, much of the focus and debate will be on the so-called pause in global temperature rise over the last decade – a worrying trend which has given ammunition to climate change skeptics even as CO2 levels continue to rise, potentially storing up rapid change for the future
sand
working and living primarily amid the solitude of Scotland’s western islands, artist Julie Brook incorporates land and landscapes into her work – which she describes as both a response to and a reflection of the environment’s effect on her. for her ‘Sand Drawing’s series, she spent four weeks in the volcanic region of Al Haruj in Libya read more
Icelandic expedition
we’re currently out-of-office exploring Iceland’s natural, geological and astronomical wonders – but you can follow all the action over at http://supercollidericeland.tumblr.com
daylight
cosmic happenings in London this weekend, with a rare chance to see Venus during the daytime at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, followed by the return of ace space-leaning art collective Space Is Ace at Hackney Downs studios, complete with pop-up shop and an exhibition of recent work
nature reserves
“Nature is a language, can’t you read?”
The Smiths, ‘Ask’, 1986
categorising, labelling, and the violence of human imposition of meaning on the natural world are some of the themes tackled in a conceptually rich exhibition curated by Tom Jeffreys at GV Art. in striving to discover the world around us, the significance of how we give meaning and identity to the knowledge gained is often overlooked. Nature Reserves examines the archive and catalogue, and their implications as human endeavours, through the works of 12 contemporary artists complemented by archival materials from museums and universities
pulse
in the vastness of space, fascinating discoveries can be made even when you’re not even looking for them. this is the case for a team of European astronomers who uncovered a new type of pulsating star whilst scouring the skies for planets beyond our solar system
the star, named J0247-25B, is the rarely observed remnant of a stellar collision caused by an expanding red giant smashing into its binary companion star, shearing away up to 90% of the red giant’s mass and leaving behind a hydrogen burning core. using the ULTRACAM high-speed camera the team, led by Dr Pierre Maxted of Keele University, were able to take up to 500 pictures a second to study eclipses of the surviving star in detail, discovering a pulsating, fluctuating luminosity caused by sound waves bouncing around inside the star
in this sound clip you can hear the eerie, quivering pulsations, which reach into the centre of the of the surviving star, pitch shifted up a whole 19 octaves in order to make them audible to the human ear. the moog-esque ‘dial tone’ is caused by interruption during eclipse, whilst the background rumble is produced by the larger SX-Phe type star
writing in the jounal Nature last month, Maxted hopes further observations of this study will go on to reveal insights into stellar collapse and the creation of white dwarfs: “we have been able to find out a lot about these stars, such as how much they weigh, because they are in a binary system. this will really help us to interpret the pulsation signal and so figure out how these stars survived the collision and what will become of them over the next few billion years”
summer solstice party
Thursday 20 June 2013
as the summer nights stretch out into the small hours, we’ll be teaming up with the mighty solutionvsproblem to host a nite of solstice-fueled disco, space and balearic psych with a bit of neo sci-rave paganism thrown in for good measure
Ridley Road Market Bar | 49 Ridley Rd | London | E8 2NP
gateways
Star Towers: Elysium Planitia
our new series of collage works feature monolithic structures set amid distant landscapes, connecting various locations around the known universe – in this case Gusev Crater on the edge of Mars’ vast Elysium Planitia with the centre of the Milky Way galaxy via three gateways, each imparting a different arrival velocity
numbers
of all the incredible stuff out there in space, globular clusters are surely among the most mind-blowing when you pause and consider what could be going on deep inside their luminous cores. these vast blobs of light are made of millions of stars, some of which could be the cradle of civilisations, distant in time and space. to make sense of the sheer numbers and possibilities, Dr. Frank Drake devised a famous equation while working as a radio astronomer read more
spring
there are tons of photos of earth taken from space, but few as good as Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s recent series from the International Space Station, where he’s been living since November last year. while up there, he’s been posting photos on Twitter, answering questions from space and recording folky songs that aren’t entirely terrible. this photo from yesterday shows spring around Lake Balaton in Hungary
sample of the week: Malachite
used to make green paint in ancient times, Malachite is a rich green copper carbonate hydroxide mineral with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. usually found deep underground, where hydrothermal fluids and water reservoirs can create Malachite stalagmites. this particular sample is from Zaire
super/collider Icelandic expedition
3-10 September
& 11-18 September 2013
as the sun reaches the peak of its solar activity cycle, join super/collider, scientists and like-minded explorers as we travel across Iceland in search of the Northern Lights and other natural wonders this autumn
amid the stark beauty of Iceland’s surreal landscapes, we’ll spend seven nights under the stars with the best possible chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis. in autumn 2013, the sun will reach solar maximum – making solar storms and the resulting atmospheric light shows more likely, more intense and more spectacular. if you’ve ever dreamed of seeing the Northern Lights, this is the best chance you’ll get all decade
by day, we’ll hike to towering glaciers, visit active volcanoes, search for crystals and minerals with an expert guide and explore Iceland’s amazing natural and geologic features – from erupting geysers and natural hot springs to tumbling waterfalls and icy glacial lagoons
concrete
with the passing this week of visionary architect Paolo Soleri, I’ve been thinking about the time I spent at Arcosanti – his experimental desert settlement – last November while writing a piece for AnOther. one morning, up early to take photos with the rising sun hitting the concrete, I wandered through the empty city; home to 60 or so people but deserted at that hour, except for a bobcat which padded noiselessly past. inside the silent, sun flooded rooms and offices, Soleri’s visions of soaring arcologies hung on the walls and filled endless, carefully preserved scrolls. in one room, an architectural model of one of his hyperstructures caught the sunlight, its monumental scale lit up over the miniature landscape
stripes
from exquisite gemstones and the rings of Saturn to stripey tights and eye-popping prints, Patternity‘s first festival of pattern explores the enduring magnetism of stripes in all their forms. the jam-packed events programme includes workshops ranging from t-shirt printing to neuroscience, all investigating an aspect of this particular pattern
we’ve made a short film about stripes in space which will be screening on Sunday 14 April as part of science day
tropical ice
snow and ice may not be features you associate with Africa, but high in the Rwenzori Mountains, year-round subzero temperatures keep the top of the continent permanently capped in white. as the highest source of the Nile, the upper reaches of the range are home to about twenty glaciers – a precious treasure located less than a degree north of the equator. earlier this year, in a piece originally published in Bspirit! Magazine, we caught up with photographer Klaus Thymann – who set out to photograph the continent’s secret icecaps as part of Project Pressure…
battlegrounds
stretching 3.7 million square kilometres across the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, the Congo Basin is home to a vast rainforest covering over one and half million square kilometres. it extends from the ice-capped peaks of the Rwenzori range (also known as the ‘Mountains of the Moon’) down into lush lowlands, following the Congo River and its tributaries flowing down towards the Gulf of Guinea. home to thousands of unique animal and plant species, as well as indigenous forest-dwelling people, the region generates its own weather systems and sequesters massive quantities of CO2
now, like many of the world’s tropical forest areas, the Congo Basin is under threat from a new enemy: palm oil. in addition to logging, poaching and other pressures, the forests now face a rapid expansion of palm oil plantations to help fuel demand for this increasingly lucrative product, which is used in products like cakes, biscuits and chocolate Easter eggs. you can help by avoiding low-scoring products on the Rainforest Foundation’s list of chocolate brands and supporting work like WWF’s long running Congo Basin campaign
species of the week: Xanthoria parietina
an uncommonly beautiful example of common orange lichen aka Xanthoria parietina, maritime sunburst lichen or shore lichen. it thrives in sunny hardwood forests and on exposed seacliffs, where bird droppings provide a rich source of nitrogen. incredibly tolerant of air pollution and heavy metal contamination, it can be used as a bioindicator to measure things like air quality
Material Matters
housing everything from delicate fulgurite structures created by lightning strikes to an ultra-dense ball of silicon nitride which can dent concrete, the Institute of Making is home to some of the world’s most wondrous substances. tomorrow, after years in an increasingly-crowded university basement, the collection and its curators are moving to a bigger, brighter more public space where you’ll be able to handle samples, experiment with new materials and create stuff in a state-of-the-art workshop read more
book launch: An Introduction To Isomorphology
Saturday 23 March 2013
join us at EB&Flow Gallery for the launch of Gemma Anderson’s An Introduction To Isomorphology – a new way of seeing and classifying the natural world that draws on artistic and scientific practice. Gemma will be in conversation with mathematicians Tom Coates and Dorothy Buck talking about things like the topology of symplectic manifolds and algebraic varieties followed by drinks and the chance to see her ongoing exhibition
talk starts at 4:30pm | EB&Flow is located at 77 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4QS
atmospheric
located 254 metres above sea level with gas intakes at 116m and 232m above the streets of San Francisco, the Sutro Tower acts as a climate sentinel, stretching up into the atmosphere to measure CO2 levels. the first US sampling site to be located in an urban centre, it’s equipped with automated flask sampling systems that provide daily measurements of a suite of greenhouse gases, carbon isotopes, halocarbons and other compounds. together with other stations, it has witnessed a steady rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, with recent figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration making for grim reading. there’s a good summary of the new data on The Guardian and a great apocalyptic climate disaster round-up on Motherboard
the art of Apollo 17
forty years ago tonight, mankind’s last mission to the moon touched down in the Taurus-Littrow valley, located in the Taurus mountains just east of the Sea of Serenity. for the next three days, commander Eugene Cernan and geologist Harrison Schmitt lived and worked in this most dramatic of Apollo landscapes, collecting a record haul of moon rocks, taking measurements, setting up experiments and taking pictures on a range of cameras. some, like this one showing Schmitt next to big boulder, became well-known while hundreds of others languish in the archives. here is just a small sample…
plant
an annual event since the early 1970s, the Tree Council’s National Tree Week has seen thousands of volunteers planting trees up and down the country. originally a response to the widespread devastation caused by Dutch elm disease, this year’s celebration takes place under the looming shadow of the Chalara fraxinea fungus – which threatens to wipe out most of the UK’s ash trees. you can help fight back by planting a tree, or for extra credit, becoming a tree warden
workshop: the monument
November 2012
we’re super excited about our first-ever schools workshop, created in collaboration with London Metropolitan University’s Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design. all next week, students will be designing a physical monument for visitors to experience 1000 years from now. using different materials and restricted only by size (10m x 10m x 10m), they’ll consider what materials will last so long, where to site their structure and how future people will experience and interpret their monument. contact Kaye Newman if you’re a student and would like to take part; we’ll also post some of the results here in due course
dark
techniques and devices used to detect nuclear weapons are being deployed in the search for dark matter – the mysterious material that makes up perhaps 25% of the universe but which we know almost nothing about. located in an abandoned mine nearly a mile underground beneath the Black Hills of South Dakota, the LUX experiment is shielded from cosmic rays by the rock, and immersed in a tank of ultra-pure de-ionized water to keep out stray radiation. beyond observing dark matter particle interactions, which have so far eluded direct detection, the experiment could lead to smaller, more capable devices for searching for rogue nuclear material
TARA party!
as part of the TARA’s recent stopover in London, super/collider and AnOther Magazine teamed up to host a little soirée on board the French environmental research ship, which is sponsored by fashion house agnès b
after some drinks and nibbles, captain Loic Vallette and chief scientist Chris Bowler gave a talk about the vessel’s recent plankton-sampling voyage before leading tours above and below decks. you can read our full piece for AnOther right here and scroll down to see Amelia Karlsen‘s lovely photographs of the night
missed the boat? sign up for our mailing list and we’ll keep you posted on future events
cretaceous
like dinosaurs? get yourself down to Protein‘s Hewett Street space for GIF masterminds Reed + Rader‘s first solo show in the UK – ‘Cretaceous Returns’. expect dubstep dinos, prehistoric paper foliage and primitive animation – plus signed Mini Dinosaur sculptures, limited edition video pieces and prints of the Brooklyn-based duo’s prehistoric world for some early Christmas shopping
dhcmrlchtdj
on now at London’s Red Gallery, this solo exhibition of works by Worlds in Transit participant Fritz Stolberg comprises two installation works and two new photographic series. as Stolberg explains, the title of the exhibition was taken from Jorge Luis Borges Library of Babel, which describes the universe as an infinite architecture of interlocking hexagonal rooms filled with books that contain every possible combination of 23 alphabetical letters read more
neighbours
big news this week from the La Silla Observatory in Chile, which has detected an earth-sized planet in the star system next door, Alpha Centauri. using the HARPS fibre-fed high resolution echelle spectrograph (as you do) the team monitored star Alpha Centauri B over the course of four years, watching for tiny fluctuations that reveal the presence of orbiting bodies. though the planet is far too hot to visit (and not yet 100% confirmed) news of a new world just 4.37 light years away has already got folks discussing the possibility of sending an interstellar probe to the system
boobs!
a stylish and understated way of marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes courtesy of In God We Trust‘s collaboration with the Keep A Breast Foundation. the upside down heart is hand engraved and strung on an 18″ brass chain, and even comes with a retro pocket guide to boobie health
crystalised
we’re not entirely sure what to expect from Cosmicmegabrain‘s group show in London this weekend, but if nothing else Emily Candela‘s krustapseudicals alone should make it worth seeking out. created live on the night, the (theoretically) edible crystals contain vitamins, minerals, proteins (harvested from the artist’s hair) and tiny amounts of skin and dental care products like lip gloss and mouthwash – what Emily calls “basically crystallisations of magazine articles offering beauty advice”
info on the event here, hat tip to (and full interview on) Dazed Digital
Tristram Lansdowne: islands in the sky
we first came across Canadian artist Tristram Lansdowne when his surreal island paradise graced the opening pages of Landfill Editions’ epic Mould Map project. now we’re wishing we lived in Toronto, as a retrospective of his meticulously hand-painted works opens, showcasing a breathtaking series of imagined worlds. since we don’t, we caught up with him via email to find out more about the natural inspiration behind his paintings
read more
radio silence
couldn’t not post an image from Derek Mead’s photographic tour of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s facility in West Virginia: a series of telescopes nestled amid lush forests and hills read more
science printing workshop
23 October 2012
as part of the ün-establishment series we’ll be bringing our new Risograph printer down to the Nicholls & Clarke building in Shoreditch for a Tuesday afternoon of science, art & craft. join our expert teachers Nancy Straughan and Ciara Phelan and learn how to create patterns, prints, collages and illustrated work using science textbooks and imagery as inspiration – then create your own on-the-spot prints
tara
after a voyage of more than 62,000 nautical miles, the French environmental research vessel TARA will next week dock in London as part of an ongoing educational sailing. we’ll be co-hosting an exclusive evening tour and talk onboard the ship with AnOther Magazine, and there are also a series of other events and an exhibition at the Covent Garden branch of agnès b, who have sponsored the two most recent expeditions: a two-year drift through the Arctic pack ice and a circumnavigation of the globe to study plankton. the following article appears in Issue 23 of AnOther, on newstands now
view
after touching down on the western side of Mars’ Chryse Planitia in 1976, the Viking 1 lander beamed back the first images from the surface of another planet read more
species of the week
the Shield mantis is just one of millions of species found in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador – one of the most biodiverse places on earth thanks in part to the fact it never froze over during the last ice age. the rainforested area is home to an incredible array of wildlife ranging from fish and birds to reptiles and amphibians, as well as several uncontacted human tribes read more
Neptune rising
with the skies darkening and the most distant planet in our solar system shining high in the sky, we thought the next few weeks would be a good time to launch our new Pop-Up Astronomy Club – a series of impromptu events around East London that take place when there’s something good to see and the skies are clear. our first target will be Neptune, which reaches opposition tonight – making it brighter and easier to see. if you’d like to come see it with us in the coming weeks, check out the project page for more
ps: it will look nothing like this image
descent
early next Monday morning, 154 million miles from earth, a white and gold UFO-shaped spacecraft will hit the Martian atmosphere traveling at nearly 6km per second. after some hypersonic aeromaneuvering (as you do) NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory will deploy this parachute – the largest ever made to fly on an extraterrestrial flight – and start its treacherous final descent. if all goes to plan, a series of rockets will then fire to slow the craft down, enabling it to lower a 1-ton rover called Curiosity towards the surface. if it makes it, the SUV-sized rover will spend the next Martian year (687 Earth days) exploring the Gale Crater for signs of life
you can watch the landing, scheduled for 6:31am GMT on Monday August 6, on NASA TV
airspace
the city’s streets can seem like a no-fly zone sometimes, but the air around us is alive with often-unseen fellow urbanites – and this week brings two chances to learn more about species who overfly us daily and nightly. the first is Jeremy Deller’s new collaboration with bat scientist Kate Jones for Invisible Dust: a series of walks around East London’s Greenway to look for (and listen to) bats. then on Thursday lunchtime, The Honey Club will be outlining their plans to create the biggest bee-friendly community in the world in King’s Cross. the event is the first in a summer series at the King’s Cross Filling Station – a new public space and pop-up restaurant which will also see events from Wired, Wallpaper* and something called super/collider
hello
good news for native wildlife this week with the release of 34 frankly adorable dormice into the Warwickshire countryside as part the PTES National Dormouse Monitoring Programme – the world’s longest running national mammal monitoring project. such reintroductions are only done in areas where historical populations of dormice have become extinct and where the woodland and hedgerows have been managed to encourage native species like this little fella. if you don’t know the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, check out their wildlife encounters programme, where you can go walking with wolves, hedgehog tracking or cruising for basking sharks
image: British Wildlife Centre
Worlds In Transit
in June 2012, super/collider invited a group of artists, filmmakers, astronomers, photographers, choreographers and curators to join us in the remote Swedish wilderness to witness a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event: the transit of Venus. from our pristine vantage point amid the forests and fields, we watched as the planet Venus passed between the earth and the sun – its tiny black disk revealing the true scale of the solar system
the participants observations and work will form the basis of a publication and exhibition in London opening on 6 June 2013 – one year on from the transit. you can subscribe for updates, and we’ve posted a small selection of photos from the trip on Flickr in the meantime
space camp
Mars missions have already been simulated in the Canadian Arctic, off the coast of Florida, in the deserts of Utah and most recently inside an Austrian ice cave, but none look as fun as the one currently underway on New York’s Upper East Side read more
species of the week
Lycoperdon perlatum (syn. Lycoperdon gemmatum) (common puffball, warted puffball, gem-studded puffball)
the surface of this mushroom is described, variously, as being covered in warts, spiny bumps, jewels or spikes. early on, when still crisp and white, these mushrooms are edible, with an apparently aromatic taste to them. when older, the matured and now slightly brown-colored puffball reproduces by opening its upper surface to liberate and disperse spores
warning: super/collider does not recommend eating wild mushrooms unless you are an expert, as many poisonous varieties resemble edible ones
image: Daniel Ullrich
species of the week
Cephea cephea
the jellyfish Cephea cephea is captured here in the mobile stage of its life cycle. the term jellyfish or medusa only refers to the free-swimming members of the greater phylum of Cnideria, whereas when attached to the sea-bed, they are called polyps. instead of tentacles they have eight highly-branched oral arms, along which there are suctorial mini-mouth orifices. Cephea cephea wafts in the tropical water of the Indo-Western Pacific, and is fished for cooking purposes despite consisting of up to 98% water
pressure
incrementally flowing down into valleys, lakes and oceans, the slow motion march of glaciers has etched the earth’s surface for eons – but today these remote white worlds are under threat. with the puzzling exception of the Karakoram range, the world’s glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate, with geologists predicting that some of Africa’s little-known ones could disappear completely before the decade is out
created by the accumulation of snow over centuries, glaciers are found on every continent bar Australia. surprisingly, many remain unmapped and unphotographed, which is where Project Pressure comes in. founded in 2008 by lifestyle photographer Klaus Thymann, the not-for-profit initiative is slowly creating an archive of glacier photography which will form the basis of a touring exhibition and global glacier atlas. working in collaboration with the World Glacier Monitoring Service and NASA, the project carefully records GPS co-ordinates to compare glacial retreat, and has been recognised as an official contributor to the Global Terrestrial Network for Glaciers
with a focus on endangered and ignored glaciers, the project has already documented areas of Alaska, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Iceland, Montana, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the Rwenzori mountains that straddle the DRC and Uganda. in May, super/collider will be sponsoring and accompanying Project Pressure’s first expedition to Asia – first to the Lirung glacier in Nepal, then on up the valley towards the more remote (and unnamed) ice packs closer to China – so stay tuned
image: the Spegazzini glacier in Argentina photographed by Project Pressure in 2008
the Handcrafted Particle Accelerator
what if we could look ourselves up in a parallel universe? what if we could predict our future using DNA? what if we could build a particle accelerator at home? UK-based designer Patrick Stevenson-Keating creates projects which not only solve problems, but ask questions. for Milan Design Week, we teamed up with him to create the world’s first handcrafted glass particle accelerator read more
Ulysses
of all the lovely stuff on show at Pick Me Up to choose from, we’re totally loving the cosmic back-story behind Miles Donovan’s Ulysses collages. inspired by the NASA space probe and its Jupiter-assisted plane change and subsequent trans-solar adventures, the series presents an alternate take on the spacecraft’s wandering journey around the Jovian system, past Comet Hyakutale and out into the unknown
suns
opening today at Haunch of Venison’s new space, a mini-retrospective of work by Katie Paterson sees 100 Billion Suns sitting alongside other intergalactic projects – both past and future. first staged at last year’s Venice biennale, the title work consists of a small canon which will fire at 1pm daily, releasing a burst of 3,261 pieces of confetti colour-matched to recorded gamma-ray bursts: cosmic explosions which burn with a luminosity 100 billion times that of our sun read more
guest post: dispatches from paradise
for the past three weeks, twelve scientists and supporting team members have been recording, logging and observing sea life in the Chagos archipelago as part of the first full scientific expedition since the area was declared a no-take marine protected zone in April 2010. in this special guest blog from the middle of the Indian Ocean, the team investigate the Salomons Atoll…
treasures
this weekend’s Oxford Mineral Fossil Show will be preceded by a special meeting co-organized by the Russell Society, the Mineralogical Society and Gem-A (the Gemmological Association of Great Britain). entitled Nature’s Treasures, the day will see talks ranging from “Re-creating 3D models of fossils” to “Minerals at the Nano-Scale: Exploring our Crystalline World” read more
hypergiants
when seen side by side with, say, the planet Venus, our sun looks pretty huge – but lurking out beyond our solar system are millions upon millions of much bigger stars read more
score
a rare meteorite sample that could help unravel the mysteries of Mars has been acquired by the Natural History Museum in London. the space rock is about the size of a paperback book and is the largest known fragment of the Tissint meteorite, which fell as a shower of stones in the deserts of southern Morocco last July. eyewitnesses heard two sonic booms and saw a bright fireball trace through the night sky
twice in a lifetime
Venus transit, 2004 from Vol. 3: Truth Study Center © Wolfgang Tillmans
our 2012 preview concludes with the most important heads-up we can give you for the next 105 years. this June, the planet Venus will be visible as it passes in front of the sun for the second – and last – time in our lives read more
the plant journal
if the lush images, elegant illustrations and handy potting ideas from Issue 1 are anything to go by, tonight’s launch of The Plant Journal number two should be a cause of celebration. essentially plant porn, each lovingly-crafted issue is dedicated to a particular species – in this case one of our personal favourites: Monstera Deliciosa read more
death from above
to mark the first month of the Mayan year of doom, super/collider will be publishing stories about and predictions for 2012 throughout January. we start with “Death From Above?” – a look at one man’s efforts to save the world from cataclysm via a DIY asteroid observatory in rural Wales, originally published in Dazed & Confused
slice
with Dawn’s adventures in the asteroid field entering month five, amazing images and videos continue to arrive from deep space. first it was a close up view of Vesta, then a 3D tour of the asteroid, and now NASA have released these beautiful images of rocks from Vesta – found right here on earth
curiosity
despite the failure of Russia’s ambitious Phobos sample return mission, the next chapter in our exploration of Mars began over the weekend with the launch of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory read more
another earth
super/collider’s own John Hooper was involved in the making of this amazing promo for Another Earth, which tells the story of a second planet approaching ours. filmed at a school in West London, it shows the textbooks literally being re-written as a solar system forms inside the school and the earth’s climate changes. to make the video, John shot still images of the backgrounds, which were then animated by director Rupert Cresswell of Glint…
a visit to the Particle Zoo
the world of particle physics is full of huge detectors and complicated machines searching for unimaginably small particles. the Particle Zoo – in contrast – is a colourful little workshop in LA created and run by self-taught physicist Julie Peasley. visiting the studio is like entering a subatomic world of stitching, sewing machines, buttons, zips, multi-coloured felts – and a few cats to keep Schrödinger happy. her immaculately-ordered shelves echo the grid-like standard model structure, with ‘boson eyes’ at one end, ‘beta decay zippers’ at the other. even every thread colour is ‘charm’ or ‘strange’, ‘truth’ or ‘beauty’
AnOther Magazine: Sylvia Earle
Few people on earth can tell the kind of stories that Sylvia Earle can. We’re huddled around a speaker phone, leaning forward intently as the legendary oceanographer recounts one of the most memorable moments of her long career. The year was 1979, and Earle was about to attempt the deepest undersea walk ever attempted. At a depth of 381 metres beneath the surface, she stepped off the edge of a submersible – and into the abyss read more
frozen
it’s taken us days and days and days to even start this post – possibly because we can’t actually bring ourselves to acknowledge that after almost sixty years of nature broadcasting, Sir David Attenborough might well have completed his last major TV epic read more
Seana Gavin: cosmic worlds
on distant moons and remote mountaintops, crystals slowly grow starwards, while lichens, mosses and funghi creep across the landscape. mushroom clouds bloom on the horizon, while planets and insects hover under orange skies. as strange figures dance on hilltops, expressways cut through canyons made of rock and cities
this is the strange and wonderful world of collage artist Seana Gavin’s mind and art: a surreal set of worlds composed of images from our world, but utterly different. with her first three dimensional work opening this week at b store, and being fans of a good diorama, we thought it high time we caught up her to talk all things cosmic…
sample of the week
a 22.70g fragment of the Carancas meteorite, an H chondrite breccia containing clasts of petrologic types 4 to 5 read more
ALMA
The world’s newest, largest and most complicated telescope is now official open for astronomy. Located high in the deserts of Chile, the European Southern Observatory’s Atacama Large Milllimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) is made up of a series of interlinked antennas stretching across an ultra-arid plain 5000m above sea level read more
shutdown
after nearly three decades of smashing particles together, physicists at America’s forerunner to the Large Hadron Collider will be raising a glass as the Tevatron is shut down for the final time later today. and while many are talking about the closure in the context of increasing international competition (like China’s recent space habitat launch), the team at Fermilab (whose amazing offices are pictured above) will probably be remembering the good times, like discovering the elusive top quark particle, and looking ahead to the mysteriously named Project X
All About: Science
28 September 2011
the first book in our new All About: Science series launches at The Landfill Library – a pop-up shop at Wiltons Café with new books by Landfill Editions and music from L-V-L and Burning Bush of TOP NICE. illustrated by our pals at Nous Vous, it’s all about crystals of every shape and size
All About: Science is a new series from Landfill Editions and super/collider, exploring the myriad worlds of science through the eyes of contemporary image makers
Unknown Fields
in July 2011, super/collider joined Unknown Fields and students from the Architecture Association School on an epic journey into the atomic and cosmic regions of the former Soviet Union: from the ruins of Chernobyl to Baikonur Cosmodrome and points between and beyond read more
ISLAND/UNIVERSE
situated nearly 2400m above the surrounding ocean, the telescopes of the European Northern Observatory on La Palma offer astronomers some of the best night-sky views on earth. every evening, their giant optics open and begin tracking the sky, imaging hazy nebulas and distant galaxies. located on the western-most of the Canary Islands, the facility is perched on the rim of an ancient volcanic caldera, high above clouds that drift towards the coast of Africa. silent and remote, it is truly a world apart read more
Particle Plushies Gluon
super/collider present an exclusive selection from the Particle Zoo collection: this smiley gluon is the ‘glue’ of the strong nuclear force. it is the boson that communicates the strong force – holding quarks together. it is has no mass or electric charge.
made from acrylic felt with poly fill for minimum mass, approx 15cm across. (only suitable for ages 5 and up)