Wes Phillips

"While in residence at the Baltimore Museum of Industry during the last two years, Catherine Wagner was given access to their 50,000+ collection of historic light bulbs, one of the premier collections of vintage and antique light bulbs in the United States, with lights dating from the early 19th century. The resulting series of photographs titled A Narrative History of the Light Bulb embodies both sculptural installation and photography. Wagner creates arrangements of bulbs that she then photographs with an 8 by 10 view camera in order to record the glass enclosures and the delicate filaments in stunning detail. Wagner’s work has long been noted for its investigation of the dissemination of knowledge and the construction of culture and these new works follow in her trajectory of providing access to the close scrutiny of scientific objects."

Will nanorobotic spot welding create new gear on a previously unimaginable scale?

B. R. Myers is fightin' mad about high-faluting writin'.

John Marks sends along this article about the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, a 32-ton, 6398-pipe, three-story organ that I, for one, am going to have to make a sonic destination. Be sure to visit the photo essay and other links while you're reading about the Cooper organ—there's a ton of fascinating information there.

There's a new biography of Leo Szilard, the physicist who proposed the Strangelovian "doomsday weapon."

Scott McCredie explains our incredible sense of balance.

In FilmMaker, Scott Macauley has written a spirited preview/interview of Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, which he says is the first faithful film based on a Philip K. Dick novel. I hope so, because the early trailer I saw had an overly-rotoscoped look that I didn't simply hate, I detested. Macauley makes me want to see the movie anyway.